2012 Chinese Knowledge Companion (CKC)

Introduction
It has been 4 years since the 1st Chinese Knowledge Contest (CKC) back in 2008. The first contest was organized by CAFA (Chinese American Friendship Association) and co-sponsored by local Chinese language schools including Raleigh Academy of Chinese Language, Chinese School of Chapel Hill and Cary Chinese School.  The contest was designed and produced by Dr. Weishi Huang, who was then the Chair of the Educational Committee of CAFA. The activity was popular and promoted interests of Chinese learning. It is entertaining to play and watch, and educational to participate and get involved. 

Due to many requests from parents and teachers, CAST-NC (Chinese Association for Science and Technology, NC Chapter), together with CAFA Committee on Education and Committee on Science and Technology, will host the 2nd CKC this year. Again, Dr. Weishi Huang will be leading the technical design and implementation. He is joined by Dr. Tao Pang for co-organizing and coordinating.  This time we will implement a better computer-controlled interface and allow a bigger pool of contestants by including adult contestants, both Chinese and non-Chinese descents.

Format:
The contents are leveled based on contestants’ school grades and aiming at the ability of reading, listening, knowing as well as understanding of Chinese. The contest is not only about Chinese as a language, but also about Chinese as a culture. The subjects are categorized as language, culture, geography, history, riddle, and areas that are hardly put in a single category, but called comprehensive or miscellaneous.

The contest questions have two formats. One is sentence completion (SC), which is similar to the Wheel of Fortune show in which contestants will compete to be the first to read the sentence based on displayed and covered characters. The other is swift question & answer (SQA), which is similar to the Jeopardy show in which contestants will compete to obtain the highest score by answering the most questions correctly, in Chinese.

Groups of Contestants:
There will be four levels of the contestants:

– Elementary school students

– Middle school students

– High school students

– Non-Heritage Chinese Learners

Schedule:

1.       1:00-1:15pm: Introduction and Orientation

2.       1:15-2:45pm: Part I

a.      1:15-2:00pm, Elementary School Level

b.      2:00-2:45pm, Middle School Level

3.       2:45-3:00pm: Refreshment break

4.       3:00-4:30pm:  Part II

a.      3:00-3:45pm: Non-Heritage Chinese Learners

b.      3:45-4:30pm: Higher School Level

       5.      4:30-5:00pm: Concluding Remarks and Wrap-up

Notes:

–  Players having the top 3 scores will receive trophies. All others will have participation prizes.

–  Each game can have a max of 6 individuals.

–  A player will be considered “non-heritage” if the student is of non-Chinese origin, and have never lived or studied in a Chinese-speaking country/region for an extended period of time, or, the student is of Chinese origin who do not speak or understand any Chinese, including Chinese dialect.


–  If there is a tie in score, more questions will be given until the tie is broken. 

–  The organization committee reserve all right to explain the game rules.

Preparation:

No preparation needed. The purpose of this event is to promote Chinese learning and make it easy  and fun to learn. Finding the champion is not the purpose as the scores are obtained not solely based on how much they memorize (this is the fun part of the game). We will try to make the games entertaining and yet educational. The majority of the questions are basic knowledge of China and what the students have learned from their textbooks in school and in daily conversation.

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Sample Questions  比赛例题

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抢答:

1.       文化

·         什么时候是中国新年?  正月初一.

·         中国有多少个民族?        56

·         中国古代最大的神物是什么? 龙

2.       历史

·         新中国是什么时候诞生的?  十月一日.

·         中国第一个皇帝是谁?  秦始皇

·         中国最早的古都是? 西安

3.       地理

·         中国最长的河流是?  长江.

·         中国首都在哪里?  北京

·         江苏省的省府是哪个城市? 南京

4.       谜语 (for high school students and up)

·         弟兄七八个，围着柱子坐，只要一分开，衣服就扯破. (打一食物) 蒜头

·         五个兄弟，住在一起，名字不同，高矮不齐。(打一身体器官) 手指

5.       其它

·         太阳从哪个方向升起? 东方.

·         雪是什么颜色?  白色.

猜句:

·         谚语: 人在世上练，刀在石上磨。  : 人在世上练，刀在石上磨。

·         名言:  知识就是力量.                      :  知识就是力量.

·         段句:  北京是中国的首都.               : 北京是中国的首都.

Contact:
Dr. Tao Pang, pang3200@yahoo.com, (919)-264-3831 for more information.