As part of the annual Chinese New Year celebrations, the Confucius Institute at the University of Sheffield recently held the Our 2020 Photography Competition.
Every year, in the run up to and as part of the annual Chinese New Year celebrations, the Sheffield Confucius Institute (SCI) holds the China in Your Eyes photography competition. In preparing for the competition last year, staff at the Sheffield Confucius Institute realised that the theme of the competition would have to be different and fitting with the year 2020.
From this, the new Our 2020 Photography Competition was created and on Tuesday 23 March 2021, the Our 2020 Photography Competition Prize-giving Event was held.
The competition aimed to showcase how the events of the previous year have affected our colleagues, friends, staff and family during the pandemic.
More importantly, the SCI wanted to give everyone a snapshot into another person’s life and their individual experiences over the past year. We hoped that this would help people understand that their experiences were similar, if not the same, as others.
Over the competition, the SCI collected a total of forty-one photographs in four major categories. All of the photographs we received highlighted what 2020 was like, but each in their own different way.
Every moment captured depicts what an extraordinary year 2020 was. It also brings out the feeling of a light at the end of the tunnel and that we can overcome these difficulties together.
In each of the four categories, 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners were selected by a panel of judges. The categories were My Life, My Hero, The New Normal and The Great Indoors & Outdoors.
The SCI also designed a special fifth category, the Social Vote and the winner of the Social Vote was decide through a vote published online before the prize-giving event.
During the prize-giving event, hosts Duan Zhipeng and Olivia Hodson-Barnes introduced the event and announced the winners. The hosts both used English and Chinese to communicate with the attendees and winners.
Certificates were presented to the winners and these, along with prizes were sent over to the winners after the event.
The Sheffield Confucius Institute would like to express its sincere gratitude to the co-organisers of this competition, the Sheffield University Chinese Students & Scholars Association and the Sheffield University East Asian Society.
We would also like to thank everyone who took part in this competition, thank you for your participation and support.