The 2020 National "Wukong Cup" China-Japan-Korea Youth Comics Competition came to a successful conclusion

On the evening of December 27, the award ceremony of the "Dreaming in the East" - "Wukong Cup" China-Japan-Korea Youth Comics Competition 2020 was held in Beijing in a combination of online and offline ways. Du Zhanyuan, Director of the China Foreign Language Bureau, Wang Fukang, Ambassador of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yoshiko Takashima, Minister of Japan in China, Kim Chenkun, Minister of South Korea in China, Ou Boqian, Secretary General of the China-Japan-Korea Cooperation Secretariat, and other guests attended the ceremony offline and online. At the same time, about 150 winners, expert judges and universities from China, Japan and South Korea participated via video link.

The "Wukong Cup" China-Japan-Korea Youth Comics Competition was first initiated by Premier Li Keqiang at the 8th China-Japan-Korea Trilateral Leaders' Meeting held in December 2019. It aims to promote artistic exchanges among the three countries, enhance friendship among young people, and build a stage for young people from the three countries to display their talents and a bridge of friendship between generations.

A total of more than 3,600 works were collected for the competition. After final evaluation by expert judges from the Three Countries, the Chinese work "The Pillow Book", the Japanese work "Teruko-san", and the Korean work "The Player" won the highest award of this competition, the "Wukong Award", which set off a new wave of youth comic creation and exchange in the Three Countries and became a highlight of the cultural exchanges among the three countries under the epidemic situation.

The entries of this year's competition are rich in themes, and have achieved gratifying results in inheriting excellent traditional culture, promoting cultural exchanges and integration among China, Japan and South Korea, telling the stories of the Three Kingdoms well, and portraying the style of contemporary youth. In particular, some outstanding works focus on the people of China, Japan and South Korea fighting the epidemic, composing a chapter of love of working together and helping each other, showing the world the common desire of the young people of the three countries to deepen friendship and expand exchanges.

The three works that won the highest award of this competition, the "Wukong Award", represent the first-class level of youth comics in their respective countries and each has its own characteristics.

The Chinese "Wukong Award" work "The Pillow Book" interprets the story of the Tang Dynasty novel of the same name "The Dream of the Yellow Millet" with exquisite light-colored Chinese painting style; the Japanese "Wukong Award" work "Teruko-san" skillfully uses the classic Japanese black-and-white line painting method to bring readers into a youth comedy set on a high school campus; the Korean "Wukong Award" work "Game Player" adopts Korea's most popular "strip comic" style to fictionalize the legend of a young man addicted to electronic games who travels to the game world to adventure and survive.

In terms of color, the black-and-white line drawing of Teruko-san bears the imprint of Japan's traditional publishing industry, while the full-color productions of The Pillow Book and The Gamer reflect the readers' demand for color in the Internet era in China and South Korea.

In terms of layout, the comic strip-style layout of "Game Player" focuses on mobile phone reading, while "The Pillow Book" adopts the same page layout as "Teruko-san", showing that it also attaches importance to the audience of physical books.

In terms of screenwriting, Teruko-san and The Gamer are both original stories, and the subsequent plot developments are gripping when reading them. The Pillow Book is a basic restoration of classic literature.