The reviews of the entries of the Second “Belt and Road” Short Video Competition: Footprints and Memories, co-organized by China Public Diplomacy Association, Press Center of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and Huanqiu.com, have been completed today on Sept. 28. The activity has received positive responses from enterprises, institutions and individuals of different backgrounds – the organizing committee received a total of more than 500 submitted works from nearly 80 countries around the world.
After three rounds of selection, including preliminary selection, public voting and expert judgement, the list of winners of the 10 awards has been newly announced. The 10 awards include: Cultural Ambassador Award, Creativity Award, Excellent Editing Award, Outstanding Contribution Award, Popularity Award, Anti-epidemic Struggle Award, Overseas Popularity Award (5 winners for each of the above awards), Outstanding Constructor of the “Belt and Road” Award (10 winners), Excellent Work Award (20 winners) and Excellent Organizer Award (2 winning organizers). Congratulations to a total of 65 award-winning creators and 2 outstanding organizers!
Below shows the list of award winners. There is no particular order in the rankings within each of the awards.
The contest is well-known both within China and overseas. Not only were the contesters’ short videos published on our exclusive voting platform Kuaishou under the hashtag of #百国印记# (Footprints and Memories), but also shown on other video platforms of Douyin, Bilibili, Tencent Videos, and overseas social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok. According to incomplete statistics, the total views of all published works of this contest have exceeded 300 million, including nearly 50 million views overseas, providing a series of colorful “Belt and Road” stories for the global audience. Among them, the video “Story of A Special Returnee from Overseas” attracted great attention from foreign netizens and gained 4.03 million views overseas.
The contest shows the persistence and innovation of those working on the “Belt and Road” Initiative. Like the first contest in 2019, this year’s contest is still focused on the perspective of telling the stories of the constructors of the “Belt and Road” and portraying how the “Belt and Road” Initiative contributes to building the “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind”. The contest is not constrained by any particular form and encourages innovation, which not only calls on the public to continue telling stories around them, but also maximizes the characteristics of popularity, authenticity and free expression of short videos in a natural way.
What’s special in this year’s contest is that when we were setting the theme of the contest to be “Hands and Hearts Connected to Look Out for and Help Each Other”, the COVID-19 pandemic also happened to be spreading around the world. The pandemic caused to many variables in 2020, which affected and changed the lives, careers, ideals and relationships of every individual around the world, bringing them ups and downs. Under such unprecedented conditions, the organizing committee still continued holding the contest in the hope that the contesters could show the persistence and courage of how China and other countries and regions along the “Belt and Road” united together to move forward in the most difficult times. That’s why we are so deeply moved by the hundreds of submitted works prepared by creators, and we’d like to use a few key words to portray the brilliance of the short videos.
Key word No.1: Change
Representative video: Change (Tanzania)
The word “change” is both a response to the global situation in 2020 and a portrayal of how the “Belt and Road” Initiative has brought about various changes to the development of society, economy and individuals around the globe since its announcement more than six years ago. The changes that have happened on the regions, communities, enterprises and individuals, who have become associated to and benefited from China because of the “Belt and Road” Initiative, are vividly and powerfully conveyed through one and another short videos.
Key word No.2: War Against Pandemic
Representative video: Take Off Any Time to Set Up Air Supply Line (Italy)
The global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over. Though separated by mountain and sea, no single country can overcome the difficulties all by itself. Anti-epidemic collaboration overseas has also become a major focus for the participants of this year’s contest. Each specific action and each brave soul shown in the videos revealed a simple truth, which is the whole human race shares the same fate.
Key word No.3: Hope
Representative video: Hope (Egypt)
Youth is the future. Youth is the hope. When a teenager from a foreign country benefited from an opportunity to receive education, when he started to shape his life’s dream after gaining a new vision, it is undeniable that the seed of hope has been sown. Although everything has just begun and the grown-up life still seems far away, what the teenager represents is not only the hope for individual growth, but also the future of diplomatic friendship between countries. This also shows that the “Belt and Road” principles of joint discussion and construction is not just empty words, but real actions to build a brighter future together.
Key word No.4: Mingle
Representative video: When Coffee Meets Zongzi (Ethiopia)
Each country has its own unique cultural fragrance. The “Belt and Road” Initiative has brought us opportunities both for pragmatic cooperation and cultural integration. From observing to sharing and then to mingling, a conscientious person can always discover the common beauty of different cultures in their communications with others. We hope that the cultural exchanges under the “Belt and Road” Initiative can always spark new inspiration in the collision of different traditions.
The motivation the hundreds of works brought us can certainly not be expressed by only a few words, but we believe that the extraordinary persistence and strength under these ordinary faces can be transmitted to every audience through the vivid short videos on the screen. At the moment when the global pandemic is still threatening the health of the entire human race, seeing the future of an irreversible global political and economic landscape, we believe that the authentic and ordinary stories of this year’s contest have conveyed the simple yet intelligent value of how the “Community with a Shared Future for Mankind” should be.
The Organizing Committee would like to once again thank every individual and organization that has participated in this year’s “Belt and Road” Short Video Competition: Footprints and Memories for the work you have done to tell us the beautiful stories in the construction of the “Belt and Road” and the moving moments of how the hands and hearts of different peoples are connected to look out for and help each other. As the Mid-Autumn Festival and China’s National Day are approaching, we would also like to use this opportunity to wish that all is well with our motherland and everyone around the world. Though separated by mountain and sea, our home is where our hearts want to be.