The results of the 24th Wu-Fu Kang Literature Awards were announced the other day. The award ceremony was held at L522 on June 12, handing out certificates and prize money to winners of Fiction, Poetry, and Prose categories. Surprisingly or not surprisingly, all winners are affiliated with the Department of Chinese (DC) one way or another.

In the Fiction category, Chang Xiao-hui, a grad student from DC won for her work entitled “A Room with Colors”. Her story describes lightheartedly the loving relationship between a child and her grand-mother. Despite its overall lighthearted tone, the story is also filled with some sentiment of old age and various losses. “It is a balanced and mature piece of work, actually the best I have read competing for such awards,” gushed Lou Yi-cun, a writer himself and one of the judges on the review panel. Chang is of course overjoyed with this recognition and admitted that this story is somewhat semi-autobiographical as the grandmother is based on her own grandma who she loves dearly. With winning this award, she vows to continue writing.

Shih Jun-horng, a senior from DC won the top prize in Poetry category for his work entitled “Lost”. Huang Zhi-rong, an established poet and one of the judges points out that Shih’s work which is divided into six stanzas or strophes in modern poetry term, depicts ordinary life in an extraordinary way.

Zhai Shu-yu, a grad student of DC won in the Prose category for her work entitled “Encountering a City Nested in the Mountains”. She describes her thoughts and experiences of visiting the town, Shih Kang, a town that had gone through recession and desolation but was revived through perseverance. “Her prose captures such a spirit in a reflective and deep way”, commented Hsu Yu, a prose writer and one of the judges. She was at the same time amazed by the high standard of writing in the works she reviewed. “I wasn’t even this good at this age!” she exclaimed.

Ying Shan-pei, a professor at DC, concludes that literature is far from dead, as many people tend to think so in Taiwan. This year’s Wu-fu Kang Literature Awards once again proves that literature lives on and thriving. ( ~Ying-hsueh Hu )