Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) The top winners of an annual youth arts award inspired by Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), founding father of the Republic of China, each received NT$300,000 (US$9,713) in prize money in Taipei on Monday.
The 2018 Chung-shan Youth Art Award received a total of 133 submissions with the awards presentation ceremony being held at National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall. Winners, aged 20-45, were recognized in the categories of ink art, Chinese calligraphy and oil painting. The mission statement of the awards is to promoting the cultivation of the arts and encourage young artists to create outstanding work.
Lin Ying-chen, winner of the Chungshan award for oil painting for her work "Ancient Century, Condensate Light," said she blended the elements of dinosaurs fossils and plants to symbolize change on the journey of life.
The work reflects "ancient fossils from around 10,000 years ago found by humans, which force us to reorganize and restructure our memories," Lin said, indicating that she strives to express the emotions of life.
"I used the idea of archaeology because I personally like ancient living animals and dinosaur fossils. I also think archaeology provides the allegory of digging up memories," she said.
Chiu Yi-ning, who won the Chungshan award for ink art with her painting "Somewhere over the Hills," said her work includes such elements as telegraph poles, walls, water, houses, apartments, steel sheet metal shacks, rocks and hills.
Explaining the motivation behind her work, she said that it's all about the subconscious, "as when I see an image, I might not do anything about it at the time, but one day it could pop up when I'm painting and then I will use it in my work."
Yu Tung-sheng, winner of the Chungshan award for Chinese calligraphy with the works "A couplet" and "Su Dong-po's Two Poems" said he studied the art form from a young age and that in Chinese calligraphy the brush moves along the paper like a ballet dancer.
Speaking of his work "A couplet," he explained that it is something Sun wrote and that he used a font from Northern Dynasty (386-581) tablet inscriptions, which was also a favorite of Sun in the early republican period, as he sought to give strength to the country after nearly 300 years of rule by the Ching Dynasty.
Liang Yung-fei, director-general of National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall, said the Chungshan Youth Award presentation, which is in its third year, is given special meaning this year because it is held on the 152nd anniversary of Sun Yat-sen's birth on Nov. 12, 1866.
Pointing out the importance of the contests and competitions organized by the memorial hall, Liang cited the 2018 National Dr. Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall Foreign Students' Mandarin Chinese Public Speaking Contest, the 46th edition of which was held Nov. 6.
With over 60 students from 14 countries taking part in this year, Liang said that after the foreign contestants return to their own countries, they become the "strength of Taiwan."
