In April and May 2023, Yeditepe University Confucius Institute in Turkey successfully organized the second "Turkish University Students' Chinese Poetry Recitation Competition" and "Turkish University Students' Chinese Karaoke Competition" to showcase the artistic talents and cultural spirit of Turkish learners of the Chinese language, as well as to cultivate and discover various talents in Chinese studies in Turkey. The events lasted for nearly two months, from early March when the competition information was first announced to the end of May when the competitions were mostly concluded.
Videos of participating students from various universities were collected online for both competitions. The Chinese Poetry Recitation Competition had a total of five participating schools, with 17 entries received. The Karaoke Competition had six participating Universities, with eight entries and eight participants. The Chinese Poetry Recitation Competition awarded one first prize, two second prizes, three third prizes, and five honorable mentions. The Chinese Karaoke Competition awarded one first prize, two second prizes, three third prizes, and two honorable mentions.
On the morning of May 27, 2023, the award ceremony for both events was held online in Türkiye. The ceremony was attended by the Chinese directors of the Confucius Institutes at Yeditepe University, Wang Wu, and Middle East Technical University, Wu Tianxi, as well as the foreign director of the Confucius Institute at Okan University, Bahar Kılıç (Li Chun), the head of the Chinese Department at Nevşehir University, Fatma Ecem CEYLAN, Chinese teacher Lale Aydin from Istanbul University, Chinese teacher representative Ayşe ÖZTÜRK （Huang Ru） from Social Sciences University of Ankara, the Chinese and foreign directors of the Confucius Institute at Yeditepe University, the Chinese coordinators of all participating universities, and the participating students.
During the award ceremony, Zhang Huijing, the Chinese director of the Confucius Institute at Yeditepe University, gave a brief introduction about the competitions, expressed gratitude for the active participation of sister institutes, and encouraged the students who enthusiastically took part in the two competitions. Subsequently, outstanding works from both competitions were played and showcased at the ceremony, receiving unanimous praise from everyone. Ebrar Çalışkan (Xin Hui) from Okan University, the first prize winner of the second Chinese Poetry Recitation Competition, delivered a speech on behalf of the participants. Gülnur Eralp (Xia Lin) from Nevşehir University, who won the first prize in the Chinese Karaoke Competition and the second prize in the Chinese Poetry Recitation Competition, also gave a speech expressing her joy for the awards, gratitude to her mentors, and thanks to the host, Yeditepe University Confucius Institute. Lastly, Ayşe Öztürk (Huang Ru), the Chinese teacher from Ankara Social Sciences University, was invited to share the organizing experience of the competition. She mentioned that they first selected classic Chinese poems from ancient and modern times, as well as works by male and female poets, for the students to choose from. Then, the teachers and students cooperated closely, tackling various aspects of recitation, such as pronunciation, emotions, and more. As a result, four out of six students from Ankara Social Sciences University received awards in this competition. Huang expressed her gratitude to Yeditepe University Confucius Institute for organizing these two events and highly praised the organization of the activities.
This year's two events had more participating universities, and the students' level and the quality of their works were higher. Through these activities, the sister Confucius Institutes and universities offering Chinese language programs, such as Istanbul University, Ankara University, Nevşehir University, and Ankara Social Sciences University, had closer and broader connections and exchanges. This was also the original intention of Yeditepe University Confucius Institute in organizing these events.