Five students from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) took home prizes at the 7th City Literary Award at a presentation ceremony on 8 May. This year’s competition received an overwhelming response with 675 entries, of which 614 were from Hong Kong and the rest from Macau.

“Literary imagination is important to society,” said Professor Cheng Pei-kai, a member of CityU’s Culture and Sports Committee and Director of the Chinese Civilisation Centre at CityU, at the ceremony. “The governments of mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau put great value on creativity. Real creativity comes from imagination without boundaries, and creating something original. The City Literary Award encourages young writers to pursue their literary dreams and helps society by developing the imagination,” he added.

Under the theme “Engaging Nature”, this year’s competition encouraged young writers to express their feelings and thoughts about our natural surroundings. There were four categories in the competition—prose, short story, poetry, and art and cultural criticism. In the prose category, the 1st runner-up went to Zhuo Yue, a Year 1 student in CityU’s School of Creative Media, and the merit award to Du Lingxuan, a Year 1 student in the Department of Economics and Finance. In the short story category, Shi Lin, a PhD student in the Department of Management, was the 1st runner-up, and He Rui, a Year 2 student in the Department of Accountancy, got the merit award. Zhou Wanjing, a Year 2 student in the School of Creative Media, was named the 2nd runner-up in the category of art and cultural criticism.

The City Literary Award was one of the major events at this year’s City Literary Festival. Renowned writers from the mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan took part in various activities during the festival, including the opening ceremony cum seminar, an exchange session for small groups, the seminar “Dialogue with Writers” jointly organised with the Education Bureau, and a seminar on new poetry.