Recently, third year Department of Chinese student Sun Yu-xiu entered a Chinese Literature competition under her penname ‘Muxin’, which literally means ‘Dusk and Dawn’. Out of 39 entrants in her category (strange sci-fi short story), she claimed first place to win an NT $30,000 cash prize and an iPad. Among a total of 188 written piece and 165 competitors, Tamkang students won 7 prizes in a variety of categories.

For a list of Tamkang prize recipients, please see the Popo website: http://eventpage.popo.tw/62_school_an/final_winner_encourage.html. The editor of the Popo website, Lin Zheng-jie, described the plot of the winning piece, entitled ‘A Strange Incident in a Schoolyard’. He said how at the beginning, the main character is sitting on the Taipei MRT and sleeping. She then gets taken by a fellow classmate to the Ability Development & Control School for Mutant Humans. The story then vividly describes the interesting events that occur while at the school. Out of the numerous pieces submitted, Mr. Lin explained, the story stood out due to its creative content. “Its original storyline really captivates the reader. She finished the piece in a very short period of time, and the overall structure is clear and coherent”, said Mr. Lin. “From her effort in this piece we can see that she has limitless potential”.

Sun Yu-xiu explained that she incorporated elements of her actual school life at Tamkang into the story: “Although the characters in my story are all made up, my friends could tell that some of the events described in the story were based on real-life events that I’ve encountered”.