More than 3,600 students took part in the National Chinese Challenge this year, setting a new record of participation.
Participation in the nationwide Chinese language quiz for primary and secondary school students has been growing over the years, from 1,700 students from 75 schools taking part in 2017 to about 1,900 students from 92 schools participating last year.
A total of 104 primary schools registered their pupils for the contest, which is double last year's total.
Secondary school students from 65 schools also participated in the preliminary round, which was held online last Saturday morning. Students from 43 secondary schools participated in last year's preliminary round.
The participants were tested on their knowledge of the Chinese language, which includes translation of commonly used terms from English to Chinese, pronunciation, literature, current affairs, general knowledge and figuring out Chinese proverbs and idioms from pictures.
For Raffles Institution student Ryan Chen, 14, who has been taking part in the challenge since Primary 5, the competition has been exciting and fun so far, despite some initial jitters as there were more questions to tackle in a shorter amount of time.
"The questions are comprehensive, ranging from local language to Internet lingo, and also Chinese literature," he said.
"It is a real test of students' Chinese language (abilities)."
Organised by Singapore Press Holdings' (SPH) Chinese Media Group and Nanyang Girls' High School, the National Chinese Challenge is an annual event which aims to promote Chinese culture and cultivate an interest in learning Chinese among students.
It also provides a platform for participants to showcase their language abilities and interact with other Chinese language learners.
The challenge is co-presented by the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and supported by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning, the National Translation Committee and the Speak Mandarin Campaign, with Huawei International as technology partner.
As there will be no semi-final round, the top four schools each from the secondary and primary levels will enter directly into the finals.
The finals will be streamed live on Aug 15 from 2pm to 4pm on various digital platforms, including zaobao.sg, zbComma's Facebook page, zbschools.sg and SPH's www.stayhome.com.sg
Viewers will be able to cast their votes in support of the teams for a segment of the finals in which the finalists are asked to create their own story on the spot based off pictures.
Additional points will be awarded to the team whose story clinches the most number of votes.
The finalists for the challenge will be announced on Friday. Participants can check them out at bit.ly/ncc_2020
