On Dec 6, the 2025 "FLTRP · Guocai Cup" "Understanding Contemporary China" National College Students' Foreign Language Proficiency Competition (Multilingual Group) national finals concluded in Beijing. Over 180 contestants from 85 universities competed, interpreting China's path, governance and philosophy in 9 languages and demonstrating contemporary youth's foreign language competence and social responsibility.
Themed "Understanding China, Connecting the World", the event—hosted by Beijing Foreign Studies University and organized by Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press—has attracted 26,000 participants from 669 universities since March 2025, including 2,228 in the German group.
SJTU's School of Foreign Languages German Program actively organized students. After four stages (university, provincial, national Stage 1, finals), four students excelled in Shanghai's provincial competition: Han Jinzhe (Undergrad 2025), He Jiazhou (Undergrad 2024), Cui Chuandong (Undergrad 2022) and Gai Yufan (Undergrad 2022). They claimed the top four among Shanghai's five national Stage 1 qualifiers and won provincial gold and silver awards.
Han and He advanced to the national top 15 for the Beijing finals. After fierce contests in Chinese-German interpretation, impromptu speech and Q&A, Han won Gold Award (Runner-up), He Silver Award, and their supervisor Assoc. Prof. Xue Song was named "Excellent Instructor". Cui and Gai also earned Bronze Awards in national Stage 1.
This continues the German Dept's 3-year excellence in the competition: 2023 gold/silver, 2024 German group 1-2 finish. Alumni shared experience, and Assoc. Prof. Xue's Understanding Contemporary China courses laid a solid foundation.
The competition assesses comprehensive language and cross-cultural communication skills via escalating challenges, reflecting the German Program's high-quality talent training. To boost students' international communication competence, it offers core course Advanced German · Understanding Contemporary China (taught by Xue), which won SJTU Teaching Innovation Competition first prize and Shanghai's second prize.
A national first-class undergraduate program since 2006, SJTU's German Program has nurtured high-end interdisciplinary talents with nearly 100% international exchange access. Its students have won 8 national and 10 provincial awards in the competition to date, showcasing their "understand China, connect the world" ability and contributing to China's global influence.