[Video provided to wuxi.gov.cn]
Chinese illustrator Zhang Weimang clinched the gold prize of the International Cartoon and Illustration Exhibition on a Community with a Shared Future for Mankind with his work Life and Growth in Nature.
The award ceremony was held in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, on Wednesday. C.B. Shibu Cheriapadath Balan, from India, and Zhou Zuoli, from China, won silver prizes, and Izabela Kowalska-Wieczorek, from Poland, Liu Jiajia and Xie Pengzhen, from China, shared the bronze prizes.
The exhibition was hosted by China Daily and the Wuxi Municipal People's Government to promote the concept of the joint development of a more peaceful, harmonious, prosperous, open and beautiful world. It has two themes, "Low-Carbon Lifestyles" and "Discovering Wuxi".
About 3,800 cartoons and illustrations from 50 countries and regions were submitted in the "Low-Carbon Lifestyles" section and 851 of them were from overseas. The "Discovering Wuxi" section received around 600 works from home and abroad.
Zhang said he participated in the competition because Wuxi and China Daily have made a deep impression on him since childhood.
The theme "a community of shared future for mankind" also reminded him of a Chinese saying: When the way of virtue and justice prevailed, the whole world was one community.
Qu Yingpu, publisher and editor-in-chief of China Daily, said the concept of building a community of shared future for mankind proposed by General Secretary Xi Jinping has been widely welcomed and received strong support among the international community.
The exhibition aims to promote people-to-people exchanges among China and other countries through art works, so that the international community can work together to face challenges and create a common future, he said.
Through different perspectives and with various styles, the participating works vividly showed global artists' deep concern with ecological protection and the future of mankind, strong approval of the concept of building a community of shared future for mankind and active participation in protecting the environment and care for planet Earth, Qu said.
China Daily will continue to tell the stories of China and the Communist Party of China well to the outside world through various means, such as news reports and artworks, to promote communication and exchanges between China and the world and present a China that is credible, appealing and respectable, he said.
Du Xiaogang, Party secretary of the CPC Wuxi municipal committee, said with brushes, artworks and feelings, artists from around the world depicted the beautiful scenery of Wuxi, the historic progress of China in achieving modernization and the spirit and essence of Chinese culture.
Wuxi will continue to work closely with China Daily to tell local stories well to the world and make new and bigger contributions to telling China's stories, promote the country's voices and strengthen the reach and influence of Chinese civilization, he said.
Zhang Yaoning, honorary president of the China Journalistic Caricature Society and panelist for the exhibition, said that with a strong visual impact, cartoons and illustrations can call on people around the world to put aside their differences and build a more harmonious world.
As a seasoned English language newspaper, China Daily's global influence and experience gained in hosting international cartoon and illustration competitions have drawn many influential artists from different countries and regions to participate in the competition, he said.
"The level of the competition is very high, and I am glad to see that young Chinese artists have achieved breakthroughs in their techniques and artistic concepts," he added.
