On April 10, the 16th "21st Century Cup" National English Speech Contest came to a close in Shenzhen. The annual competition is jointly sponsored by the China Daily and the Executive Board of the Universiade and organized by the English language newspaper 21st Century. Among those honored at the award ceremony this year was XJTU graduate student Gao Yixing, a member of class 71 of the School of Electronic &Information Engineering. He was awarded second prize, and his coach, Chang Hong, received the prize given to outstanding faculty advisors.

This year's competition began in June of 2010. After a series of elimination rounds, sixty-two (62) contestants reached the finals. Among those serving as judges for the contest were representatives from the English-Speaking Union, the ETS (Educational Testing Service), the BBC, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stationed embassy, the China Daily and major universities.