INTERNATIONAL students will participate in the second season of “Chinese Characters Dictation Competition,” a China Central Television program that will begin airing this Sunday.

    The program invites primary, middle and high school students nationwide to compete in writing Chinese characters after listening to the words’ pronunciation. Chinese language experts are judges, while cultural scholars evaluate performances.

    The program, which will air at 8 p.m. on CCTV-1 on Sunday, began inviting international students this year. Students from Britain, the United States, Germany, South Korea and North Korea, will attend the TV contest. All contestants were selected from 12 million students after five months of preliminary contests.

    The first season, which premiered Aug. 2 last year, received wide acclaim since it reminded many people of how many characters they’ve forgotten in the digital era.

    Guan Zhengwen, director of the show, said the program is designed to promote Chinese culture.(Cao Zhen)