The final of the “2022 Greater Bay Area Cup” Area Studies Contest for Students Majoring in Spanish was held in Shenzhen University (SZU) on Saturday, with eight finalists showcasing their wide knowledge of Spanish-speaking countries and strong language skills.

The contest, organized by SZU’s Latin America Research Center and the Department of Western Languages of SZU’s School of Foreign Languages, aims to enhance students’ interest in area studies, their enthusiasm for research and comprehensive problem-solving capability and to cultivate talents with multidisciplinary knowledge.

The eight finalists were selected out of 341 applicants from 74 universities. Due to the pandemic, the finalists joined the final via video link. The contest was simultaneously broadcast live online.

A scene of the contest Saturday. Courtesy of Shenzhen University

The final consisted of three rounds. In the first round, the eight finalists vied to answer questions on knowledge of Spanish-speaking countries. The second round was a debate where the finalists were divided into two sides to present their arguments in Spanish on the topic — whether cultural differences are beneficial for international communications. In the third round, each finalist gave an impromptu speech on a given topic in Chinese.

The contest’s winner was Liu Xinying, a postgraduate student at Beijing Foreign Studies University, who stood out from the other eight finalists.

Zhang Xiaohong, vice president of SZU, delivered a speech at the contest where she emphasized the importance of educating students to become not only talents who are proficient in both the Spanish language and related knowledge, but also international communicators who tell stories of true China.

This was SZU’s first time to hold the contest and Zhang hoped that this innovative attempt could become a small model for the country’s multidisciplinary construction.