Learning Chinese increasingly popular in US

"Good evening, everyone. It's a great pleasure for me to join you here to enjoy this traditional Chinese cultural feast," Charlie Hoffs, a Stanford University freshman, said in fluent Chinese when speaking at a Confucius Institute Day celebration here this weekend.

More than 600 people from state and local schools in the San Francisco area, as well as Confucius classrooms and teaching sites across northern California, enjoyed the event's Chinese cultural performances, which included the dance Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger, a group performance of A Moonlit Night on the Spring River and the duet The Moon is High in the Sky.

Earning rounds of applause, the performance - which was held at the McKenna Theater at San Francisco State University to celebrate the annual Global Confucius Institute Day－was co-hosted by Hoffs and Kaylee Doty, a senior at the Confucius Classroom of Western Sierra Collegiate Academy in Sacramento.

The two women from the US defeated 106 teams from 96 countries, to become the international victors of the 2017 Chinese Bridge International Language Competition. In an interview with Xinhua News Agency, the pair said their passion and perseverance in learning the Chinese language helped them stand out.

Hoffs, who chose Jiang Mingxi as her Chinese name, said she became fascinated by the language eight years ago.