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.

Chinese people are very proud of Chinese food. One important aspect of learning Chinese is to learn about Chinese food. 

During the Chinese New Year, it’s about dumplings and all the auspicious good food. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, it’s about moon cakes and those wonderful seasonal fruits. Right now, it is about zong zi (粽子), as Duan Wu Jie (端午节) is here!

The first Chinese Writing Contest was launched in 2021. It was started as a response to an ongoing prevalent belief among Chinese language learners, teachers and test authorities.

At the time, I did not anticipate the rise of ChatGPT. All of a sudden, this amazing and fascinating AI powered chat bot gives a new meaning and mission to why this Chinese Writing Contest must carry on.

We’re talking about how to write well and earn a place in the coming Easy-to-Read Chinese Short Stories, Book 3.

My understanding of writing well is to write in a way that is simple, engaging and easy to follow. I believe this is the ultimate trait of good writers. Think of Hemingway’s little book, The Old Man and the Sea.

You’ve decided to participate in this year’s Chinese Writing Contest. 

You have found yourself a comfortable place with a nice cup of tea. You have placed a piece of paper in front of you, or a blank computer screen. You’ve reminded yourself that the submission starts on August 1, 2023.

The only thing that is not here is … an idea that you can write about. 

MSL Master Chinese Writing Contest 2023 is receiving submissions on August 1. 

If you’re worried that you have not learned all of the required 320 Chinese characters yet, or how to use them in sentences and paragraphs, these 112 free YouTube videos and more are here to help.

Hey fellow Chinese language learners! It's that time of the year. Time to show off your creativities and Chinese writing skills with 320 Chinese characters.

Get ready for Chinese Writing Contest 2023! It's bragging time! 😀

In this contest, depth is valued more than quickness, ingenuity more than vitality, and creativity more than erudition.  

One bizarre thing happened last month after Hong Kong DSE (Diploma of Secondary Education) English exam, which used some excerpts from the former US First Lady Michelle Obama’s memoir Becoming in one reading section.

After the exam, many students went on to Michelle Obama’s social media account and left unseemly comments, blaming her for the exam being too difficult and for their own failures.

May 4th 2023 is coming. 

It’s time to commemorate the May Fourth Movement that happened on May 4th, 1919, and revisit the irrevocable changes happened to China and the Chinese language.

April 22, 2023, is the third day of the third month in Chinese lunar calendar. 1670 years ago, on the same day, i.e. the third day of the third month in 353CE, a great calligrapher, and also a great poet, composed and wrote a poem in the semi-cursive script. 

This writing eventually became the most well known masterpiece of brush calligraphy in Chinese history. And it is this masterpiece that appears on the covers of all Chinese Reading and Writing series.

Despite harsh penalties, cheating has never been stamped out in schools. The advent of ChatGPT, or generative AI in general that is widely available, is making the situation worse. 

Before ChatGPT, the following ways are considered cheating: students pay someone to write papers for them; they copy papers from other students; they plagiarise sections from other sources; they present translated materials from a foreign language as their own; they describe ideas of others as their own; they do not give proper credit to others.

I’m not a bar person, but I regularly visit a nearby bar on Tuesday evenings. It is because that night is the jam night. Each musician gets to choose two songs to play or to sing. Other musicians will go along with these choices and stage a performance. The sounds of keyboard, guitars, bass, drums, vocals, and sometimes a saxophone, are fused together and exemplified by loud speakers.

Although I am always a spectator, I find the whole experience fascinating.