Awards honor students throughout China who create excellent products in many categories including a first for this year - technology

Budding journalists showcased their passion and talent for high-quality journalism, winning recognition in this year's sixth edition of the Campus Newspaper Awards.

The Campus Newspaper Awards, launched by China Daily Hong Kong Edition in 2012, is the only campus journalism competition in the region, attracting contestants from Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland.

The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) team was again commended for its excellence, bagging prizes in nearly two-thirds of the 30 categories of honors at the prize presentation ceremony on Oct 20.

The CUHK's student-run magazine Varsity won awards in 18 categories, including a clean sweep of all the prizes in the English categories for News Reporting, News Writing, Campus News Reporting, Overall Design, as well as this year's newly established prize, Tech News Reporting.

The new awards, in both the English and Chinese categories, are aimed at encouraging students to pay closer attention to the latest tech and innovation trends, and assess the problems the trends bring to society.

Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou grabbed three awards for Best in News Writing, Best in Feature Writing and Best in Business News Reporting in the Chinese categories.

Its student-run Cuckoonews ran a 5,000-word report on the miserable story of an alcoholic, detailing how he had ruined his life by drinking and how he kicked his bad habits after joining a mutual aid association. The article won the golden prize in Best in News Writing (Chinese).

Four entries from the Communication University of China in Beijing won "students' choice" awards in the Chinese categories - Best in News Page Design, Best in News Photo and Best in Feature Photo - selected through online voting.

Passionate explorers

Zhou Li, editorial board member of China Daily Group and publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily Asia Pacific, praised the winners for their "acute observation of social issues, firm pursuit of news professionalism and passionate exploration of technology and science".

Zhou said he was glad to see that students had applied what they learned at school to the practice of reporting on social affairs. Their participation in the Campus Newspaper Awards creates opportunities for them to learn from one another and makes them better prepared for their future careers, he said.

Zhou said China Daily Asia Pacific will continue to organize the annual competition as a platform for communication and exchange among college students interested in the media in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and the mainland.

Students from 28 universities competed for awards in 30 categories this year. The 604 submissions were evaluated by a panel of 70 judges, comprising academics, veteran journalists, political leaders and business elite. A total of 90 entries won prizes.

Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, Chairman of the House Committee of the Legislative Council Starry Lee Wai-king, Secretary for Education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung and MTR Corporation Chairman Frederick Ma Si-hang attended the ceremony as guests of honor.

Speaking at the ceremony, Cheung shared his working experience in the government with the media. In his early years, Cheung joined the Information Services Department of the special administrative region government for seven years and worked as chief editor of Civil Service Newsletter for 12 years. He described himself as a "news enthusiast".

"My day starts with reading newspapers, of course, including China Daily," Cheung recalled, adding that the newspaper's sharp opinion pieces and insights on current issues provide English-language readers first-hand information through multimedia channels.

Cheung said he was much impressed by the prize-winning articles that pay close attention to university education, the challenges faced by students, as well as issues among vulnerable groups in society.

He appreciated the contribution the competition has made in inspiring and nourishing young journalists. He hoped the winners will play a vital role in building a "fair, just, righteous and caring community" in their future careers.

Mastering STEM

Li Wing-yan from the CUHK won the golden prize in the Best in News Reporting category with schoolmates for "The STEM Paradox", which talked about policy advantages and challenges students met in middle school when learning about "STEM" subjects - science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Li said the Hong Kong SAR Government provides favorable policies for schools and encourages them to set up interest clubs on science. However, students who are really into science studies told them the heavy burden of their daily studying keeps them too occupied to be committed to such club activities. She said she hoped this article can serve as a call for action for schools to come up with more measures to nurture students interested in science.

Li - a CUHK graduate who entered the media industry -said the prize gave her great encouragement and inspired her to improve her journalism skills in her career.

Sun Yat-sen University's Wang Yijun, who took part in writing the alcohol abstinence story, said she was honored to win the top prize for Best in News Writing (Chinese).

Wang said they had used various approaches in interviewing people, including online messengers, such as QQ and WeChat, and spent a day at the mutual aid society for alcohol abstinence for face-to-face discussions with the interviewees and to get first-hand experience.

She said the award was a major recognition of their work and has boosted their confidence in exploring further ways of conducting interviews and presenting stories.

Another Best in News Writing prize recipient in the Chinese category is the campus magazine of the University of Macau, NowHere NoWhere, which focuses on serious, death-related topics. Students from the university interviewed a post-1990s makeup artist for bodies from Jilin province to talk about what to prepare for before the makeup and how to mend broken faces.

"We hope more people can get to know this low-profile profession, begin to change their attitude toward death and face reality bravely," said Tia Chou-wai, a former editor of the magazine.

A news video by Huang Wei-han and Chen Yu-ting from Fu Jen Catholic University in Taiwan covered the only baseball team formed by physically disabled people. The story was the second runner-up in Best in News Video Reporting (Chinese).

"I'm deeply touched by the can-do spirit of the team members. Their optimism and resilience impressed me so much," Huang said. He hoped that these role models' inspiring stories can be known by more people through the Campus Newspaper Awards.

Tan Yunming, professor at the School of Culture and Communication of Central University of Finance and Economics and a member of the judging panel, said he was greatly impressed by the young talents for their acute news sense on social issues.

Tan said he hoped the competition could continue to be held every year to inspire more students to widen the angles of their news writing and vary their ways of reporting.

Associate Professor at the Communication University of China Cheng Wensheng was the instructor of the university's students who won the first runner-up for Best in Feature Writing (Chinese).

Cheng said the Campus Newspaper Awards inspired students to learn how other universities and colleges run their publicity and gave them new ideas to improve multimedia reporting.

The event was sponsored and supported by Hong Kong Jockey Club, MTR Corporation Ltd, CLP Power Hong Kong Ltd, the Federation of HK Jiangsu Community Organisations, Hong Kong Disneyland Resort, the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong, Mega Wealth, Fong's Family Foundation, Lan Kwai Fong Group, Cathay Pacific, Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The media partner is Metro Daily.

dara@chinadailyhk.com

Guests and winners of the 2017 Campus Newspaper Awards, organized by China Daily Asia Pacific, pose for a group photo at the awards presentation ceremony at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Roy Liu / China Daily

Left: Chief Secretary for Administration Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, dubbing himself a 'news enthusiast', shares his working experience in the government with the media. Right: Student journalists from the University of Macau present their awards certificates of Best in News Writing (Chinese) and Best in Overall Design (Chinese). Parker Zheng / China Daily

(HK Edition 11/01/2017 page9)