Exhibition: UCL IOE Confucius Institute Young Photographers’ Competition

By Guest Blogger, on 21 January 2020

By Yasmin Lambert

The winning entries from this year’s UCL IOE Confucius Institute Young Photographers’ Competition will soon be available to view during upcoming exhibitions at UCL.

The Young Photographers’ Competition is open to people aged 18 years and under, run by the UCL IOE Confucius Institute for Schools (IOE CI) and supported by the Chinese Embassy.

Its aims are to dispel the cultural stereotypes of China through photography, to show the country through the eyes of young people, and to encourage young people to explore their relationship with China and Chinese culture.

The IOE CI offers support to UK schools so they can both teach Mandarin Chinese and learn about China. It also oversees international school partnerships, supports curriculum development, develops teaching resources, undertakes research, runs annual student camps to China and works with awarding bodies on accreditation.

In 2019, the competition featured five China-related categories that could be interpreted in different ways. Four of the five categories included photographs that had been taken in China and the fifth category was for photos with a Chinese theme that had been taken in the UK:

China in colour (Portfolio)
China and her food
China at home (UK-based)
The people of China
Young China (Under 14)

The majority of entries came from school students in the UK and feature photographs that the students had taken on school trips or holidays to China. As ever, entries were of a very high standard and it was fascinating to see how the students had interpreted the category titles.

After much deliberation, the judging panel shortlisted four entries for each category (1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and Highly Commended), and the winners were announced just before the Christmas break.

To celebrate the amazing quality of the photographs and the success of the competition, all 36 of the winning entries will be on display – first at the Chinese Embassy on 24 January to celebrate Chinese New Year – and then open to the public at UCL.

3–21 February 2020