Award List | The First Global China-Africa Writing Competition
CASIN
The award ceremony for The First Global China-Africa Writing Competition was held at Fudan University in early November this year as one of the highlight events during the international symposium “The African Left: Theories and Practices”. The competition was one of CASIN (China Africa Shanghai International Network)’s highlight projects. It was mainly managed by Dr. Flair Donglai Shi from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, with generous and dedicated support from Dr. Jodie Yuzhou Sun from Fudan University and the CASIN team.
The planning of a “China Africa Writing Competition” dates to the founding moment of CASIN in late 2022, and after the first round of Call for Submissions in July 2023 and the second round in March 2024, the final deadline was set in October 2024. After one month of intensive reading and evaluating, the judges finally made their decisions in November 2024. The competition was organized with the central principle of highlighting human concerns and encouraged authors all around the world to explore the cultural dimensions of China-Africa relations via fiction or non-fiction (1,000 to 10,000 words in Chinese or English). It is our hope that short writings could bring in fresh voices in the China-Africa cultural sphere currently dominated by long novels and enable more people to search for new literary understandings of the multifaceted interactions among Chinese and African peoples.
Up to October 2024, CASIN received 35 submissions in total, among them 25 are fictional works, mostly written in English, and the other 10 are non-fiction works, mostly written in Chinese. The authors come from a diverse range of countries, including China, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, South Africa, Uganda, Botswana, Burundi, Madagascar, and Mauritius. Among them many are young Chinese people who are working or have worked in Africa, African students in Chinese universities, and students who have taken an academic interest in China-Africa affairs.
The main working languages of the competition are English and Chinese, but we also accept works written in other languages as long as the submissions are accompanied by translations in Chinese or English, and this is a rule we would like to keep for the future. The initial plan for the arrangement of the awards was to have a first prize and a second prize for both categories of fiction and non-fiction, with several Honorable Mentions. However, for the submissions this year, the fictional pieces far exceed the non-fiction pieces in terms of both quantity and quality. Therefore, the judging panel in the end decided that there shall be two second prizes for the fiction category and no second prize for the non-fiction category.
CASIN will contact interested platforms to facilitate the publication of the Chinese-language pieces and repost them on our public account once they have been released. For the English-language pieces and English translations of the Chinese pieces, they will be published in early 2025 on our African collaborator website, The Elephant, and reposted by CASIN public account as well. Please stay tuned.
The Award List
First Prize, Non-fiction
Oma《乌玛》
Language：Chinese
Author：Huameitang（China）
First Prize, Fiction
Granny’s Gift of Lucky Bamboo Sprouts
Language：English
Author：Zanafy Gladys A. （Madagascar）
Second Prize, Fiction
While We Are Here
Language：English
Author：Li Yijuan（China）
Second Prize, Fiction
The Rhythm of the Valley《山鼓》
Language：Chinese
Author：Xu Lixun（China）
Honorable Mention（Fiction）
Familiar Strangers
Language：English
Author：Mary Appophia（Kenya）
Author's Biographies and
Praises by Judges
Huameitang (pen name), the author of “Oma”, is a humanitarian aid worker and sporadic blogger. Passionate about exploring cultural diversity firsthand and second-hand.
Remarks by Dr. Zhangyong：
“Oma” explores the themes of cross-cultural communication, identity and human empathy in a subtle and layered narrative. Through the main character's working life in Nigeria, the author skillfully depicts the confusion around and quest for individual identity in the midst of multicultural collision. The process of meeting, interacting and getting to know each other by characters of different races and cultures maps out the complexity of interpersonal relationships in the context of globalization today, which is of great relevance. Mixing Chinese and African perspectives, the story constantly provokes deeper thoughts on prejudice and misunderstanding and portrays the eponymous character in a vivid and well-rounded manner, so that she is no longer a symbol of ‘the other’, but a ‘concrete person (具体的人)’ with an array of emotions like anger, confusion, and joy.
Zanafy Gladys A., the author of “Granny‘s Gift of Lucky Bamboo Sprouts”, teaches Anglophone literature and critical reading at the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar. She loves good stories and often endeavors to journey into the confines of her imagined universes when her daily cares allow her to. Besides writing and reading, she particularly appreciates hiking, visual art, drawing and photography, spoken literature, a nice conversation with a beautiful nature at the backdrop as well as making crafts and dresses.
Remarks by Dr. Cheng Ying：
This story unfolds as a journey of encounters in the quest for belonging. The intergenerational and interracial bonds among women not only sustain the two families at the heart of the story but also provide solace to us, the readers. In a world fraught with fractures and uncertainties, home, care, and empathy illuminate a hopeful vision for the future of Africa-China.
Li Yijuan, the author of “While We Are Here”, is a bilingual writer based in Africa. Having stayed by the Mediterranean and sojourned in the Sahara, she now lives an extraordinarily ordinary life south of the Kilimanjaro by the Dragonfly Sea. Her English writing, including journalistic features, nonfiction and fiction, can be found in major publications and niche outlets. Her Chinese writing can be seen in her column “A Stranger’s Letters from Africa.”
Remarks by Dr. Ignatius Suglo：
"While We Are Here" demonstrates multiple complexities of human encounters in the Africa-China space. It is a story about finding the self, of cherishing experiences of human encounters, of love, of pain, of a journey to recovery of multiple actors. All these are woven into a captivating complex plot and grip the reader from the get-go and always keep one wanting more. The breadth, depth, and intensity achieved in under 6000 English words are truly commendable.
Xu Lixun, author of “The Rhythm of the Valley”, is from Qingdao, Shandong Province and currently pursuing his PhD in Comparative and World Literature at Shanghai Normal University, with a focus on Anglophone Theatre in South Africa. He has been working with Prof. Zhu Zhenwu on the major project of The National Social Science Fund of China, “A Literary History of Anglophone Africa”, and visited Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda for academic exchanges.
Remarks by Dr. Yuan Mingqing：
“The Rhythm of the Valley” retells history from a personal perspective and in an approachable manner, evoking strong emotional resonance with its vivid and unpretentious narrative. Reflecting on the cross-racial life experiences and global connections created by the history of Western colonization, the author makes history tangible and alive through fiction. The drum sounds, thunder and gunshots at the end of the story bring the whole piece to a climax, showing how literature itself can enrich history, and even current Sino-African relations, with new ways of thinking and visions.
It is our hope that the competition can encourage more people to write about their experiences in China-Africa interactions and explore different aesthetic means to represent and reflect upon them. Please stay tuned for our news and updates in 2025!
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