News
[Oct. 30, 2009]
Quiz festival in Soochow University
“Who is the Tanka poet who published ‘Shakkou’ in 1913, who wrote the poems ‘Aratama’ and ‘Hakuto,’ and who was called ‘Kasei?’”This was a final question of the “East China Sasakawa Japanese-knowledge Quiz Bowl,” held at Soochow University, on October 20. Ryu Gyoyo（22）,a student of Soochow University, answered “Mokichi Saito,” for 20 points. With this, she vaulted past leader Tan Ho（24）, and won first prize.
The festival was held first at Heilong Jiang East College in Northeastern China in 2004. It has been conducted by The Japan Science Society, with support from The Nippon Foundation. This year marks the fifth Quiz festival in Northeastern area. It has also been held four times in East area. For students who study Japanese, The Japan Science Society has distributed 2,300,000 books in Japanese to twenty-seven Chinese universities so far, and held this contest for them to demonstrate their accomplishments.
Ryu, the champion of individual match
Ryu, a 4th year Japanese major at Soochow University, had studied for 1 year at University of Hyogo, Himeji city, from March 2008. She came to be interested in Japan through the manga “Detective Conan” and “Slam Dunk.”Now, she likes the Japanese pop groups “Kinki Kids” and “Arashi,” and enjoys watching them on Japanese TV programs broadcast on the internet. She will graduate next year, though she said humbly that she was too busy with classes and her graduation thesis to consider life after graduation. “In summer vacation, I am going to visit my former teacher in Himeji and talk about studying in Japan. If I have chance, I then want to get job at Japanese company in Soochow city.”
President Takeju Ogata of Nippon Foundation
Ko Shosho(21), MC of the festival, is a class mate of Ryu, and had also studied in Japan for a year. She said “My Japanese major made me interested in Japan. I think the Japanese are polite and sincere people.” Asked the reason that she was selected as MC of the festival, she answered coyly “my smile.”
Ryu and Ko
There are 480,000 university students studying Japanese in China. Most of them became interested in Japan through Japanese cartoons and TV dramas. These things motivate them to study. As Japanese majors, they learn not only language, but also history and Japanese classical literature such as the“Kojiki” and “Tale of Genji.”Like Ryu, many students access Japanese newspapers and TV programs by the internet.
Tan won 2nd prize
This year, Nanjing university won the team championship of the Eastern regional competition. In the Northeastern region, the contest was held in Harbin, where Heilong Jiang East College won on October 22. The winning teams and individual winners will all go to Japan next January at the invitation of The Japan Science Society.