The Night of the Potala Palace (ZHANG CHI)

The first Chinese college student video and photo competition focusing on Tibet lifts its curtain 
An award ceremony was held on May 11 in Beijing for the college student video and photo competition, Tibet Through My Eyes. Fifteen videos and nine photos won prizes.

The event, organized jointly by the School of Television and Journalism of the Communication University of China (CUC), Tibet Online, China Radio and the TV Academic Association, started in Lhasa, capital of Tibet, on August 19 last year.

During the four-month competition, students majoring in photography from more than 50 colleges and universities across the country visited the mysterious snowy Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and merged into the lives of the Tibetan inhabitants.

From their own perspectives, the works of the students show vividly Tibet today and its distinctive cultural and natural landscape. They reflect the lives of Tibetan people and the prosperity and progress the autonomous region has achieved since its peaceful liberation.

The prize-winning works were selected from 89 videos and more than 1,000 photos shot by the students. After an online voting and an experts' review, the competition committee announced 15 videos and nine photos, including Tibet Through the Eyes of a Tibetan Artist, The Night of the Potala Palace, Highland Barley Field and Tibetan Childhood, had won awards.

 
Tibetan Childhood (ZHANG CHI)

"Culture is a growing life. I hope I can use videos to record the culture and life of Tibet," first-prize winner Wang Bingdi said. Wang is a sophomore majoring in radio and television editing at the CUC, who directed the video Tibet Through the Eyes of a Tibetan Artist, which records the life of contemporary Tibetan painter Gade, whose works illustrated the changes taken place in Tibet.

Another prize winner Zhang Chi said, "Tibet is a place I have dreamed of a lot. Through the competition and a trip to the beautiful land, I have learned more about it."

Ren Fen is a student from Yuncheng Normal University of Shanxi Province. She said she was surprised and excited that her work received an award and felt very good about the trip.

"The Tibetan people are very friendly," she said. "Bus drivers told stories about Tibet all the time while we were traveling there. I have made several Tibetan friends. They even took me to see their families," said Ren.

"The environment and scenery there are fantastic. Tibet is really a very good place for shutterbugs," Ren said. Her work, The Most Fashionable Tibetan Man With a Prayer Wheel, won the award for the most popular work.

The competition organizer said the prize-winning photos will be displayed on an exhibition tour of colleges and universities throughout China and prize-winning videos will be recommended to TV stations.

"The works have done an excellent job of documenting the achievements of a new Tibet," said Wang Guoqing, Vice Minister of the Information Office under the State Council of China, at the award ceremony.

"This kind of competition is very helpful for the world to gain a better understanding of Tibet and for us to introduce Tibet to the outside world," he said.