C3S Paper No. 0128/2016
This report may be read in conjunction with the C3S report on the China Quiz (vide Event Report – Chennai Centre for China Studies’, ‘China Quiz’ Competition).
A team from IIT Madras stood first in the China Quiz organised by the Chennai Centre for China Studies (C3S) at Stella Maris College (SMC), Chennai, on September 8 2016.
As a nonprofit public policy think tank, C3S organized the event to spread awareness about China and Indo-China relations, said Commodore (Retd.) R.S. Vasan, Director, C3S.
The quiz which was based on the history, society, culture and foreign policy of China saw participation from 26 teams.
“This is probably the first initiative in Chennai to make students aware about China and help them gain basic knowledge of the country,” said Ashwin, member of the winning team.
One of the questions which left the teams baffled was, “Which empire was the inspiration behind the Shaolin martial art?” The answer was the Chola Empire of South India.
“Events like these probably give us more knowledge than our daily lectures,” said Susan, an International Relations student at SMC.
Aarti Santhanam, the Head of Department, International Studies, said, “We weren’t expecting such an overwhelming response since the topic was limited only to one country.”
Raakhee Suryaprakash, the Quizmaster and Associate Member, C3S, said, “The teams here did really well. Out of the 30 questions in the prelims, around 10 teams answered over 15 correctly.”
She said, “This shows that there is an interest amongst students regarding Chinese Studies and that such a field of study has a scope in our country.”
The three members winning team from IIT was awarded a cash prize of Rs.15, 000. They were followed by two teams from the SMC at the second and third place which won prize money of Rs 10, 000 and Rs. 5,000, respectively.
(Annu Kaushik is a student of Asian College of Journalism, Chennai)
