On December 12, 2021, the Chinese Consulate General in Penang hosted the online awarding ceremony for the Second “My love, my connection between China and Malaysia” Theme Essay Competition. The competition was jointly organized by the Chinese Consulate General in Penang together with Malaysian media Nanyang Siang Pau, Sin Chew Daily, Guang Ming Daily, and China Press. Chinese Consul General Mr. Lu Shiwei attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. Heads of the four Chinese-language media outlets and winners of the top three award winners of the Lower Secondary School Group, Higher Secondary School Group, College Group, and Non-Chinese Group attended the event online.

Consul General Mr. Lu Shiwei expressed congratulations to all the award winners. He said that the theme of this essay competition is “A trip to China, a trip to my heart”. Based on their own experiences, all the contestants narrated what they have seen, heard, and thought about China, and what they expect China to achieve, and described China’s changes and development. They expressed their love for Chinese traditional culture and their best wishes to China-Malaysia friendly cooperation. There were also many contestants who have keen interests and unique perspective on the topics such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and China’s poverty alleviation achievements. Their works are truly sincere and deeply moving.

Consul General Mr. Lu Shiwei stated that 2021 is a year of special significance, marking the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC). At the grand ceremony celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC, General Secretary Xi Jinping solemnly declared that China has realized the first centenary goal of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. This means that we have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects. The Consulate General will continue to host the “My love, my connection between China and Malaysia” Theme Essay Competition, and hope that everyone will make persistent efforts to continuously enlarge their knowledge and understanding of the Chinese language and Chinese culture, and contribute to the development of China-Malaysia relations.

The award winners expressed their gratitude to the Chinese Consulate General in Penang for hosting the essay competition, and expressed their love for the Chinese language and Chinese culture. They look forward to visiting China after the pandemic is over, and they are determined to continue to learn and use the Chinese language, and contribute to the friendly cooperation between Malaysia and China.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC and promote the traditional friendship between China and Malaysia, the Chinese Consulate General in Penang and Malaysian media Nanyang Siang Pau, Sin Chew Daily, Guang Ming Daily, and China Press jointly organized the Second “My love, my connection between China and Malaysia” - “A trip to China, a trip to my heart” Theme Essay Competition. Nearly 900 essays were received in more than two months, and there were 12 awards of champion, runner-up, and third place in the four groups, 28 Excellent works, 70 Honorable Mention works, and three School Honorary Awards. 

In order to meet the requirements of the “new normal” for epidemic prevention and control, this event adopted a combination of online and offline forms, collecting essays through e-mail, post, etc. During this period, the organizers launched two rounds of large-scale promotional campaigns, intensively publicizing through paper media announcements, short videos, and on-the-site promotions in Chinese schools, etc. The advertisement of the essay competition were also widely spread through the official Facebook page of the Chinese Consulate General in Penang and social media accounts of the four newspapers to effectively improve the influence of the event. A new Non-Chinese Group was set up in this year’s competition, attracting non-Chinese Malaysian youths to participate in the competition to demonstrate their Chinese-language writing talents and highlight the charms of the Chinese culture, becoming a highlight of the Competition. The awarding ceremony was broadcast live on the official Facebook page of the Chinese Consulate General in Penang, with more than 2,000 viewers watching the ceremony online.