There will be winners in this year’s Chinese Writing Contest. And for anyone whose writing is included in the Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 3, he or she is a winner. But not all participants’ submissions will be included in the book. That means, someone’s work will be rejected. 

As the contest is closed, it is fitting to talk a little bit about handling rejection.

Chinese Writing Contest 2023 was closed on Sep 16. A total of 23 entries were received.

These aspiring writers are from Trinidad and Tobago, South Korea, Switzerland, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, France, New Zealand, the United States, and China. Thank you all for participating!

This year’s Zhong Qiu Jie (中秋节), Mid-Autumn festival, is just around the corner, Sep 29th to be precise, and it is a time for Chinese learners around the world to take a break in their regular study routines and to enjoy some of the festivities. 

Let’s remind ourselves that learning Chinese is also about gaining insights into Chinese cultural practices and about participating in the cultural activities. And you don’t have to be in China to enjoy Mid-Autumn festival.

So, what is it like to write with only 320 Chinese characters?

Below are the replies that I received from some of this year’s participants. 

September 12th, 2023 is Qian Xuantong (钱玄同)’s 136th birthday. 

In 1923, when he was 36 years old, he proposed to simplify Chinese characters, which was the first step to his ultimate goal of making Chinese into a phonetic writing system. He wanted to abolish the Chinese characters.

September 16, the closing date for Chinese Writing Contest 2023, is coming soon.

Don’t miss it!

And remember, it’s in Hong Kong time (GMT + 8) 🤞

At one point, all writers have to do is to sit there and struggle.

The first time I heard this line was from a musician who was talking about his process of writing music. I thought, wow, that was commitment. The truth is that this level of commitment is equally required for writers who write with words. 

As Sep 16, the closing date for Chinese Writing Contest 2023, is approaching, it’s worth reminding all aspiring Chinese language writers that, sooner or later, all you need to do is to sit there and struggle.

It’s time for a beautiful folklore to be told again for anyone who is interested in learning Chinese and learning about Chinese culture, as the seventh day of the seventh month is coming. It is August 22 this year. 

On this day, two lovers will meet on Queqiao (鹊桥), the Magpie Bridge, to celebrate their eternal love for each other.

In 1872, German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche was invited to give a series of public speeches on education reforms. 

During these speeches, he said there were two truly antagonistic educational institutions in Germany: one was for real education, and the second one was for livelihood. And all education organisations belonged to the second category.

I hope this is not too confusing.

Last week, I received a memo from the office building management office that the name of the office building was going to change.

The following post is from Mischa, who has achieved remarkable success primarily through self-study. As a dedicated learner, he is always giving 100 percent of his effort. And he helps others wherever he can.

Chinese Writing Contest 2023 will be receiving submissions on August 1. It’s only a few days away!

Get your writing ready for the big day and use this simple checklist to make sure that your submission stands a chance to get qualified.

Last time I wrote about using 4C to improve your story telling skills. Today we zero in on the fourth C — “Characters”, meaning that your characters need to be alive and convincing. 

There are many ways to do this. As mentioned in the last post, action is one of them. However, your character’s action can not be random. Although it is you who create that character, you can not ask him or her to behave in a way that is not in-line with his or her personality traits, social background, economic strength, personal experiences, and so on. 

The majority of submissions during the previous Chinese Writing Contests were short stories. While some were exceptionally good, there were stories that really confused me. This year I hope to receive more of the former, none of the latter.

This is the reason that we’re going to talk a little bit about the 4C in story telling. I’ll use some successful entries from 2022 to illustrate.

Use “ “” ”, not “「」”.

Use “ 。”, not “.”.

As the opening day for Chinese Writing Contest 2023 is less than 30 days away, I’d like to remind all participants to pay attention to Chinese punctuation marks in their writings.