The 4th Japanese Composition Contest for Chinese People is Closed in Our University

On December 6, the Prize Award Ceremony of the 4th Japanese Composition Contest for Chinese people was held grandly in our university. Six prizes were awarded in all, including Excellence Prize, First Prize, Second Prize, Third Prize, Tutor Prize and Sasakawa Yohei Prize. We’ve made outstanding achievements in that 5 out of 24 prize-winners are from our university. Among the 5 winners, Ma Xiaoxiao and Xiao Fengchao have respectively won First Prize and Third Prize (Student Group), Zou Juyun and KAWAMINAMI MASARU (a native Japanese speaker), are rewarded Tutor Prize, and our young teacher Zhang Tonghe has won Excellence Prize (Community Group). In addition, Excellence Prize (Student Group) goes to Xu Bei from Peking University. It is reported that Excellence Prize winners will be received by the Embassy of Japan in China and will begin their one-week visit to Japan.

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of signing of the China-Japan Peace and Friendship Treaty and the 30th anniversary of the introduction of the reform and opening-up policy in China, sponsored by Research Institute of Japan-China Exchanges subordinated to Journal of Chinese in Japan, supported by Embassy of Japan in China as well as People’s Daily Online established under People’s Daily, etc. and subsidized by the Nippon Foundation, the 4th Japanese Composition Contest for Chinese people kicked off in this March as one of the appointed projects in the 2008 China-Japan Youth Exchange Year. This contest attracted 1,197 works from the Papers Department and 625 works from the Records Department, and contestants from 28 provinces, cities and autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government, such as Zhejiang, Shanghai and Hei Longjiang, etc. The contest involved an unprecedentedly wide range of regions and universities compared with the previous sessions.

Presided over by Vice-president Liu Changgeng, the Prize Award Ceremony was held at 1:30pm on December 6 in the Academic Report Hall of Yifu Building, Xiangtan University. As the host of the ceremony, President Luo He’an expressed his thanks to the honored guests present and sent congratulations to the representatives of the prize-winners. As a sponsor member, Mr. Duan Yuezhong, Proprieter of Journal of Chinese in Japan, delivered a report on the contest. Then Minister Michigami Hisashi of the Embassy of Japan in China, Shiranishi Shinichiro, Director General of the Japan-China Association, Ogata Takehisa, Director General of the Nippon Foundation, and other honored guests issued Certifications of Merit to the prize-winners. Also present at the Prize Award Ceremony were Pang Liping, Vice-chairman of the Provincial People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries in Hunan Province, Tao Guangxiong, President of the Network Center of China News Service, Hu Fang, Secretary General of Xiangtan University Alumni Association of Japan, Iyama Masaaki, Special Adviser of Xiangtan University Alumni Association of Japan, Jin Ya, Head of Foreign Affairs Management Division subordinated to Foreign and Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of Hunan Province, Zhou Yanhui, Chairman of Specialty Committee of Japanese Language in Hunan Province and so on. On the same day, Minister Michigami Hisashi delivered a lecture titled “Modern Japanese Culture and the New Japan-China Relationship” in the Academic Conference Hall in our laboratory. His content-rich and vivid lecture with a unique angle of view benefited the audience a great deal. After the ceremony, Mr. Shiranishi Shinichiro and Mr. Ogata Takehisa had a friendly and informal discussion with the representatives of the prize-winners, teachers and students from our Japanese Department. Their scintillating witticisms won the applause of the audience who took an active part in raising questions, and brought the discussion to an end in an exciting atmosphere.

Hosting the Prize Award Ceremony and being a big winner of the Composition Contest not only prove our competence in running the university, and also serve as an indication of out ever-increasing international influence.

International Exchange Center

December 8, 2008