Online literature contest boosts cross-Straits cultural ties

An awards ceremony was held Saturday in Hangzhou, capital city of East China’s Zhejiang province, to present prizes to winners of a competition featuring online literary works created by young authors from both sides of the Straits.

In recent years, exchanges between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan have been frequent and fruitful, especially in the sector of online literature and the movie, TV, gaming productions adapted from those popular internet literary works.

To further strengthen multi-dimensional cooperation and cultural exchanges between the youth of both sides of the Straits, the Zhejiang Publishing United Group and Want Want China Times Group of Taiwan worked together to host a competition to provide a platform for young writers to create better works through mutual learning and to deepen cross-Straits cultural ties.

Ma Xiaoguang, a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council attended the ceremony and delivered a speech.

"We would like to share the opportunity for development with Taiwan compatriots. What comes with this online literature competition is the huge market potential behind the booming development of internet literature in the Chinese mainland, which is a good opportunity for literature lovers in Taiwan. I hope this platform can be fully utilized to boost cross-Straits exchanges and mutual development", Ma said.

This year marks the second time the contest has been held. In total, 682 works were received, among them 200 from Taiwan, which is double compared with the first competition in 2017.

Topics in the submissions are wide-ranging, including history, romance, magic, urban life and sci-fi. Thirty-two contestants stood out, with Taiwan author Yan Pingle winning first prize this year.