Art contest helps forge bonds with Hungary

WUHAN－The awards ceremony for the One Step Chinese-Hungarian Drawing Competition was simultaneously held both offline and online in Central China's Hubei and Henan provinces, and Hungary's Gyor-Moson-Sopron county recently.

The event, which drew nearly 100 participants, including students, teachers and government representatives, was jointly organized by the respective local governments. It was aimed at boosting China-Hungary ties through friendly exchanges between teenagers, according to the organizing committee in Hubei.

Between March and May, students from middle schools in the two Chinese provinces and the Hungarian county submitted more than 120 creative works themed on the bilateral relationship, inventions made by the two countries and environmental protection.

Huang Shihui from Xianning Xiangcheng Middle School, Hubei, won the first prize for her painting titled China in the Rubik's Cube. Her work featured a giant Rubik's cube on a tableau. Each square of the cube showcased things that embody Chinese history and contemporary development, such as the compass, traditional medicine books, the Great Wall, the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, or FAST, and the Shenzhou spaceship.

"The Rubik's cube was invented in Hungary. I wanted to introduce China to our Hungarian friends through a familiar invention of theirs," Huang says, adding that she hoped her painting would further help cement the friendship between the two nations.

Fanni Kotrics-Szabo of Hungary also won the first prize. Speaking at the awards ceremony in Gyor-Moson-Sopron, she said her interest in Chinese culture prompted her to take part in the competition. "I'm proud of my work and will continue to create more paintings," she adds.

Hubei and Gyor-Moson-Sopron forged "sisterhood ties" in 2014. Various bilateral initiatives, including the building of a section of the Hungary-Serbia Railway and student exchange programs, have since been carried out.

"The painting competition has built a bridge of communication between young people in China and Hungary," said Zhao Haishan, vice-governor of Hubei, at the awards ceremony. Zhao pledged to hold further activities of a similar nature to promote mutual understanding and friendship between the two nations.