In 1987, SEAIE and Kyoto International Studies University of Japan held a speech contest by Japanese and Chinese. SEAIE organized the students majoring in Japanese in Shanghai to enter for the Japanese speech contest, while Kyoto International Studies University was in charge of the "speech contest in west Japan" by the Japanese students majoring in Chinese. Up till now the once-a-year contest has been held for 13 years. The topics of the contest range over every aspect, such as the education, culture, traditional, value conception of the two countries and so on. In the 13 years, the young people of the two countries exchanged and spread their own countries' culture through the contests, and played an active role in strengthening the friendship and cooperation in the people of the two countries. The speech contest not only promoted the two countries' language teaching, but also become the epitome of the culture exchange of Shanghai and West Japan's education circles for its large scale and long existing.

At the beginning of the contest, there were only 5 universities in Shanghai and only 4 universities in west Japan to enter for the contest. But now, the contest has developed to a scale of 10 universities in each region. Besides, the number of the entrants is rising every year and every time, the level of the entrants was greatly improved. In the contest of Shanghai, there are entrants from universities like Fudan University, Tongji University, China East Teacher-training University and Shanghai Universities. They all do their best and it's always hard to choose the better ones. It is also true in Japan.

During the contest, it is not so simple for the entrants just to recite an excellent paragraph with emotion. First, the topics selected must accord with the principle "Peace and Friendship". In addition, besides the self-selected topics, the entrants have to give an improvised speech according to the various questions to test their response abilities and accuracy. The content of the speech must accord with the two countries' traditional and customs. This has further exceeded the category of the gift of tongues, but a test to examine the entrants' knowledge on the language background and the all-round abilities.

The society has also paid attention to the contest. After the contest, many people expressed their own idea on the entrants and the organization of the contest, and the atmosphere is no less impassioned than the atmosphere on the stage. The contest not only promotes the language teaching, but generates good social effects as well, and reaches our original intention of exchanging thoughts through language learning. The winners of the contest will have the opportunity to take part in the exchange of visits between China and Japan. In the past 13 years, there have been more than 70 Chinese and Japanese students to make exchange visits. This kind of visits not only deepened the friendship and understanding, but made contributions to spreading the culture of the two countries as well.

The 14th Japanese Speech Contest for university students was held in Teachers University of Eastern China on Nov. 4, 2000. It was sponsored by SEAIE and Kyoto International Studies University. It was also given energetically support by Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai, the Shanghai Branch of Japanese Airline Corp., Antian Insurance Company, Shanghai JVC Electric Appliance Corp., Fusang Sodality of Teachers University of Eastern China, the Publishing Company of Teachers University of East China and Shanghai Publishing Company of Foreign Languages Education. After several selections, 11 students qualified for the final contest. We invited Prof. Jigang (head of the Japanese Department of Foreign Languages School of Shanghai Jiaotong University), Directo of the Japanese Department of Foreign Languages School of Kyoto International Studies University and Principal of Foreign Languages School of Kyoto International Studies University to be the judge of the contest.

At the final contest, Ma Qinrong (the vice president of the Teachers University of Eastern China), the general director of Kyoto International Studies University, Jiang Haishan (the vice president of SEAIE) and the consul general of the Japanese Consulate General in Shanghai arrived and addressed the contest. After one day's contention, Caoying of Shanghai International Studies University, Wuyi of Shanghai External Trade College and Qiao Yi'an of Shanghai Tourism College won he prize. We can be sure that with the developing relationship between the two countries, the Bilingual Speech Contest for the university students will have a brighter future.