Winners of the competition pose for a group photo with guests (WEI YAO)

Ngoma Mfoutou Dona Malvina is a student from the Republic of Congo studying Chinese at the Dalian University of Foreign Languages, northeast China's Liaoning Province. He was one of the prize winners of the First CHINAFRICA Short Video Competition themed China Though My Eyes and hosted by BEIJING REVIEW, a news agency affiliated to the China International Publishing Group (CIPG). When he was invited to the award ceremony of the competition, he wanted to bring something genuinely African.

His friend and schoolmate Alladawemon Marcos from Benin was also among the winners of the competition and was also invited to the award ceremony. They decided to play the African drum together at the ceremony.

On the morning of December 20, 2019, they arrived at CIPG in Beijing with two big drums they carried all the way from Dalian. As they expected, their performance ignited passion in the room and drew the award winners and part of the audience into joyful dancing.

Also performing on the stage was the first-prize winner Passant Sayed from Egypt. She amazed the audience in a totally different way. By performing Guankou, a traditional Chinese performing skill that features quick utterance of long lines of Chinese, she showed how well a foreigner can master what she said is the second most difficult language in the world after Arabic, her mother tongue. It is a challenge even for most native Chinese speakers if not specially trained to do so.

She believes it is helpful for Africans to learn more about China. "In my country, for example, if you can speak Chinese, a job is secured," she said.

Passant Sayed performs Guankou (WEI YAO)

A platform of communication

The ceremony was to conclude a short video competition sponsored by BEIJING REVIEW in association with five universities that recruit African students. Starting from September last year, the competition received entries from African students from nine universities and young Africans working in China.

"We held this competition to provide a platform for African friends to share their perspectives and a way for the Chinese audience to better know the young people in Africa," said Li Yafang, President of BEIJING REVIEW.

With ChinAfrica, a monthly magazine dedicated to African readers, BEIJING REVIEW has been working to strengthen mutual understanding between Chinese and African people.

After careful evaluation and voting, nine videos emerged as winners of the first to third prizes. Their makers, along with representatives of the co-organizers and embassies, were invited to the award ceremony.

"It has created a platform of communication for young Africans in China," said Zhao Dan, team leader from the Institute of Communications Studies of the Communication University of China located in Beijing, one of the five co-organizers of the competition.

Ngoma Mfoutou Dona Malvina and Alladawemon Marcos perform African drum (WEI YAO)

First-hand experience

So what is China like in the eyes of the winners?

In his video, Malvina recorded how Chinese people celebrated the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China and summarized its achievements in diplomacy, technology, and cultural exchange.

"Thanks to these achievements, China is becoming a confident and open country ready to share its experience," he said in the video.

Sayed shared in her work her story with the Chinese language and Chinese culture and how teaching in a rural school in China helped her make up her mind to devote herself to teaching Chinese in Africa.

"A better future of China-Africa cooperation needs us," she said.

Other highlights in these videos include China's efforts in poverty reduction, convenient on-line shopping, high-speed trains, and comparison and integration of Chinese and African cultures.

Mission for the youth

Among the guests of the ceremony was Simon Pierre Adovelande, Benin's Ambassador to China. He shared his thoughts about China-Africa cooperation with the winners and the audience.

Having been in China for three years, he finds that when people talk about China in Africa, they are talking about the China they knew 20 years ago; likewise, when people talk about Africa in China, they are talking about Africa many years ago.

"This competition for me is bridging a gap in the knowledge we need to have about our countries, about the continent and about China," he said.

He reminded the winners on some of the values previous African and Chinese leaders followed in building the China-Africa relationship, which included learning from each other and mutual respect for things we don't know. He believes young Africans have a new mission: to speak for Africa and China with their own voice.

"You need to talk proudly about Africa, so that our Chinese friends would know what the new Africa is like, because you are the new Africa," he said. He urged them to do the same about China when they return to Africa, to tell real stories about China as they experienced themselves. The winners are ready to do so. Malvina's plan is to go back to his country, the Republic of Congo, and teach Chinese when he completes his studies in China. He said many people in his country want to learn Chinese, but there are not enough teachers to teach Chinese. "We have fewer than eight qualified Chinese teachers across the country," he said.

Sayed has a similar plan, as she stated in her video. She said that the Chinese language has been a hot topic in Egypt, especially after Chinese President Xi Jinping's visit to Egypt in 2016. After that, many Chinese companies have emerged in the country and learning Chinese has become even more popular as it relates to access to more job opportunities.

She is currently a student at the Beijing Normal University learning Chinese teaching. She has mastered the language so well that she was the champion of the 18th Chinese Bridge - Chinese Proficiency Competition for Foreign College Students which was held in Changsha City, central China's Hunan Province, in 2019.

But she said she won't stop learning. "If you want to give your students a bowl of water, you need to have a bucket of water first," she said, quoting a popular Chinese saying.

(Comments to hufan@chinafrica.cn)