Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the UK

INTRODUCTION

The Fourth ‘Magnificent Culture’ (Mculture) people-to-people diplomacy event—2022 International Photography Competition& First China UK forum-Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the UK is organised by Shanghai Overseas Returned Scholars Association (SORSA) , and co-organised by Mcloud, SORSA University of Manchester Shanghai Alumni Association, SORSA English Chapter, Shanghai Hong Kong Macau Taiwan Photographers Club (SHMT Club). A photography exhibition named “Beautiful World” will be held in Shanghai followed by the Award Ceremony & First China UK forum to show the excellent photos. Photos taken by the Chinese and British people will demonstrate sustainable development process of countries in the era of biodiversity, and also show the actions taken by the two countries to promote the transformative and sustainable development of a "beautiful world", echoing President Xi Jingping's speech at the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

Submissions related to the theme of “Friendship and Development”will show the humanities, landscape, ecological photography works. The extensive and far-reaching nice photos of the "beautiful world" will present the outstanding achievements of the Chinese and British peoples in the transformation from "Beautiful Country" to a "Beautiful World". The competition launched with a hope to deepen Sino-UK friendship, promoting the exchanges and cooperation between the two peoples, further contributing to the sustainable development of the two countries and the world. At the historical moment of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the UK, ‘friendship between China and the UK’ –a special award will commend the best photo reflecting profound friendship in the fifty years. The award-winning photos will be exhibited at the "Beautiful World" photography exhibition at SORSA-Home for Overseas Returned Scholars in Shanghai and the University of Manchester China Centre.

Eligibility

Participant

Participant must be Chinese who have studied, worked and lived in the UK or British who have studied, worked and lived in China.

Submission requirements

1. The topic of photos must have the connection of “Friendship and Development” under the “Beautiful World” or photography related to the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the UK.

2. The submissions are digital photos in JPG format, with side length greater than 3000 pixels, less than 8000 pixels, size greater than 2MB and less than 20MB. The submissions are single sheets, and it is recommended to be color photos. The pictures must retain EXIF information. Each submission must be marked with a 150-200 words caption in Chinese or English.

3. The organizer may require the participants to provide the original files (raw or original JPG format) of the photos entering the finals and copies in high-definition JPEG or TIFF format.

How to participate

Online submissions will open on Monday, 18 March 2022 and will run until Sunday, 1 May 2022. All successfully received submissions will receive a confirmation email.

SCHEDULE

Deadline for Submission
1 May 2022

Award Selection
May 2022

Award Ceremony
June 2022

Photo Exhibition
Sep 2022

JUDGING PANEL

Miss Sherry Fu

Founding Director, China Centre, The University of Manchester
Founder of Mcloud

Mr David Percival

Chairman of Manchester China Forum
Managing Director of International Business, Deloitte

Prof Lifen Zhang

Professor, School of journalism, Fudan University. Former Deputy Editor in Chief of Financial Times.

Prof Guoqi Xu

Professor of History, the University of Hong Kong
PhD, Harvard University

Mr Yueming Shen

Deputy Director of Current Affairs Center and Director of Political and Legal Information Department, Shanghai Xinmin Evening News

Mr Weidong Xu

Deputy Editor in Chief of Sing Tao News Group Overseas and Sing Tao Daily

Miss Shirley Lei

Famous Blog Founder and Cultural Internationalist

Miss Niang Dan

Professional Photographer, Writer, Vice President of Shanghai Women Photographers Association

Mr James Dunn

Executive Director of the British Chamber in Shanghai

Prizes

Excellence Prize of Humanity/Scenery/Zoology (Each category sets three prizes)

Certificates and Prizes Worth RMB 3000. Invited to show the submissions at the "beautiful world" photography exhibition

Special Award for the Friendship Between China and the UK (three prizes)

Certificate and Prize Worth RMB 3000. Invited to show the submissions at the "beautiful world" photography exhibition

People's Choice Award (one prize)

Certificate and Prize Worth RMB 1000. Invited to show the submissions at the "beautiful world" photography exhibition

01. Excellence Prize of Humanity

Humanistic photography has profound power and is a way of photography with recording the reality of life as its main appeal. The Excellence Prize of Humanity set up in this competition hope to encourage photographers to shoot photography works that come from life and reality and truthfully reflect the world we see.

02. Excellence Prize of Scenery

Scenery photography is a special transformation phenomenon in contemporary photography. Although people are rarely seen in these photographic images, it is easy for the audience to feel a kind of human trace and a certain state of human existence. In these "empty lens" photography, Scenery photography presents us the richest visual modernity scene in the contemporary world. Excellence Prize of Scenery set up in this competition is to recognize the different world shown by this unique photography category.

03. Excellence Prize of Zoology

Zoology photography is a kind of photography to tell the relationship between biology and environment and show ecological diversity. Excellence Prize of Zoology set up in this competition is to show the "beautiful world" in the hearts of contemporary photographers and photographers, and to show the sustainable development process of countries all over the world in the era of biodiversity under their cameras.

04. Special Award for the Friendship Between China and the UK

This year is the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between China and the UK. Through the establishment of the China UK friendship special award, this photography competition recognizes photos reflecting the deep friendship between China and the UK, and helps China and the UK deepen friendship and mutual trust, expand exchanges and cooperation, especially at the level of photography art, so as to contribute to the prosperity and stable development of China UK relations.

05. People's Choice Award

The most popular award is established to commend the popular photography works and encourage excellent photographers to continue have much better works.

NOTICES

This competition is open to international amateur and professional photographers (over 18 years old), SLR, micro single, UAV and mobile phone photography.
The submitted photos can be subject to appropriate post-processing, including but not limited to colour to black and white, saturation, contrast, tone adjustment, panorama, HDR, multiple exposures, etc. No photomontage.
Participants should ensure that they are the authors of the submissions and have independent, complete, clear and undisputed copyright in the whole and components of the submissions. Participants shall also ensure that their submissions do not infringe upon third parties' legitimate rights and interests, including reputation rights, copyright, privacy right, portrait right, etc. If the organizer believes that the above guarantee is not tenable, the organizer reserves the right to cancel its qualification and reserve the final decision. In case of legal problems in the entries, the participants shall be responsible for solving them and bear the expenses.
To ensure the competition's fairness, the judges, employees, sponsors, and their family members of this event will not participate in the competition.
Each participant owns the copyright of the submitted image. Participants are allowed to use the photos of the competition for free for competition publicity. The organizer has the right to publish, copy, publish, send, display, print, distribute, adapt, and show the entries free of charge on the organizer's website, official account, photo exhibition, forum, and facilities. Without the photographer's approval, any photos participating in the photography competition shall not be sold.
The right to interpret this notice belongs to the organizer. All participants shall be deemed to have agreed to all the provisions of this notice. By signing the form or completing the online registration, the participants have read and agreed to abide by the competition rules. Participants who violate these rules will be disqualified. If a violation occurs but is found after the award, the organizer may disqualify the competition and ask for the return of the award.
The organizer reserves the right to decide on matters not recorded in this competition description. If the participants cannot agree with the organizer's decision, the participants can withdraw from the competition. The participants shall bear all expenses incurred in removing from the competition.
When the organizer uses the submissions, due to printing quality reasons, sometimes it may not be able to reproduce the colours and performance pursued by the participants ideally.
When a third party files a complaint or objection about infringement and compensation for losses, the organizer will not be responsible, and the participants should handle all the complaints.
Suppose the competition cannot be completed as planned for any reason, including but not limited to a computer virus infection. In that case, vulnerability, tampering, unauthorized intervention, fraud, technical failure or any other uncontrollable, corrupt or affecting management, security and fairness, the organizer reserves the right to cancel, terminate, modify or suspend the photography competition at its discretion.
The organizers reserve the right of final interpretation.