Chinese Culture Vlog Competition: Winners Announced

In preparation for this week’s Chinese New Year celebrations, students throughout the College have been submitting their entries into this year’s Vlog Competition. Students were tasked with creating a Vlog on the topic of their choice, related to Chinese culture.

Congratulations to all who submitted an entry. The quality and range of submissions was impressive, making judging the winners a challenging process. And the winners are…

Hannah, Year 3

“This holiday, my mom took me to Beijing, the capital of China. I visited the Great Wall of China and the Palace Museum. I heard many historical stories and learned about Chinese traditional culture. I was inspired to make this Vlog to share with all of you what Beijing looks like in my mind.

Lilian, Year 4

“Hello, I'm Lilian from Year 4.

It’s my honor to have this opportunity to win a prize for my Vlog. Many thanks to the school and teachers for giving me this chance. And also thanks my family members and my martial arts teacher for their help. There is a saying, “Behind every successful person there are a number of people who contributed silently". Thanks to all again and I will continue to do my best. Finally, I give my best wishes to all of you. Happy Chinese New Year!”

Jack, Year 10

“I am delighted to participate this Chinese New Year Vlog competition, as video editing is my passion. I also created a poster for the event. However, I soon found it was challenging in the whole process.

I thought over and decided to make something different – a cultural street scene. I was recommended that Gaoqiao had a great view, so I took the metro to Gaoqiao the next day in a -3° cold weather. Unfortunately, the sightseeing was not what I wanted, and suddenly Shikumeng that I had learnt in class came into my mind and I went there immediately. I shot again and again in the cold wind, and forced to re-shot because of disturbing by the passers-by. Sadly all the videos I spent the whole day to take were not qualified for editing, as they were shaking. I bought a stabiliser before the mall closed. The second shot was so much better. My Vlog is about 1 minute but I spent nearly 3 hours to shoot, not include the 6 hours on the way.

I started editing just on that night, importing, selecting music, editing, effecting, tuning, and exporting, it’s already midnight when I finished the whole video. When I brought the video to school, my teachers and classmates gave me valuable advice, and I also added subtitles, made the story more complete, enriched the content to reflect the Shikumen culture deeper.

It was hard work, but I really enjoy it. The most important part is I learned patience, persistence and perseverance. Thanks to the teachers for providing such a good opportunity, I will keep going and work hard”.

Zoe, Year 11

“The most challenging factor was shooting the video, as I was doing it all by myself whilst cooking the dish. The main problem was where and how to place the camera, in order for it to balance. Therefore, I was running around the whole house trying to put together a stand for the camera, which wasn’t such a pleasant experience. Furthermore, in addition to the risk of the camera falling out of balance, I encountered the situation of the camera being continuously out of focus.

The camera failing to focus seriously affected the efficiency of the shoot and challenged my patience to an intolerable extent. Especially during the process of cutting up the vegetables, I can't see video itself whilst taking it. Therefore every time I watch the record, my heart races continuously. For instance, when I was prepping for the potatoes, the time spent on merely that ingredient adds up to 45 minutes (along with the pain of watching the potatoes gradually oxidize during the process). Moreover, the ten-second shoot of introducing the ingredients, I actually spent one and a half hours to shoot.

But these difficulties did not deter me, and after fiddling with it time and again, I finally produced a micro-video of Di San Xian. I hope to use this micro-video to convey the warmth of winter, and I also hope to use this Chinese dish micro-video to bring the blessings of Chinese New Year to all the students and teachers in school :)”