Want Want Group's Tsai Shao-chung delivers a speech at the 2023 Want Want Filial Piety Song-writing and Short Film Competition in Shanghai on October 23, 2023. Photo: Feng Yu/GT

The awards ceremony for the 2023 Want Want Filial Piety Songwriting and Short Film Competition was held on Monday in Shanghai to promote China's traditional culture of respecting and caring for the elderly. A total of 178 awards were presented for the best songs and selected short films, with total prize money of 1.45 million yuan ($198,360).

October 23 coincides with the traditional Chongyang Festival, or the Double Ninth Festival with a theme of respect and care for the elderly, which falls on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese lunar calendar. Nine means longevity in Chinese culture.

This is the third filial piety-themed award the Want Want Group has organized. The group was founded in 1962 in Taiwan, and was formerly known as I Lan Foods Industrial Co. After years of development, the group now has a presence in 60 countries and regions in Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania and Europe. In addition to food and beverages, the group is also involved in the media, insurance, elderly care and other industries.

This year's filial piety competition received strong support from more than 70 mainstream media and social organizations in the global Chinese community. The organizers specially invited musicians, music critics and celebrities from related fields from both sides of the Taiwan Straits to form the jury, and invited Jam Hsiao to serve as the honorary chairman of the jury, the group told the media.

At the ceremony, political and business dignitaries from both sides of the Taiwan Straits gathered together, and among them were Tsai Eng-meng, chairman of Want Want Group, and Li Yafei, vice president of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits, together with more than 300 guests from 21 provinces and cities in the Chinese mainland, Taiwan island, the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions, and Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and the US, demonstrating the influence of filial piety culture.

In order to advocate the modern concept of filial piety, develop positive energy in society, and fulfill corporate social responsibilities, Want Want Group held the first and second filial piety awards in 2016 and 2018 to honor the excellent traditional Chinese culture of "filial piety comes first."

The third event takes "Child, do you know what I need?" as the theme, advocating that filial piety is not one-way and encouraging parents or the elderly to have the courage to talk about their needs, and promoting parent-child communication and interaction.