Words that changed the world

• Source: Global Times
• [09:55 August 26 2010]
• Comments

By Huang Xi

It was the major writing prize for students: the New Concept Writing Contest, organized by the Shanghai-based literature magazine Mengya (a plant's sprout in English) and sponsored by some of the leading universities of the country, including Peking University, Fudan University, Nanjing University and Nankai University. It started in 1998 and in the early years the prizewinners became famous and nationally recognized. It was a springboard for many fine writers.

The contest reformed the stereotypical writing styles of school composition. Students could create new worlds far away from school regimens and regulations.

But in recent years, readers and some experts are suggesting that the newer contestants lack creativity and authority. This is even though the number of would-be writers has soared from 5,000 in the competition's first year to 70,000 this year with young literary enthusiasts from Hong Kong and Macao queuing to join in.

Fang Fang, a famous writer who has been a competition judge since 1998, said frankly: "The new stories are worse than ever before. The writers' lack of life experience, rather than talent, is causing the bottleneck."

Li Qigang, the secretary-general of the organizing committee of the contest, does not agree. "I think the overall level of writing is rising every year but no stars have been found among the newer contestants, which leads the public to think that the quality of stories is declining."

Li believes that the standard and the methodology of the contest is the key to the competition's success over 12 years. The first round of the selection process takes six months from May to November as the judges assess all the entries. "Editors from Mengya, professors and writers read the stories and with their expertise they are looking for the writers of the future," Li said.

Between 300 and 500 finalists are chosen and move on to the second round of the competition, where they have three hours to write a piece on a set topic. Last year's subject was "To the Platform."

"I believe this section is more difficult than those in the college entrance examination," he said.

The controversy about the standard of the competition has ironically occurred on websites where netizens on tianya.cn or kaixin001.com, recalled the early days of the prize.

"The stories written in those times reflected our mood - we were all confused about what was going on and what would happen - and the stories also reminded us of our old friends," said the netizen anjing0213 on tianya. com.