The University of Science and Technology Beijing (USTB) Publicity Department and School of Economics and Management (SEM) held the final of the 9th Manjing Poetry Light Chinese Poetry Competition on May 23.
The event, part of the 10th Traditional Culture Festival, opened with a folk orchestra performance of "Blooming Flowers and Full Moon."
The final included a masters' point race, a flying-flower knockout, a 100-person speed quiz, a six-sages contest, and a championship play-off. Li Aoyu won first place, Li Mingxuan second, and Li Huyang third; 12 students entered the top twelve.
Xin Xiaojuan, a professor at Renmin University of China's School of Chinese Classics and a question-bank expert for the Chinese Poetry Congress, judged the contestants. She called poetry on an engineering campus a blend of reason and humanities.
Li Yi, an associate professor at USTB's Humanities Quality Education Center, said she had watched the competition grow and urged students to keep poetry in their lives. An outdoor outreach event near Hongbo Garden offered calligraphy and verse-matching activities.
