Only three local students won Chinese Blog (博客) Competition. And 15 of the 18 awards went to students from China.
170 students’ task: to get a fully-designed blog up and running, complete with many postings based on a theme of choice—all written in Chinese.
Themes ranged from local opinions—such as the usage of Singlish, education and whether Singapore can be a cultural centre—to food blogs.
The entries were judged on language proficiency (熟练程度) and the quality of writing, as well as the design and level of exchanging ideas with readers.
Academics from the National University of Singapore and the SIM University, IT experts, and a journalist from Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao in Singapore made up the judges.
In the end, only three Singaporean students made it to the award list—the rest of the awards were swept up by students from China.
"No surprise,” said Mr. Chow Yaw Long, 37, teacher-in-charge from Innova Junior College, which organized the event. “Although the topics were local subjects, the foreign students were generally better in terms of the content of the posts and their grasp of the Chinese language.”
One of the three local students winning the first prize in the Best Language Award was blogger Christina Gao, 19, from the Saint Andrew’s Junior College, who spared no effort in researching for and writing her blog. Each entry took her between five and seven days to produce, complete with pictures and even podcasts (播客).
Her advice for bloggers is: Be responsible.
"Some bloggers out there only seek to blame the authorities and other bloggers,” said Miss Gao, “I think they lack responsibilities and there is no value to their posts.”
1. The competition was organized by .
A. the National University of Singapore
B. Chinese newspaper Lianhe Zaobao
C. Innova Junior College
D. the Saint Andrew’s Junior College
2. Which of the following is TRUE according to the passage?
A. Chinese students won most of the awards.
B. Not all the themes were about local subjects.
C. The blogs could be written in Chinese or Singlish.
D. The judges were from universities in Singapore and China.
3. What Miss Gao said suggests that .
A. she likes to blame the authorities
B. she has a sense of responsibility
C. she thinks highly of the others’ blogs
D. she loves to read valuable posts
4. The passage is mainly about .
A. how Chinese students won the awards in the competition
B. why bloggers should take responsibility for their blogs
C. how Miss Gao won the first prize in the competition
D. what the result of the competition was