The Water Cube Cup singing competition, a national-level cultural brand of overseas Chinese affairs, has been integrated into the “Cultural China” system of the State Council’s Overseas Chinese Affairs Office since 2017. The competition has run successfully for ten consecutive years, attracting over 30,000 participants from more than 30 countries comprising 50 competition regions. The Water Cube Cup has become one of the most important musical and cultural events in the global Chinese community and continues to attract thousands of participants. The Chinatown Foundation has organized the competition in Mauritius for 3 consecutive years – 2020, 2021 and 2022, bringing together the best talent to compete on the international platform. The Foundation has also been among the top 10 organizers for two consecutive years.
This year, the 4th edition was held on Saturday May 20, 2023 at the Paul Octave Wiehe a Réduit auditorium to great fanfare. Present at the contest were His Excellency Eddy Boissezon, Vice-President of the Republic of Mauritius, His Excellency Liying Zhu, Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China in Mauritius, Honorable Muhammad Ismaël Rawoo, Secrétaire Parlementaire Privee, Honorable Sandra Mayotte, Member of the National Assembly and Ambassador of the Chinatown Foundation, Mrs. Xin Hong Zhang, Cultural Counsellor of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Mauritius and Director of the Chinese Cultural Centre in Mauritius among others. This year’s competition was more spectacular, with more extraordinary talent coming to the fore, and with a new prize presented by the Chinatown Foundation – the Best Costume Award. This prize gave the finalists even more motivation, as they all prepared well and dressed very creatively. The crowd was very enthusiastic and on hand to cheer on the participants.
The participants gave their all during the final and were given high marks by the jury. But some went above and beyond the call of duty and stood out from the other finalists. In the youth category, Jiyi Jiang took third prize, followed by Wendy Yue Nam Yoong with second prize and Leanne Jane How who won first prize and also the Most Promising Singer among young people award. In the foreign friends category, two awards were presented, second prize to Davsankar Panray Busawon and first prize to Teeleswarsingh Oochit, who was also named Most Promising Singer in this category. For the adult category, Andy lin was awarded third place as well as being named Most Promising Singer – Adult, followed by Jin Yun Zeng in second place and Katerina Petrova in first place. Rosemay Wong in the Adult category was awarded Best Costume.
The winners of the 3 categories will try their luck at the global semi-finals, which will take place online between June 25 and July 4, 2023, and will face the winners from countries around the world.
Youth category:
- 1st Prize: Leanne Jane How
- 2nd Prize: Wendy Yue Nam Yoong
- 3rd Prize: Jiyi Jiang
Adult category:
- 1st Prize: Katerina Petrova
- 2nd Prize: Jin Yun Zeng
- 3rd Prize: Andy Lin
Non-Chinese category:
- 1st Prize: Teeleswarsingh Oochit
- 2nd Prize: Davsankar Panray Busawon
Most Promising Singer:
- Youth: Leanne Jane How
- Adult: Andy Lin
- Non-Chinese: Teeleswarsingh Oochit
