Lai 麗思

Zhang 雪

The winners of the 2010 Sasakawa Cup Essay Contest were recently announced. The contest was held by The Japan Science Society (JSS), The China Youth Daily and People China with support from The Nippon Foundation.

The contest had two categories: one for essays written in Chinese, and one for those in Japanese. Six essays were chosen in the Chinese category, and two essays in the Japanese category. The JSS will invite the winners to Japan from February 15 to 22, for an exchange with young Japanese.

The contest, which aims to strengthen exchange between young Japanese and Chinese, was started in 2008. Applicants must be between the ages of sixteen and forty-five. This year, they had to choose a topic from the following: "Protecting the Sino-Japanese Environment" in Chinese, "The Thing that Interests me about Japan" in Japanese, or "Japan-China Cultural Differences and Mutual Understanding" for either language.

18 of 5,877 entries were nominated for best Chinese essay in Chinese, of which 6 were chosen. These include Ms Lai 麗思, a twenty-two year-old university student from Guangdong province who wrote of her experiences with Japanese students as a volunteer at a leprosy sanatorium in Japan.

The two essays in Japanese were chosen from 1,455 entries, including Ms Zhang 雪, a twenty-one year-old university student from Changchun, who wrote about Japanese people's feelings regarding the Moon.

The essays provided a sharp analysis of Japan, its lifestyles, and its cultural and environmental points of view. Mr Luo 樹郁, a nineteen year-old university student from Beijing wrote an essay in Japanese entitled "culture will illuminate the future," about the history of cultural exchange between the two nations. He wrote, "It is our turn to study Japanese culture like the Japanese once hungrily studied ours. Misunderstanding of Japan that results from the bitter memories of the past is wrong. Exposure to the fruit of Japanese culture will breathe new life into Chinese traditional culture".

The 8 winners will be brought to Japan by the JSS. The society will also invite twenty-eight librarians from twenty-eight universities and a research institute that have received book endowments from the society.

The guests will visit Tokyo, Okinawa, Osaka and Kyoto.