Representatives and participants from Polish universities learn Chinese calligraphy and make shadow puppets at workshops run by Beijing University of Technology.[Photo by Xing Wen/China Daily]

"The national flags of China and Poland feature the color red. So we used red in the main illustration. We wanted all the visual elements of the event to show the characteristics of both countries," says the 26-year-old, adding that he had to learn about Polish culture.

Chen's schoolmate, 23-year-old Song Peng, was familiar with Polish arts and crafts as her teacher had once suggested that she design tableware based on the culture of the European country.

Song then used the stylistic pattern on Polish pottery as the inspiration of her design.

She says: "I tried to distill the cultural messages into a representative image of Polish culture and then made a series of products embodying the core images."

For this competition, she created jewelry based on images related to a poem in the Chinese classic, The Book of Songs, and won a prize.

Wu Bin, vice-president of BJUT, says an art and design competition is more inclusive than an academic event, as it allows students from various educational backgrounds to join in and broaden their horizons.

Besides, Wu says: "I hope that through promoting mutual learning and understanding between BJUT and Polish universities, our art-and-design discipline could be further developed and meet international standards.

"Next year, we will take the competition to Poland."

Wojciech Zajaczkowski, the Polish ambassador to China, who attended the opening ceremony of the exhibition, supports the idea. And he hopes that the competition will become a source of inspiration for students from both countries.

Speaking about the contestants, Wu Xing, deputy director of BJUT's school of art and design, says most of the contestants were from engineering universities whose strengths are not in art and design, but it was a good chance for them to improve these abilities.

"The contest also helped to inspire the students to develop their artistic skills and promote interdisciplinary studies."