On October 20, the Poetry Lecture Competition of "Poetry Education in China" jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission announced the winners. SOMPORN SAE CHUA (CAI Yong), a Thai student from Phoenix School, BNU Zhuhai, stood out with his passion for Chinese history and culture and solid knowledge of Chinese language. Through the competitions at intramural, provincial and national level, he finally won the national first prize of the 5th Poetry Lecture Competition of "Poetry Education in China".

Provincial first prize

National first prize

The Poetry Lecture Competition of "Poetry Education in China" is a national competition jointly organized by the Ministry of Education and the State Language Commission to inherit and carry forward the fine Chinese culture. The competition was divided into three stages: school-level preliminary, provincial semi-final and national final. The national final of the fifth Poetry Lecture Competition of "Jialing Cup, Poetry Education in China" was held in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province, and 270 participants from 29 provinces, regions and cities across the country entered the final stage.

Cai Yong,a Thai undergraduate student at Phoenix School, BNU Zhuhai ,has great passion about learning Chinese and traditional Chinese culture, and enjoys exploring the beauty of classical Chinese poems.

In May 2023, After Cai Yong took into account his interest in Chinese historical stories, thought over the topic ,he finally decided on Yue Fei's “Man Jiang Hong(the River All Red)" as the subject of the competition. During the preparation for the competition, Cai Yong learned more about the history of the early Southern Song Dynasty, explored the connotation of the ancient words by close reading of the text, and collected information through different channels to fully understand the background of the work, and the poet’s state of mind and creation intention.

The scene of the school-level competition

At the end of July, 2023, after layers of selection and expert evaluation, Cai Yong's "Man Jiang Hong" was successfully promoted to the provincial semi-final of the Poetry Lecture Competition of "Poetry Education in China" in Guangdong Province. The Provincial Competition was held on July 21st at BNU Zhuhai in the form of on-site. Cai Yong's deep understanding of Chinese history and culture and his confident stage manner won him the unanimous favor of the judges, and he finally won the First Prize of Guangdong Province in the International Students Group of the competition, and was selected as a finalist in the national competition.

Cai Yong's presence in the provincial competition

On August 22, 2023, the National Final of the 5th Chinese Classics Recitation, Writing and Speaking Competition of "the Poetry Lecture Competition of "Poetry Education in China"" was held in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. In the national final, Cai Yong started with presenting his love for Chinese culture since childhood and introduced how he learned traditional Chinese classical poems, and how he savored the fine traditional Chinese culture under the guidance of the instructors from Beijing Normal University after he came to China. Cai Yong's performance won the praise from the judges at present, and finally won the first prize in the international students group.

Cai Yong went to Jinhua, Zhejiang Province to participate in the final