In recent times, thepopularity of Chineseteaching has increased worldwide. Thus it is of great importance to ensure high quality of Chinese teaching. On the afternoon of the 18th July, the first CITCM Teaching Competition took place at Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine (CITCM) at London South Bank University. Twenty-five teachers and volunteer teachers participated in the competition. Mr Fenghe Qiao, First Secretary at the Education Section of the Chinese Embassy in London was invited to be a judge. Other judges on the panel included Dr Min Liu, Executive Director of CITCM, Mr David Tomlinson, Deputy Headteacher of Goodrich Primary School and local Chinese teachers, Ms Hanghang Huang from Fortismere School and Ms Joyce Lee from Petchey Academy.

During the competition, the participants demonstrated their skills and enthusiasm in teaching. The subjects taught includedMandarin,Chinese dance, Chinese music, martial arts and traditional Chinese medicine. The Mandarin teachers used various teaching methods and classroom activities to create a positive and livelyatmosphere to cater for the needs and the characteristics of English students. Traditional Chinese medicine classes focused on the balance of yin and yang as well as Chinese wellbeing concepts. Teachers of traditional Chinese culture used their rich teaching contents and methods to capture the attention of all the judges and teachers, who stood up as students and followed in the dance and martial arts movements.

After the competition, Mr Tomlinson spoke on behalf of all the judges and commented that the successful competition left him with a very positive impression. He was pleased to see the enthusiasm of the teachers and the high quality of teaching in various subjects. He felt greatly encouraged and was determined to continue his learning of Chinese. He also commented that he had learned a great deal as a judge. He continued to say that competition was a great form to foster sharing of good practice and teaching resources among teachers and this was indispensible in the cultural exchange between the west and the east. He hoped that there would be more opportunities like this event in the future.

After two hours of lively and good-natured competition, the results were as follows: 1st Prize - Yang Han, 2nd Prize: Hongwei Jia and Qilong Zhang, 3rd Prize: Xingzhi He, Kexin Wang and Linjiao Wu.