Speeches and Songs Presented with Flawless Pronunciation
Students Demonstrate Determination and Hard Work in Understanding Chinese Culture

[December 22, 1980 / Central Daily News / Page 3]

(Central News Agency) Foreign students studying Chinese in Taiwan participated in the Chinese Speech and Singing Competition co-organized by the Chinese Culture University’s Department of Tourism and others. Yesterday morning, the students presented their speeches at the assembly hall of the Yu Da High School of Commerce and Home Economics. There were serious speeches, comedic sketches, as well as singing while playing an instrument. The performances conveyed the students’ determination and hard work in learning Chinese and understanding Chinese culture. There was continuous laughter and applause from the nearly one thousand audience members present.

The “Taipei City College Student Chinese Speech and Singing Competition”, sponsored by the Tourism Department of the Chinese Culture University and Taipei City’s Lions Club International, commenced at 9 a.m. yesterday at the Yu Da assembly hall. The event was hosted by the department chair Ling-Xing Liu. Professionals from academia and the music world such as Dong-Fang Li, Fo-Qian Zhang, Jing-Hui Wang, and He Huang were invited to judge the speeches and songs. Students placed in yesterday’s speech competition in the following order: Madoka Etoh (Japan), Hideaki Imamura (Japan), Mei-Yu Lu (Korea), Seiichi Yamaguchi (Japan), Yu-Fan Mai (U.S.A.), Bing-Zhi Cui ( Korea). American student Roben Winkler received a special award because his use of crosstalk did not conform to the speech competition’s rules. The students placed in the singing competition in the following order: Zhi-Xiu Ma (U.S.A.), Zhong-Run Jin (Korea), Takamatsu Otoro (Japan).

Madoka Etoh, who placed first in the speech competition, has studied Chinese for two years. Three months ago she came to Taiwan to study Chinese at Stanford Center of the National Taiwan University. Yesterday, she used very articulate and fluent Chinese to relate her experiences asking strangers she had met on the street for directions or for help repairing the broken chain on her bicycle. She used these examples to illustrate Chinese people’s friendliness.

Roben Winkler, who was awarded a special prize, adopted an original approach by inviting his classmate Madoka Etoh to join him in using crosstalk to express his experience regarding Taiwan’s traffic conditions. He used a Taipei resident’s plebeian point of view to express how every time he waited for the bus, either the bus never came or when it did come, everyone squeezed in and the door closed, leaving him behind to inhale a cloud of black smoke emitted by the bus. In a fit of anger, he changed his transportation method and bought a 50 cc motorcycle which he named Happy Family Special Delivery Motorcycle. The reason for the name was because “I ride in front, my son sits on the fuel tank, and my pregnant wife sits on the rear while holding our daughter. A family of five rides this one motorcycle together every morning, barrelling through traffic to get everyone to work and school. “Listening to his vivid description, everyone in the audience rewarded him with enthusiastic applause.

Zhi-Xiu Ma from the singing competition accompanied himself on guitar. He performed Ode to Taiwan with a deep, resounding voice and excellent guitar techniques. His stage presence was comparable to a modern folk singer and he took first place in the competition.

The whole proceeding was filled with one climax after another. The laughter and applause lasted until the very end, when the Chairman ended the event on a satisfactory note, saying, “Come back next year!”