2020 “Beautiful China – The Love Journey” Essay Contest’s results had been announced! 39 contestants from all over Malaysia succeeded in standing out as winners with their warm, moving and inspiring prose. 

2020 “Beautiful China – The Love Journey” Essay Contest was organised by the China Cultural Centre in Kuala Lumpur (CCCKL), with close co-operation from Malaysia-China Culture & Arts Association. Xinzhi books store was the designated bookstore whereas the United Chinese School Committees’ Association of Malaysia (Dong Zong), United Chinese School Teachers’ Association of Malaysia (Jiao Zong) and Malaysian Young Graduates Association and Further Study Intelligence were responsible for the publicity work. 

“Beautiful China” essay contest was also one of the annual competitions of China Cultural Centre. It was held the second time this year. Submission of drafts began in early June until its deadline on August 31. It was open to all Malaysian citizens or permanent residents with the composition of three groups, i.e. primary school, secondary school and the public groups.

The theme of “The Love Journey” essay contest aimed to encourage everyone (all contestants) narrate authentic touching stories, frame common memories and condense emotional strength through literary creation. This would furnish both today and future readers with confidence, courage and enlightenment. It also enables readers to see all corners of the world in different languages and cultural backgrounds about richness in and beauty of life amidst the severe test of the pandemic scourge.

The organisers stated that the event received enthusiastic responses with almost 800 entries from competitors across Malaysia. The organizers also invited specifically eight luminaries such as writers, scholars, newspaper editors, drama workers and faculty members to serve as judges. They were Lee Soo Ean, Looi Chun Miin and Lee Huon Tee for the primary school group; Tey Shi Bin and Chang Pou Yun for the middle school students and public groups and public groups Ng Yean Leng, Chai Siaw Ling and Chee Fang Keng for the public group in order to ensure the competition to be fair and just. 

The jury remarked that despite being smacked under the pall of the pandemic with peoples’ mind inevitably unhinged, what was precious was that participants recorded the actual events of the pandemic period through words and writings. Some participants also commendable broke away by writing differently from the pandemic framework. Touching stories with emotional sincerity, lively ideas, creative themes and using different perspectives to disseminate positive energy to readers were worthy of encouragement. 

This tournament came with rich awards as the organizers not only prepared cash prizes but also collaborated with Xinzhi Books to provide nearly RM100-million worth of book coupons as rewards to winners and to enhance the culture of reading. Moreover, award-winning works would be compiled into books to serve the readers. Winners could check their emails and pay attention to award notification letters. 

Click on “winning articles” immediately, let’s together partake outstanding award-winning works of  2020 “Beautiful China – The Love Journey” Essay Contest!

Judges of Primary School Group:Lee Soo Ean, Looi Chun Miin, Lee Huon Tee. 

Among 32 shortlisted entries, more than half of 20 articles were themed on Coronavirus pandemic, while the remaining 12 were mostly about parents’ love and warmth of family. A couple of them narrated on neighborhood friends and cordial relations. Some works were extensively trite whilst the others came in complicated plots with ups and downs. There were works which were true and sincere while some were lacking in warmth. Some works depicted delicately exquisite emotions and were simple and unpretentious in essence. 

Coronavirus-related works revolved around respects towards medical personnel, nurses, guards, meal couriers and the likes. Most were written and recorded as spectators while others displayed vivid images and endowed their works with the flow of inner emotions. Among them, “Sunny Jasmine” was far more superb, stripped off its straightforward narrative coat, it cleverly used the conceptual narrative of film splits closely interlocking with one another which won unanimous praise from the three judges. Frame after frame, with jasmine flowers running throughout, it was extremely appealing and heart-tugging. 

Overall, the expressed text works hovered between medium to upper-middle levels. Every work has its own value and merits that could be tapped. Their contents were basically true, with sincere emotions both natural and not contrived.

Judges of the Middle School Group: Tey Shi Bin, Chang Pou Yun

From the articles received, they could be roughly divided into two major categories: one category was described on the pandemic, whilst the other narrated family love. Irrespective of the type of articles, the imperative was about having to return back to oneself. Proses aimed to be truthful and were imbued with sincere feelings/emotions. Fellow students could sense more the details in life, portray the details that best express their themes through the increased description of life anecdotes thereby bringing out their own feelings. They should refrain from being detached from the plot with an excessive focus on the description of feelings or adopted excerpts of news-style rolling reports in order not to weaken the appeal of their articles and thereby rendering the reader unmoved in their process of reading.

In addition, an author also ought to learn to set a good topic for the article, including finding a creative, novel theme or perspective to start the writing. Students should also pay attention to the use of punctuations and prepositions “de, dé, de” because any use of the wrong words would greatly affect the sense of fluency in reading.

Judges of the open group: Ng Yean Leng, Chai Siaw Ling, Chee Fang Keng

Most of the articles revolved around the happenings during the outbreak of the pandemic and implementation of Malaysia’s Movement Control Order. These could be about buying masks in supermarkets, attending online classes at home, difficulties in interstate crossing, the hardships of front-line personnel and the likes. They could also be about allowing relatives who had long been separated to get together for some time. At its least, it could bring changes to the relationship between people. At its best, it might affect changes in the way people look at the world. The most valuable thing from this round of competition works lies in the fact that they truly leave behind a real record of this period of a magical time. 

However, the ability to stand out from the many articles in the contest means that one’s work should not be just about some “record”. It should demonstrate the author’s profound understanding or unique observation. Amongst the top winners’ works which stood out this time from the many articles written on the pandemic, their fluent writing together with deft handling rendered them easy reading akin to waltzing clouds and flowing water. The ability to bring out Malaysia’s own geographical environment and condition to the fore also further affirmed their noteworthy performances.