A report by Fred Sengers:
For ten years now, Ed Sander and Fred Sengers have been the compilers and presenters of the Great China Knowledge Quiz that the Leiden Asia Center organizes around Chinese New Year. With many participants from the national government and science, the quiz has a bit of a Randstad character.
“That gave the South chapter of the Vereniging Nederland China VNC the idea to organize their own pub quiz, but with the same quiz duo as anchor point. The organization has succeeded in attracting participants from both the Chinese and the Dutch community, with an emphasis on business and a little from higher education.
Bull’s eye
For many Chinese, the concept of a pub quiz is unknown, but it is also a bull’s eye for them. It doesn’t take long before everyone is cheering and cheering when the correct answers are announced to tough questions, such as what the special ingredient of the wine in the film Red Sorghum was or the name of the main character in the novels of Robert van Gulik.
After three rounds, the scores are still close together and even the team with the lowest number of points can theoretically still come first. But three teams pull a knowledge sprint in the last two rounds and create a gap with the competition.
Gold medal
The first prize – a dinner voucher from restaurant Yangguofu in Eindhoven and shiny medals – go to team Het Verre Oost, consisting of Sherry Gong, Floor Perquin, Louis Winnubst, Walter Velthuis and Chi Lau. With 39 points, they stayed ahead of the competition of the Silk Road Scholars (35 points) and Brabant Tigers (34 points).
For the team in second place, there were copies of West meets East by Peter Gill. A great prize, if it weren’t for the fact that Gill and his colleagues won the second prize themselves. Fortunately, there was enough interest in his book from others in the room. The team that finished third received a Van Gogh card set from the Noordbrabantsmuseum. And host stadium De Vliert offered a consolation prize consisting of FC Den Bosch scarves, which was won by team Zuì fengkuáng de.