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The 1st World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights hosted by National Central University, co-hosted by School of Liberal Arts, Nanjing University, China, and organized by Performance Center and Research Center for Theatre and Performance Studies at National Central University, seeks to encourage production of new dramatic works of young playwrights. The event resonated with participants all over the world and 198 entries were submitted. The top three award-winning plays will be presented in both Chinese and English on a world tour of staged readings in Taiwan, Macao, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Vancouver in Canada, and St. Louise in the U.S.

Entries were accepted from October 2014 to the end of February, 2015. 198 entries were submitted, including 181 Chinese ones and 17 English ones. Most of the Chinese entrants came from Taiwan, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao, and Malaysia. Bilingual playwrights from Taiwan, mainland China, and Singapore contributed to the English scripts, and even English and Bulgarian writers joined the competition.

The first prize of the 1st World Sinophone Drama Competition goes to Holy Crab! (the English script) by Zhu Yi, the second prize, Dirty Paws, or How to Make a Great Documentary Film (the English script) by Zhao Binghao, and the third prize, Fallacy of the Fist by Taiwanese playwright Chien-jen Wang. Zhu Yi and Zhao Binghao, the first and second prize winners, are bilingual playwrights from China, living in New York now. They flew from New York to Taiwan to attend the ceremony.

“The main purpose of this competition is to promote the dramatic works of young playwrights, seek possibilities of film and stage productions, cultivate younger playwrights, and make the performing arts booming at a global scale,” said Dr. Katherine Hui-ling Chou, Director of Performance Center at NCU and chair of the 1st World Sinophone Drama Competition.