Traditional Vietnamese dance, a South Korean group dance, songs from other countries - these were just a few of the performances going on during the finals of the 7th Laowai Idol competition at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing on Thursday evening.

About 120 students from 50 countries and regions, studying at 12 Beijing universities, including Renmin University of China, Beijing Foreign Studies University and Minzu University of China, participated in the preliminary competition.

Thirty students made it to the finals.

Liu Yang, a teacher in charge of international student affairs at UIBE, said the event offers a platform for international students to show off their talents.

"We have more than 3,000 international students on campus and we have been trying to make their campus life colorful and interesting," Liu said.

Ji Hoon Kim, chairman of UIBE's international student union, who has twice helped organize the event, said an increasing number of students are joining the competition with more diverse talent.

"Apart from singing and dancing, we also saw other performances, such as drama and magic, in the preliminaries. People are really versatile," said Kim, who also studies international trade.

(China Daily 05/06/2016 page5)