By Megan Zimmerer

On Wednesday April 5, CIMU and the Department of German, Russian, Asian, and Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (GRAMELAC) co-sponsored a unique event for Chinese learners to show off their skills and compete for cash prizes. The annual skit competition, as usual, did not disappoint! Teachers watched with pride as their students confidently performed scripts that they had composed and memorized, and a panel of judges carefully analyzed their performances, offering both encouragement and honest criticism.

After the judges were introduced, the skit performances were separated into three competitive levels: basic, intermediate, and advanced. At the basic level, performers Molly Heidemann, Imani Fields, and Sydney Chuen made their professor Su Liu proud with their performance of “A day in the Life of Jia’en,” winning first place in their division.

Intermediate performers Davide Black, Bri Clements, and Ian Jones took first place in their division after executing a hilarious and energetic performance of their skit, “Boys Who Want to Rent a House.” Andrew Hedstrom and Carrie Beck took second place in their division with their performance of “Beautiful Patient with Cool Doctor.”

During a brief intermission, performers from the Chinese 330 class performed their own skit: “A Swindler Ate Noodles in Oxford.” The performers did not compete for prizes, but nonetheless enchanted the audience with their wit and language ability, especially when they incorporated a Chinese tongue twister into their skit. This performance was followed by a Bagua palm martial arts demonstration from martial arts master Enjie Li.

Speculators marveled at the marked advancement of skills and fluency as the skits progressed to each new level. As the competition concluded, advanced division performers Spencer Reynolds and Tina Tian took first place for their skit, “A High-Tech Company,” and performers Bennett Pruitt, Emily Pantuso, and Javier Avila took second place for their performance of “The Standard of Beauty.”

One spectator commented that the skits were “very funny and original… you could see the effort that they took to memorize and perform their scripts.” She jokingly added that “their Chinese needs some work,” but concluded that the students’ progress is commendable. All of the students received very high scores from the judges and most importantly, this event provided an excellent opportunity for students to engage with the Chinese language outside of the classroom in an exciting and memorable way.