M.U.S.T. Students won the 3rd prize at the 26th China Daily “21st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition

Assist Prof. Lei Kai Cheong (left) and Yingtong Deng (right)

Yingtong Deng, a senior of the Faculty of Chinese Medicine, M.U.S.T., won the 3^rd prize at the 26^th China Daily “21^st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition in October. What is also gratifying is that this is the 14th consecutive year M.U.S.T. students qualified to enter the final of this national competition.

The China Daily “21^st Century Cup” National English Speaking Competition was launched by the China Daily in 1996. It is the highest academic and most rigorous English learning competition in China.  

This year’s competition was launched in October 2020 and lasted for seven months. Because of the pandemic, the final of the competition has been postponed till October this year. The contestants came from all universities nation-wide. The competition is comprised of several stages: screening interviews on the Internet, campus-wide selections, speaking tests on the phone, and regional finals; out of approximately 100,000 contestants from around 1,000 higher institutions of the mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macao, 75 regional winners (top three of each region) are selected to enter the national final. The Competition invites top-level experts from well-known international English teaching organizations, media organizations, foreign embassies in China, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and renowned national and international universities, to serve as the judges. Over a million people watch the competition. It’s official website and many well-known mainland Chinese media organizations provide detailed coverage for the event. 

The final round of this competition consists of three parts: prepared speech, impromptu speech, and the question and answer session. With her fluent English, elegant stage presence, agile mind and excellent critical thinking and organizational skills, Yingtong Deng won the 3^rd prize. Her tutor, Assistant Prof. Lei Kai Cheong, Coordinator of the General Education English Program, M.U.S.T., also won 3^rd prize in the Best Tutor Award.