HOUSTON, May 12 (Xinhua) -- Huaxia Chinese School, the largest Chinese school in southern United States, held a ceremony Saturday to award more than 200 winners of the school's second Chinese-cultural-heritage competition.

Zhang Chuanbing, China's Deputy Consul General in Houston, congratulated the winners at the ceremony and encouraged them to further improve their Chinese.

The winners, who are students from six local schools, received trophies and cash awards for their outstanding performance in different units of the competition including dictation, story-telling, listening and comprehension and words-reading.

The competition is part of Huaxia Chinese School's efforts to promote Chinese-language learning among the younger generation of overseas Chinese.

The contestants at this year's competition demonstrated higher Chinese language proficiency, said Yang Jiahua, board member of Huaxia Chinese School.

Yang said more and more overseas Chinese parents are sending their children to Chinese schools because they want their children to remember their Chinese-root and heritage.

According to Yang, participants at this year's competition also included about 40 non-native Chinese speakers.

"China is a very big market. Both Chinese and foreigners are realizing the importance of the Chinese language," Yang said.

Last year, Huaxia Chinese School's first Chinese-cultural-heritage competition also attracted hundreds of participants from schools in the Houston area.

Huaxia Chinese School, founded in 1993, is a non-profit organization based in Houston, with about 2000 students enrolled in the school's more than 100 Chinese classes.