News in Press-centre

Pavel Karelin, the third year student of the Oriental Institute–School of Regional and International Studies of Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU OI–SRIS), won the Chinese Bridge—All-Russian Chinese Proficiency Competition in Kazan. In the status of the best expert of the language of the Celestial Empire, he will represent Russia at the international competition to be held in July–August 2017 in Changsha, Hunan Province, PRC.

According to Pavel Karelin, the competition consisted of several rounds: speech on the given topic, answers to questions on geography, politics, economics, history of China, and the creative number, when the FEFU student managed to impress the jury with the skill of pronunciation of Chinese tongue twisters.

The participants were evaluated by the teachers of Chinese and native speakers: Wu Yingqin, the PRC Consul General in Kazan, Zhao Gochen, the Counsellor for Education at the PRC Embassy in Russia, and Jan Jincheng, the Head of the European Branch of the Office of Chinese Language Council International (Hanban).

The FEFU third year student earned the highest marks and together with the permit for the world college student competition acquired the right to study free of charge in a postgraduate study program at any Chinese university.

"A big thanks to my Chinese teacher He Zhiyun for his contribution to professional development and excellent preparation for the competition, as well as to the Russian faculty of the FEFU Department of Chinese Studies for their support," said Pavel Karelin. "I will try to represent our country in the finals!"

The competition in Kazan brought together the best sinologists from Moscow, St. Petersburg, the Russian Far East, Siberia, Volga, and the Urals. Together with Pavel Karelin, the Far Eastern school of the Chinese language was represented by the OI-SRIS students Mikhail Shapovalov (2nd year student), Eugenia Sopina (3rd year student) and Eugene Spiridonov (1st year student). All of them earned this right due to their successful performance in the regional competition held by the FEFU Institute of Confucius in April. 

Far Eastern Federal University is one of the leading centers of Chinese Studies in Russia, which dates back to the establishment of Oriental Institute in 1899. Today, about 400 students are studying the Chinese language, history, culture and economy of the country at FEFU. Another 600 people are studying Chinese in parallel with getting higher education in other academic areas. The high quality of training in Chinese Studies at FEFU is confirmed by regular victories in prestigious Russian and international competitions.