This year’s Global Cantonese Writing Initiative for Youth has now come to a close. We received 52 submissions, compared with 47 last year. Participants aged 5–18 took part from the UK, Hong Kong, China, USA, Ireland, Germany, Canada and Australia.
This year’s submissions:
Ages 5–9: 29
Ages 10–14: 15
Ages 15–18: 8
Total: 52 submissions
We were also delighted to see four submissions from Ireland.
This year also saw the launch of the initiative’s official website, writingfromtheheart.org, bringing together the initiative details, guidelines and submission information, as well as selected works from last year. The website was generously sponsored by Harbour Kollective, including its design, development and hosting. Thank you for your support!
As part of the initiative, participants were also offered one-to-one online Cantonese writing sessions. A special thank you to Peg Chiu, author of Children Cantonese picture book 'The Tiger Under the Flyover', for giving her time to guide and encourage young writers, helping them develop their ideas, shape their stories and prepare their submissions. Peg Chiu also wrote an article for Pulse HK News, encouraging readers to reconsider why we write in 書面語 (Standard Written Chinese) rather than Cantonese, and why we should make a greater effort to encourage our children to write in Cantonese instead.
Thank you to all the young writers, parents, teachers, volunteers, sponsors and partners who supported the initiative.
Through 「我手寫我心」— writing from the heart, we hope to encourage the next generation to express their creativity, thoughts and feelings in Cantonese.
We look forward to seeing more young writers next year!
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今屆「全球兒童青少年粵文徵文活動」已經圓滿結束。今年我哋一共收到 52份投稿，比去年嘅47份多咗超過一成。參加者年齡由5歲至18歲，投稿來自英國、香港、中國、美國、愛爾蘭、德國、加拿大同澳洲。
今年投稿數字：
5–9歲：29份
10–14歲：15份
15–18歲：8份
總數：52份
愛爾蘭今年亦有 4份投稿，好開心見到本地小朋友參與其中。
今屆活動亦推出咗官方網站 writingfromtheheart.org，方便參加者了解活動詳情、參加指引及投稿方法，亦可以閱讀上一屆嘅入選作品。網站由 Harbour Kollective 贊助設計、開發及 hosting，多謝佢哋嘅支持！
活動期間，我哋亦特別為參加者提供一對一網上粵語寫作指導。多謝兒童粵文繪本<<橋底老虎>>作者趙婉慧抽時間為小朋友同青少年提供寫作指導、鼓勵同意見，幫助佢哋整理想法、發展故事，同為作品作最後準備。 趙婉慧早前亦喺追光者發表文章，邀請大家重新思考點解我哋總係習慣用「書面語」寫作，而唔係用我哋最熟悉嘅粵文。
多謝所有參與嘅小作家、家長、老師、義工、贊助機構同合作伙伴。
「我手寫我心」——希望透過粵文寫作，鼓勵新一代用粵文表達自己嘅創意、思想同感受。
期待下一屆再見到更多小作家！