We are coming to the end of this millennium and the beginning of a new one. With this in mind, the Young Post and Longman jointly organised an Asian of the Century competitionu for schools in October. The aim was to pick the person who has been most influential in the course of the continent's history in the past 100 years.
We are glad the response to the competition for both the junior and senior sections was very encouraging. Schools from all over the SAR submitted hundreds of entries.
Vincent Lee Yuen-shun, a Year 10 student at King George V School, is the winner of the senior competition. Yuen-shun picked Mahatma Gandhi of India as his Asian of the Century for his non-violent resistance campaign for justice.
'Gandhi's weapons were not the bomb and the bullet, but peaceful, determined resistance to arrogant and deluded men,' writes Yuen-shun in his essay.
'He fought against man's inhumanity to man. He laid down his life in the struggle. No greater love could any other man have shown for the principles Gandhi held so dear.' The winner in the junior category is Chau Ching-sum, a Form Three student of Yuen Long Merchants Association Secondary School. Ching-sum picked Emperor Hirohito of Japan as his Asian of the Century. Horohito's reign was one marked by ambitious, military expansion in the continent. In the process, it was a period of doom and gloom as death and misery visited almost every Asian country.
Both the winners in the junior and senior sections will each receive a $500 book coupon. The second prize winner in the senior category will receive the Longman Lexicon of Contemporary English (English-Chinese), while the junior second prize winner gets the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English (English-Chinese). In addition, there are 30 winners of the Award of Merit in each category. Winners will be individually notified.
