C3S Event Report No: 006/2019
See Event Poster here: C3S China Quiz 2019 Poster
The 2019 China Quiz was won by the team from Madras Christian College’s (MCC) Department of History, Vishnu P.K., Arun Mathew and Megha A. Kumar. The other cash prize was awarded to the second prize winners – the team from IIT Madras, Athira Anand, Justin Joseph and Ashna Joy. This third edition of Chennai Centre for China Studies’ (C3S) China Quiz for College Students, the second time in collaboration with MCC Department of Political Science, was successfully held on Tuesday, March 12, 2019, at MCC’s St Thomas’s Hall. It was held on Day 2 of the Political Science department’s annual inter-collegiate competition Imperium. (See the video about Imperium here.)
While 34 teams of three college students each pre-registered for the China Quiz prelims, on March 12th 69 college students making up 23 teams attempted the 30 questions of the written China Quiz prelims at 11:30 in Room A2-02. Both the China Quiz prelims and the finals were conducted by C3S Associate Member Raakhee Suryaprakash.
The teams were from the following colleges: various departments of Madras Christian College with the exception of the host department of political science; Stella Maris College; Guru Nanak College; Aligarh Muslim University – Malappuram Centre, Kerala; IIT Madras and Vels University.
The questions for the quiz were crowd sourced from members of C3S and Young Minds of C3S (YMC3S). Ms. Kirthi Jayakumar, L.V. Krishnan sir, Ambassador (Retd.) M. Ganapathi and our Europe-based YMC3S member Vishwesh Sundar as well as Raakhee Suryaprakash provided questions for the China Quiz 2019, some questions from previous editions of C3S China Quiz finals and prelims were also included. The scope of the questions covered China, Taiwan, Tibet (Foreign Relations, Politics, Economy, Geo-strategy, Environment, Soft Power, Culture) as well as 2019 articles on the C3S website and the 2019 Bamboo Shoots newsletters as well as C3S events.
The answers were discussed to much vocal emotion after the answer sheets were collected. Some questions from the prelims follow:
Which space agency recently declared that China and India helped make the earth greener?
(a) ISRO; (b) China National Space Administration; (c) Roscosmos; (d)NASA
Correct answer was (d) NASA. This was announced by NASA in February 2019. C3S Research Officer even live tweeted the this first and last questions (In which year did the Tiananmen Square massacres take place?) on the C3S twitter handle @C3SChennai and got a couple of replies.
What was the name of the Documentary by CitizenArts documentary screened at the C3S Culture Conference held last month?
(a) Chindia; (b) To the Mountaintops; (c) Asian Titans; (d) Architects of the Asian Century
The correct answer: (b) To the Mountaintops
The name of the C3S newsletter is
(a) Dragon News; (b) Bamboo Shoots; (c) C3S News; (d) Green Tea
As anyone familiar with C3S and YMC3S will know the answer (b) Bamboo Shoots!
Which country became the first G-7 country to endorse the Belt and Road Initiative in March 2019?
(a) USA; (b) United Kingdom; (c) Italy; (d) France
Correct answer: (c) Italy
Name the Chinese leader in the photograph:
(a) Wang Qishan, Vice President, People’s Republic of China; (b) Li Keqiang, Prime Minister, People’s Republic of China; (c) Liu He, Vice Premier, People’s Republic of China; (d) Zhong Shan, Commerce Minister, People’s Republic of China
The correct answer being (c) Liu He, Vice Premier, People’s Republic of China.
The Chinese, in 240 B.C. first sighted a celestial body. What was it?
(a) Halley’s Comet; (b) Crab Nebula; (c) Dragon Nebula; (d) Jupiter
Correct answer: (a) Halley’s Comet
What was the name the only Empress of China?
(a) Wu Ze Tian; (b) Jiang Qing; (c) Jin Xing; (d) Song Qing Ling
Correct answer being Wu Ze Tian mentioned in the second C3S Issue Map – “Politics & Feminism in China: Will Women Hold Up Half the Sky.” Her story makes an interesting excerpt from the graphic novel Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by French illustrator Pénélope Bagieu.
The highest score in the prelims was 23 correct answers, and it was scored by the team from MCC’s Department of Economics consisting of John Samuel, George Jimmy and Tanmay Mathews. Five teams were selected for the Imperium C3S China Quiz Finals. In addition to the top-scoring MCC Economics Department team and the first mentioned Quiz Finals winners, the other finalists were Stella Maris College’s Department of International Studies’ Abigail Fernandez, Oviya A.J. and Anju Mammen; MCC’s team from the departments of Mathematics and Philosophy, Ashwin Anu Abraham, Joel Sleeba, Jacob J. Puthenveettil.
It’s interesting to note that both the winning teams had repeat winners. The first prize winning team from the Department of History of MCC had placed second last year at the Imperium China Quiz 2018. While Justin Joseph of this year’s second prize winning team had was part of the winning team in the first C3S China Quiz held at Stella Maris College in September 2016 from IIT Madras’ Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
The Imperium C3S Quiz finals consisted of six rounds of questions including two buzzer rounds. The buzzers were made by the students of MCC. In the non-buzzer rounds options were provided at the request of the team to which the question was put for half the points on offer. At the end of each round there was an audience question.
Three students, two from MCC and one from Stella Maris College, won the special audience prizes consisting of C3S publications and Aavin chocolates as well as merit certificates. The 15 finalists also received merit certificates. All quiz participants were given participation certificates as well as a year’s membership in YMC3S free.
Following are some of the questions that were asked during the Quiz finals to team and the audience:
Name the Chinese spacecraft that landed on the moon in January 2019: Answer: Chang’e 4
Where was the 10th BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) summit held? In Johannesburg, South Africa
Which date is commemorated as Tibet Uprising Day? The day before the start of Imperium 2019 – 10 March – 1959
True or False: Tu Youyou won the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her work on Tuberculosis [False, it was for her work on Malaria, though she was a survivor of TB.]
The two buzzer round with bonus points at stake and negative points were make or break and very exciting. The last true or false buzzer round perhaps made for most excitement and a sweepstake of points though the team from MCC’s Department of History led throughout the finals.
Final scores had the MCC History team with 85 points, the IIT Madras team with 55 points, the prelims top scorers from MCC’s Economics department with 50 points, the MCC Math and Philosophy team at 25 points while the team from Stella Maris had 20 points.
Another successful collaboration for the infotainment of college students thanks to the phenomenal efforts of the Imperium team, especially Assistant Professor Dr. Ashik Bonofer, the student coordinators N. Kirubakar and Unnamalai and other Imperium 2019 volunteers, the faculty and especially the HOD Dr. K. Palani of the Political Science department, along with the continued support of C3S director Vasan sir and the members of C3S.
(Compiled by Raakhee Suryaprakash, Associate Member, C3S)
