Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers

Event Overview
Organizer
Entry Eligibility
Registration Details
Awards and Certificates

Event Overview

Overview of the Competition:

The 4th Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers is a highly anticipated occasion to celebrate young learners' talent and passion for Chinese writing. It is jointly organized by the International and Bilingual School Educators Association (IBSEA) and the International Bilingual Experts Education Management (IBE) , and is co-organized by more than 70 international schools and renowned educational institutions. In the past three competitions, nearly 300 renowned international schools, international curriculum schools, bilingual schools, and overseas private schools from around the world have participated, with 7,000 registered students and nearly 200 judges. It has developed into a globally influential Chinese competition.

Competition Objectives

The competition is designed to:

1.Enhance the participants' creative writing with richimagination.
2.Enlarge the realm of their expression via solid communication skills.
3.Enable the participants to excel in their appreciation of and interest in the Chinese language and culture.
4.Establish a unique platform for cross-school cooperation.
5. Encourage further promotion of Chinese teaching and Chinese culture worldwide.

Competition Features :

1.International Event: The event is mainly open to international, international curriculum, and bilingual schools.

2.Printing Opportunity: The award-winning and outstanding scripts will have a chance to be selected into a collection of "An Anthology of the Prize-Winning Compositions"

3.Objective and Fair: The selection and judging process will be arranged based on the three divided regional areas. To ensure the competition is objectivity and fairness, at least two professional judges will review each submitted work will be assigned.

4.Varied Activities: During the competition, a series of activities will be held, open to students, parents, and educators. These activities include lectures for improving Chinese expressive skills, study trips, talks by renowned speakers, and story-sharing sessions with principals from international schools.

Organizer

International and Bilingual School Educators Association

International and Bilingual School Educators Association Guided by the philosophy of "integrating educational wisdom and supporting the weak and the wise," the aims and objectives of the association are as follows:

To promote the development of international and bilingual education in the Greater China region (including Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) and around the world, to explore the integration and innovation of international and local curricula, and to advance the application of cutting-edge educational technology.

To share cultural identity, care for the community, and support the weak and the wise.

Specifically, by organizing conferences and forums, building platforms for collaborative educational research, organizing teacher training, mining industry data, funding exchanges for teachers and students, guiding teachers and students in international competitions, beneficial study tour projects for student development, promoting educational technology, conducting public welfare publicity, and constructing digital service platforms, among other activities and approaches to serve the public.

International Bilingual Experts Education Management (IBE)

The International Bilingual Expert Education Management, abbreviated as IBE, was registered in Hong Kong in 2014 to recruit educational talents from top global international and bilingual schools. IBE specializes in school management, integrated curriculum development, teacher training, international student competitions, quality education projects for students, and educational research and publishing, combining resources and providing services in these areas. IBE adheres to an open-minded philosophy, aiming to cultivate global citizens and reflective and practical knowledge users.

The core management team of IBE possesses experience in serving as principals or in management roles at top international or bilingual schools in Asia and Europe, as well as extensive experience in international study tours and higher education counselling.

After nearly a decade of development, IBE has participated in the establishment and management of dozens of international schools and kindergartens in provinces and cities such as Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Guangdong, and Shandong. It has provided teacher training for integrated international curricula to more than 100 schools in Greater China, serving over ten thousand teachers and school administrators. In addition, IBE offers a range of international education programs for students, including:

● The Global Chinese Writing Competition for Young Writers

● IBE Excellence Programs for International School Students— an international study tour project that respects multiculturalism, inspires creativity and benefits the community.

● International Education Counselling — offers educational pathways from international early childhood education to undergraduate studies, including from kindergarten to high school, associate to bachelor is degrees, and master is and doctoral studies. It also continues to assist Chinese families with educational and residency planning services in Hong Kong.

Entry Eligibility

The event's target audience include but is not limited to the primary and secondary school students in international schools, international curriculum schools and bilingual schools in various regions of the world.
The cohort will be divided into：

Two language groups：Native speakers and non-native speakers.

Three regional areas: ： Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as the candidates from overseas.

Four school grade groups：Primary school grade 3 to 4 Primary school grade 5 to 6 Junior high school Senior high school

Note:

The term Native Speakers refers to the student whose parents on both sides are of Chinese origin and use Chinese as their first language. The term Non-Native Speakers refers to the student whose parents on both or one side come from non-Chinese backgrounds and use a language other than Chinese as their first language. At the time of registration, the schools or individual contestants may choose a group according to their school structure/system.

Grade 3 to 4 of Primary School

Theme 1: Coming Across/Encounter

Theme 2: Shape/Form

Grade 5 to 6 of Primary School

Theme 1: Coming Across/Encounter

Theme 2: Shape/Form

Junior High School

Theme 1: Conversation/Dialogue

Theme 2: Temperature/Warmth

Senior High School

Theme 1: Conversation/Dialogue

Theme 2: Temperature/Warmth

Participants may choose one of the two themes and phrase a title to write on the selected topic. (The theme is not the title of the writing.)

Note: We realise that each theme in Chinese has rich cultural significance that may not be fully captured by a single English word. To help the participants to have a comprehensive grasp of the meaning, two English translations for each Chinese theme are therefore provided.

Genre and word Limit：

Genre: The participant can choose any writing style or genre based on their preference and choice.

Primary school group

· For native speakers, the length of each submitted piece should not be more than 500 Chinese characters for Grades 3-4 in primary schools and 700 Chinese characters for Grades 5-6 in primary schools.

· For non-native speakers, the length of each submitted piece should not be more than 200 Chinese characters for Grades 3-4 in primary schools and 400 Chinese characters for Grades 5-6 in primary schools.

Secondary school group

· For native speakers, the length of each submitted piece should not be more than 1,200 Chinese characters forjunior high school group and 2,000 Chinese characters for senior high school group.

· For non-native speakers, the length of each submitted piece should not be more than 400 Chinese characters for junior high school group and 600 Chinese characters for senior high school group.

Points will be deducted if the number of words exceeds 15%

Rules of Submitted works：

1.Comply with the purposes of the competition and any contents containing violence, crime, obscenity, bullying, hatred, discrimination and so on, are not permitted.

2.Have not been published by a publisher or presented in the media (including the Internet).

3.If AI tools are used to assist in the creation, it is required to label the article with "This article was assisted by AI" and comply with popular citation styles.

4.Follow the principle of academic honesty and the entries must be original.

5.Depict the author’s positive and healthy way of thinking.

6.Both traditional and simplified Chinese characters are applicable.

Timeline and Dates:

· Registration and submission dates:： 30 September 2024 -- 15 January 2025

· Competition results announcement:： March 2025

· Award Ceremony:： May 2025

Registration Details

Registration Details:

Registration may be made by the individual participants or through their groups (schools),provided that registration, payment and submission are processed on the official website(www.ibe.hk).

The procedures are as follows：

1.Creating an Account or Login

After registering/logging in to the exclusive personal/group competition account on the official website of the event organizer (www.ibe.hk) via email, participants can pay the registration fee, upload their works, obtain lecture information, inquire about the competition results, and download the collection of previous award-winning works and related certificates.

2. Preparing the work for entry and downloading the handwriting paper for the primary group

Primary Group: The work can be in the electronic or handwritten version (PDF/image format, The names of schools and competitors are not allowed in all works).). The handwriting paper for the primary group can be downloaded by the participant from the website (www.ibe.hk). It is recommended but not compulsory to use. (Handwriting Paper Format)

Secondary Group: The work must be in electronic version and should not be handwritten.

Note: Each participant is only allowed to submit one piece of writing.

3.Payment of Competition Fees

The competition fee is neither refundable nor transferable and is 300 RMB, equivalent to 330 HK$ or 42 USD (the price includes An Anthology of the Prize-Winning Compositions, two Chinese writing improvement lessons, lectures and activities, judging and selecting, and production costs). The participant must enter the official website (www.ibe.hk) on a computer, log in to the account, and pay by scanning the QR code or bank transfer.

4.Uploading the work

Permission to submit and upload the work can be obtained from the official website.

5. Announcing the list of winners and subsequent activities

The Committee will announce the list of the regional and global winners on the day planned. In addition to these awards, awards for outstanding supervision and organising will be elected. Follow-up activities will also be publicised.

Awards and Certificates

Evaluation mechanism for participating works：

1.The participants' works will be grouped and judged according to the area/region where they are registered.

2.Each entry will be evaluated by at least two professional judges, and written comments will be provided to all the award-winning works in the region.

3.The marking criteria are as follows：

Announcement of award list and award time

Competition results announcement: March 2025

Award Ceremony: May 2025

Criteria	Weight
The work's theme	10 Points
Organization of the whole piece and development of the ideas	10 Points
Features of the Genre Chosen	10 Points
Use of language	10 Points
Total	40 Points

Awards and Ceremony

The following awards are included for participants:

1. All participants will receive the event participation certificate.

2. Each competition area will select the champion, the first runner-up, the second runner-up, and several good performance awards.

3. For the global awards, there will be the champion, the first runner-up, the second runner-up, and the excellence awards.

4. The award-winning and outstanding scripts will have a chance to be selected into a collection of "Chinese Writing Guidance and Model Essays for Primary and Middle Schools Students in International Schools" for publication.

Awards and Certificates for Schools, Organisations and Teachers:

The following are included:

1. Excellent School Award for Teaching Chinese Writing: This award will be delivered to the schools in the top five positions of the total number of winners.

2. Excellent Organisation Award: This award will be delivered to the schools in the top ten positions of the total number of participants.

3. Excellent Coach Award: This award will be delivered to the teachers whose supervisees receive the regional and good performance awards in the competition.

4. Appreciation certificates: They are the gesture of the event Organising Committee's appreciation for the co-organisers, schools, supporting organisations participation and instruction.

Ceremony：

Upon the announcement of the results, a grand award ceremony will be held, and media coverage will be followed. The award ceremony will be held online if it is impossible due to a force majeure.