Often called the “Olympics of Chinese,” the Chinese Bridge competition is a premier international event celebrating Chinese language and culture. This year, preliminary rounds began in February with more than 50,000 university students from 141 countries. The global finals ended on Aug. 24 in China with Brigham Young University sophomore Ashley Breinholt standing as one of the top two contestants in the world.

“I was so grateful to have made it to that point,” Breinholt said. “I was competing against an amazing contestant from Germany, and we went back and forth with a lot of difficult trivia questions. She had more experience taking cultural classes. I feel like I displayed my language abilities pretty well. It came down to a little bit of luck in what questions we got.”

Breinholt ultimately placed second in the global finals by the narrowest of margins — just one question in the quick-response round. This marks the highest placement ever achieved by a BYU student in the competition’s 24-year history and only the sixth time an American has placed.

Along with more than 100 million viewers, friends and family cheered Breinholt at every stage of the competition, including her father, who, like Ashley, served a mission to Taiwan for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Breinholt is grateful for her BYU professor, ShuPei Wang, who introduced her to the competition and mentored her in the events, including trivia mastery, guitar and song performances, and formal speeches.

“As Ashley’s faculty mentor, it has been an honor to support her throughout this journey,” said Wang, a professor in Asian and Near Eastern Languages. “Her dedication, talent and perseverance, built on the strong foundation of our program, make us all very proud.”

The Chinese Bridge theme — “One World, One Family” — promotes an atmosphere that refines Chinese language and cultural skills as well as intercultural understanding and empathy.

“The mission of the competition is to unite people and use the Chinese language as a bridge to connect different countries and cultures,” Breinholt said. “In my final speech, I talked about the process of language learning and how that has helped me see similarities between the Chinese culture and myself.”

The top 155 champions from 133 countries traveled to China and spent three weeks in close quarters during the final rounds of the competition. Breinholt roomed in a section that included other competitors from North and South America, an experience she found especially meaningful.

“The most valuable thing that I learned was the beauty of having so many different cultures and perspectives and people from all over the world come together and have unique conversations about cultural differences and similarities,” Breinholt said.

In addition to the rich intercultural exchange, Breinholt found the competition experience personally rewarding as she rose to the top round in a marathon-style contest of language, history, culture and performance.

“Participating in the competition itself really increased my confidence in the language and helped me understand that with the right help, you can do difficult things, perform and succeed,” Breinholt said.

In recognition of her achievement at this world-class event, Breinholt has been awarded a scholarship to pursue further studies at top universities in China, including Peking University. For now, she continues her studies in Chinese and neuroscience at BYU, but she’s keeping the door open for future study in China.