NEW YORK, May 21, 2018 – Avery Porges, a sophomore at Jericho High School in New York, is the winner of the second annual Why Speak Chinese social media contest. Porges, who will receive two roundtrip tickets to China, was selected on Thursday, May 17, via a live Facebook voting poll.

Avery Porges' #WhySpeakChinese Submission

The other two finalist submissions were from Nicholas Yum, also a student at Jericho High School; and Negest Tsegaye and Erin Davis, students at the Houston Academy for International Studies, an Asia Society International Studies Schools Network member, in Texas.

Nicholas Yum's #WhySpeakChinese Submission

Negest Tsegaye's and Erin Davis' #WhySpeakChinese Submission

The 2018 Why Speak Chinese contest, hosted by the Center for Global Education at Asia Society's China Learning Initiatives and co-sponsored by Chineasy and ACTFL’s Lead with Languages, was launched in March 2018. Participants submitted short, social media videos using the #WhySpeakChinese hashtag on why they were learning Chinese.

Each week, a “Staff Pick of the Week” was selected, and from these, the top two staff favorite videos proceeded to the final. Those two videos were accompanied by the overall top two videos in terms of “likes,” and the resulting videos proceeded to the finalist round and were voted on via Facebook Live. Three videos—rather than four—proceeded to the finalist round because one of the videos was both a “Staff Pick” and a most-liked submission.

In just 60 days, 113 students submitted videos to the contest, yielding nearly 7 thousand likes and more than 20,000 video views. All video submissions can be viewed on the Why Speak Chinese website.

China Learning Initiatives plans to continue holding the Why Speak Chinese contest annually. To learn more about the contest, visit the Why Speak Chinese website or contact Cleopatra Wise: cwise@asiasociety.org.