Whanganui High School Chinese Speech Competition

The Confucius Institute of New Zealand

The Confucius Institute of New Zealand held it’s annual nationwide schools speech competition at Victoria University in Wellington, on Saturday, 24th May.

This year Lulu Dufty, (Year 11), (last years’ junior winner) returned as a senior competitor and was joined by her sister Billie Dufty, (Year 13), in representing Whanganui High School.

The level of Chinese proficiency in the senior category is a marked difference in pronunciation and understanding compared to the junior category.

The eight competitors were judged on their 3-minute speech delivery, a series of written and verbal questions, and a talent of their choice.

Four of the eight competitors were of an extremely high competency and would prove difficult for the judges to separate. In the end they gave the overall result to Billie,

commenting on how confidently she delivered her speech, her commendable pronunciation of mandarin and her beautifully choreographed Chinese dance.

Lulu, also delivered a confident speech, with the judges declaring it the best delivered speech of the afternoon. Billie now has an opportunity to showcase her talents on the

world stage in China, at the International Chinese Speech Awards.

As a side note, Mr. Ding stunned the mentor/ teacher field with a mighty first in the category of “Best Confuscius Teacher at senior level”.

Congratulations to Lulu and Billie Dufty, and of course the indomitable Beck Ding!

24/5/25