China-related painting competition held in Dublin

Chinese ambassador to Ireland He Xiangdong poses for a photo with Maia Griffin Sugarman, first prize winner for the secondary school category at the award ceremony of "China in My Eyes Art Competition" in Dublin, Ireland, Dec. 1, 2019. An award ceremony of a painting competition aiming to promote a better understanding of China among Irish primary and secondary school students was held here on Sunday. Named "China in My Eyes Art Competition", the event is co-organized by Confucius Institutes of University College Dublin (UCD) and University College Cork (UCC) with the support from the Chinese embassy in Ireland. (Xinhua)

DUBLIN, Dec. 1 -- An award ceremony of a painting competition aiming to promote a better understanding of China among Irish primary and secondary school students was held here on Sunday.

Named "China in My Eyes Art Competition", the event is co-organized by Confucius Institutes of University College Dublin (UCD) and University College Cork (UCC) with the support from the Chinese embassy in Ireland.

Addressing some 200 people attending the award ceremony inside the teaching building of UCD Confucius Institute, Chinese ambassador to Ireland He Xiangdong extended his warm congratulations on the winners of the competition.

He encouraged all the participants to continue to pursue their dreams of being a great painter and to play a role in promoting the cultural exchanges between China and Ireland.

Organizers said that they had received more than 600 submissions from across Ireland after the open call of the competition was announced earlier this year, and 54 of them, selected by a judging panel including members from both Chinese and Irish sides, entered the final competition.

They said this year's competition has received a better response than the inaugural one last year and has showed obvious improvement in terms of the quality of the works submitted by the contestants.

A total of 28 contestants were awarded prizes at the ceremony. Each prize winner was given prize money varying from 100 euros (110 U.S. dollars) to 600 euros.

The first prize for the secondary school category went to a 12-year-old Irish girl named Maia Griffin Sugarman for her work "Panda in Bamboo Forest".

The top prize for the primary school category was awarded to a 10-year-old Chinese girl named Sun Jiayi for her work "Twelve Zodiac". Sun immigrated to Ireland with her parents about two year ago.