In late May, the Irkutsk Regional Youth Theater after A.Vampilov hosted the All-Russian student contest in Chinese language "Chinese language is a bridge" for the first time in Irkutsk history.

The founders of the All-Russian contest are the State Office of Chinese Language Council International and the Embassy of China in Russia. Organizers from Irkutsk part are the Consulate General of China in Irkutsk, the Irkutsk State University, and the "Confucius Institute of the Irkutsk State University."

The competition involved five teams of five people - winners of regional stages, representing the federal districts of Russia: Far East (Vladivostok, Blagoveshchensk), Northwest (St. Petersburg), Siberia (Irkutsk, Tomsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita), Ural (Yekaterinburg Novosibirsk, Barnaul), and Central (Moscow, Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod).
Students competed in the command of the language, correct pronunciation and sentence structuring in four rounds. The trials included home-made presentations, complex improvisations on a given topic and interviews with the jury. In between rounds collectives of the ISU Center for culture and leisure along with other Irkutsk artists performed in front of the audience. The Irkutsk school of martial arts demonstrated its skills. Students from the Liaoning University introduced viewers to the world of subtle and soulful music of the East.

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The first All-Russian contest was held in Moscow in 2012. In 2013, it was held in St. Petersburg, in 2014 – in Vladivostok. In 2015, the honor to hold the competition was delegated to the Irkutsk State University.