Chongqing- The award ceremony of the 6th Bauhinia Cup Cross-Strait, Hong Kong, and Macau Youth Painting and Calligraphy Competition (Chongqing Division) was held at Chongqing Renmin Primary School on October 30th.
Representatives from the children’s primary and middle school age groups were present at the ceremony to receive the first prize awards. The competition also featured awards for the highest online popularity, exceptional instructors, excellent organizational units, and the Charity Contribution Award.
Qi Gang, chairman of the Chongqing Calligraphers Association, famous painter Fang Fengfu, renowned poet Fu Tianlin, and top cross-talk actor Qiu Xiaobao were in attendance to present awards to the competition winners.
Headteacher of Chongqing People's Elementary School Mrs. Yang Langlang addresses the Chongqing awards ceremony of the 6th Bauhinia Cup.
Following the ceremony, they lavished praise on the calligraphy and painting competition for the grand scale, influence, and far reach of activities. Additionally, they expressed their sincere hope that the Bauhinia Cup will be held again shortly.
Huang Huanran is a 4-year-old student from the Boya Primary School Kindergarten in the Liangjiang New District of Chongqing, who became the youngest winner in the competition this year. When his turn came, he bounded onto the stage to accept the award and waved both hands to the audience’s delight.
Although young Mr. Huang appeared slightly bemused at the situation, he kept smiling as everyone offered their warm applause. ‘I’m really happy to win a prize,’ he responded.
Luo Yuan from Chongqing No.29 Middle School won first prize in brush calligraphy for her age group. She was born in a family with a strong cultural atmosphere, as her grandfather is a calligrapher, her grandmother loves to write poetry, and her mother is a teacher.
Competition winners received certificates and awards from instructors on stage.
Unsurprisingly, Luo Yuan has been fond of calligraphy since he was a small child and has already studied this art form for 8 years.
Luo Yuan described how learning calligraphy could strengthen knowledge of aesthetics whilst fostering patience and endurance. ‘Chinese culture has been passed down for thousands of years and possesses an endless charm that flows through our veins. I think it’s really important to learn and inherit our traditional culture.’
Organizers of the Bauhinia Cup arranged a great variety of meaningful activities for students. They invited the famous calligraphy and painting artists Fang Fengfu, Li Zhonghua, and Qian Kun to interact and share their knowledge and skills in person.
In addition, Lu Xun Literature Prize winner Fu Tianlin and the young Sichuanese opera performer Zhou Xingyu shared the traditional culture of poetry and drama with the students.
Top Chinese cross-talk actor and inheritor take an interview at the awards ceremony.
Jonah Kay Wood, a well-known Canadian writer, and author of The Invisible War, also participated by reciting a poem in tribute to renowned Chinese grape painter Fang Fengfu. The voluntary participation of these distinguished guests added great color and variety to the event.
In August, the Bauhinia Cup held five successive gatherings at Nanshan Botanical Gardens, Anju Ancient Town, and the Bamboo Expo Gardens in Liangping. On these occasions, local students took part in activities that included poetry recitals, calligraphy, painting, and landscape admiration, which helped instill the philosophy that art originates from real life and gives them the chance to discover the beauty of culture and nature.
During the event, a series of gifts were prepared to be sent to young Hong Kong people and Macau to strengthen friendship with children on the mainland. Nanshan Botanical Gardens prepared gifts of lotus and bauhinia seeds. Anju Ancient Town made special nostalgia postcards as an invitation, and Liangping Bamboo Expo Gardens presented bamboo curtain calligraphy.
As the event progressed, many thousands of teachers contributed time from their summer holidays to explain poetry, savor calligraphy, and admire paintings with the children under the sweltering heat. Together, they felt the deep charm of traditional culture through ink, pens, and brush strokes.
Young performers take the stage to display traditional Chinese dance.
The preliminary round of judging was officially launched on August 26th. A total of 3240 works of brush calligraphy, Chinese and Western paintings created by children across all three age groups in 12 Chongqing competition areas were entered into the finals.
Shangyou News set up an online platform through its official mobile application to vote for their favorite works during this time. Beginning September 24th, 557,654 netizens produced over 14,496,936 likes for entries in the competition finals.
Later on October 12th, 540 works from Chongqing were selected for the finals in Hong Kong, where they were judged for gold, silver, bronze, and merit awards together with works from other mainland provinces, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
Winners and artwork from the 6th Bauhinia Cup are on display online.
Qiu Xuan, event organizer and director of the Hong Kong Bauhinia Magazine Chongqing Branch, stated the Bauhinia Cup Cross-Strait, Hong Kong, and Macau Youth Painting and Calligraphy Competition is a cross-regional, cross-cultural, and cross-educational exchange activity that has already been held many times previously.
However, this year has seen the greatest level of participation, organization, variety, and standards that have been achieved to date.
‘I hope that we can vigorously promote and inherit traditional Chinese culture through this event, and enhance cultural exchange between Chongqing, Hong Kong, and Macao so that we can create our future together hand in hand.’