Tanjong Katong Primary School, Dunman High School win National Chinese Challenge
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Tanjong Katong Primary School pupils (from left) Hou Qian Xun, Quan Hou Ze and Ye Cheng celebrating their win during the National Chinese Challenge on April 29, 2023.
ST PHOTO: EUGENE TAN
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SINGAPORE - Tanjong Katong Primary School and Dunman High School have emerged champions of an annual competition to promote Chinese culture and cultivate an interest in learning the language.
Organised by SPH Media Trust’s Chinese Media Group and Nanyang Girls’ High School, this year’s National Chinese Challenge had 1,500 students from primary and secondary schools participate in its preliminary round that was held at the end of March.
This is the 10th year of the competition.
Saturday’s finals, held at CapitaLand Mall’s Bugis+, was conducted in a game show format.
Raffles Girls’ Primary School, Rosyth School and Nan Hua Primary School came in second, third and fourth respectively in the primary school category. For the secondary school category, Raffles Girls’ School, Nanyang Girls’ High School and CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School took second to fourth place respectively.
Dunman High School’s Tai Yi-Hsuan, 16, said it was a surprise to win the contest.
“We’re very proud of ourselves... The competition was quite challenging but fun at the same time, because we learnt a lot of new knowledge along the way,” said the Secondary 3 student. “We did a lot of research and our teachers gave us quizzes to see which parts we were weaker in.”
“I enjoy the Chinese language and it comes naturally to me... because I grew up speaking Mandarin in my family, and I use it every day with my parents, friends and teachers,” he added.
Dunman High School’s Goh Yu Chen, Elise, Shu Hong Yi, Tai Yi-Hsuan and Tan Eason won the secondary school category of the 10th National Chinese Challenge.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
Likewise, the win for Tanjong Katong Primary School came as a surprise for Primary 6 pupil Ye Cheng.
“The other three schools are very strong teams... We’re happy that we won for the first time,” said the 13-year-old, who said his biggest takeaway was to enjoy the process and learn new nuggets of knowledge from other pupils.
