The 23rd Wu-Fu Kang Literary Awards announced their winners on May 14. Several winners in various categories are students of the Chinese Department, making the Department a home of champions. For instance, the first prize winner in the category of “Fiction” is Sung Zhi-ching, a sophomore from the Chinese Department, whereas Hou Yi-hsing, a freshman, and Chang Shao-huei, a graduate student, won “Good Works” for their novels in the same category. In the category of “Prose”, the top prize and runner-up also went to two Chinese majors—Lin Zhe-hsien, a sophomore, and Chang Ping, a graduate student—of the Chinese Department respectively, whereas two other fellow students, Cheng Hsing-wei, a junior, and Liu You-mei, a senior, won “Good Works”. Furthermore, in the category of “New Poetry”, four out of the six winners are from the Chinese Department. Non-Chinese Department winners are Liu Cheng-hsiang, a sophomore from the Civil Engineering Department, who won the top prize in the category of “New Poetry”, and Chen Kuan-horng, a junior from the Mass Communication Department, who won “Good Work” for his novel in the “Fiction” category. All of them will be presented with prize money and certificates by Dr. Flora Chang, the President of TKU on May 29 in a ceremony that also celebrates the 50th founding anniversary of the Chinese Department.

The three judges for “Fiction” category include two famous novelists in Taiwan, Lee Ang, and Lin Dai-men, while the third is Dr. Wong Lih-hwa from the Chinese Department. They praised Sung’s work as “an intrigue mixture of reality and fantasy written in a language that is vivid and very tongue in cheek.” Sung will win NT$ 8,000 for her work. The runner-up went to the work written by Wong Chung-yen, a graduate student of the Department of Electrical Engineering, which captured the judges’ attention by its originality and was awarded with NT$7,000. Judges also gave careful reviews to each of the three novels that won the “Good Work” prize in front of an audience at the announcement ceremony. Through these works, three judges offered some tips in creative writing that include choosing an interesting topic, developing a great plot, and sharp descriptions of characters.

The judges in the “Prose” category were renowned writers, Chen Min-zhi, Lei Ke-hsiang, and Wu Chen. They commented on Lin Zhe-hsien’s work, which deals with the frustration young people are facing today, as very real and topical. They admire his work as “he managed to tackle a difficult issue with ease.” The runner-up went to Chang Ping’s work on pregnancy and maternal love. Her work, according to the judges, is strong on well-crafted language on details such as a woman’s feet. “It is full of meticulous descriptions of a woman’s toes and nails deriving from the author’s rich imagination,” the judges concluded.

The judges remarked on the variety of topics found in the submitted works. They pointed out that most topics dealt with “big issues” such as humanity and peculiar social phenomena, and maybe due to the scope of these issues, language used in many works tend to be too long and wordy. Sometimes, as Lei Ke- hsiang, one of the judges, said, it is better to tackle smaller and closer to home issue. He pointed out that topics regarding students’ life in Tamkang and Tamsui would make interesting read, too.

Hsian Yang, Lee Kue-hsien, Chao Wei-min were the three judges for the category of “New Poetry.” After some intense deliberation, they decided not to have a runner-up and three “Good Works” this time. Instead, they voted on one first prize and five “Good Works.” The first prize went to Liu Chen-hsiang’s poem that is filled with vivid images depicting scenes of daily life. This poem that was inspired by rain was very original, creative and devoid of cliches, Chao summarized.

On average, top winners are awarded with NT$ 4,000 to 8.000, whereas “Good Works” winners get NT$ 2,000. However, the true winner of this year’s contest is apparently the Chinese Department who has incubated many talents over the years. With the impressive results this year, it is not difficult to imagine that there may be another J.K Rowling (writer of the Harry Potter series) in the making from the department. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )