The Otago Chinese Prize-giving was due to be held last week at Columba College. Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19 Alert Level 2 restrictions, this event was cancelled.

A group of performance students has been preparing for a long time for Chinese Prize-giving and we would like to acknowledge their efforts: Year 10 Rebekah Sime (Taichi Fans), Year 11 Amber Zhang (Gu Zheng and Chinese Han Dance), Year 13 Junxiao Chen, Year 11 Wenxi Zeng, Year 12 Shuyuan Zhao, Year 11 Huijie Jia, Year 10 Weiyi Dong and Year 11 Weiran Dong (Chinese Han Dance).

Columba College had a number of students receiving Chinese prizes in 2021. Receiving the  Year 1 'Confucius classroom Excellent Learners' prizes were: Thomas McIlroy, Year 2 Betty Wilson, Year 3 Samuel Murphy, Year 4 Ngara Stent, Year 5 Lara Lowe, Year 6 Isabella van Aart, Year 7 Lila Taylor, Jessie Roff and Lydia Hortop-Blair, Year 8 Hebe Song, Delilah Brown and Matilda Sutton, Year 9 Charli Sinclair, Year 10 Rebekah Sime, Year 11 Tayla Finlay and Year 12 Maya Bromby. Year 11 Noa Kuroki was awarded the 'Excellent HSK Student' prize.

Each year, Columba College Chinese students participate in the New Zealand Soft-Pen and Hard-Pen Calligraphy competition, organised by Confucius Institute. This year, there were 64 schools and 2000 pieces of calligraphy submitted nationally. Columba College had 165 students (totaling more than 300 pieces) entered in the 12th New Zealand Chinese Calligraphy Competition in both the hard pen and soft brush divisions.

Chinese students in Years 4 – 12 have been trained to write Chinese characters in hard-pen every lesson at daily vocabulary time. They have written a section of a Chinese poem to participate in the hard-pen calligraphy competition. Years 5 – 13 Chinese students have learned seal script Chinese calligraphy writing with Miss Yang. They have written a piece of Chinese idiom in seal scripts on Chinese rice paper with a calligraphy brush pen.

In the NZ ​​​​Hard Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Intermediate & Secondary Category, Year 9 Frankie McAuliffe won 1st place, Year 10 Rin Ueda and Year 11 Noa Kuroki won 2nd place, Year 8 Scarlett Wilson, Zuzanna Kochan and Emily Roy, Year 9 Kaja Maciaczyk and Year 11 Koh Miyamichi won 3rd place. Year 10 Rin Ueda also won 2nd place in the Brush Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Intermediate & Secondary category.

In the NZ Hard Pen Calligraphy Native Intermediate & Secondary category, Year 11 Mabel Lee and Ruoshui Zhang won 2nd place , Year 8 Hebe Song and Year 12 Charlene Chan won 3rd place in NZ Hard Pen Calligraphy Native Intermediate & Secondary Category. Ruoshui Zhang also won 2nd place in the Brush Pen Calligraphy Native Secondary category.

Year 4 Méabh Russell, Year 5 Frances Jones and Year 6 Bilal Ahmad won 3rd place in the New Zealand Hard Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Primary category. Year 5 Ruby Tilyard won 2nd place and Year 6 Charlotte Bloxham won 3rd place in the NZ Brush Pen Calligraphy Non-Native Primary category.

Year 7 Yumeng Li, Year 8 Luciana Brown, Jemima Hortop-Blair, Selina Zeng, Hebe Song, Scarlett Wilson and Emily Fryer, Year 9 Emillie Matthews, Nanni Ge and Charli Sinclair, Year 10 Tessa Smith, Kayla Smith and Emily Sharpe, Year 11 Huijie Jia, Mabel Lee and Anise Maclean have been awarded Merit prizes in the 12th NZ Chinese Calligraphy Competition Intermediate & Secondary category.

Year 4 Hugh Walker and Matilda Brown, Year 5 Emily North, Year 6 Xuanming Tang, Devon Skevington, Bilal Ahmad and Finlay Auchinvole have been awarded a Merit prize in the 12th NZ Chinese Calligraphy Competition Merit Prize Primary Category.

Because of our students’ excellent achievements in the calligraphy competition, Columba College was awarded 'The Best School' for The 12th New Zealand Chinese Calligraphy Competition 2021. Ms Ding and Miss Yang were awarded 'The Best Coach award.

Congratulations to everyone!