Hear from this season’s Write to Win champion: Wong Hang-nam, 12, Good Hope School
When I signed up for this competition, I never thought that I would win first place. To be honest, I was just looking for something fun to do during the summer holidays, and this provided the perfect opportunity.
Of course, I am grateful and on cloud nine to have won, but the main point of this entire competition is not winning. It was also a fun challenge to practise my writing skills.
The hardest prompt that really made me struggle was in the final round. When having to write a response to “Which social media platform would you shut down for a day?”, several different ideas immediately came to mind. I could have written about platforms with violent and harmful content, like 4chan, or addictive short-form videos, like TikTok.
In the end, I realised that, no matter how toxic some platforms were, I would have to relate to the audience. Almost no one in Hong Kong has ever heard of 4chan, and most people here don’t use TikTok. So instead, I decided to write about Instagram. I did my best to relate to everyone, to write about what problems most people face on the platform, and eventually, I think that turned out to be the right choice after all.
This competition was a great brain game, and it made me stop and think: What’s the best choice?
It was not just about writing; it was also about learning the right tactics. Personally, I feel I’ve learned a lot from this competition.
Finally, and most of all, thank you to all the editors at Young Post for their effort and for smoothing out our writing. I also want to express my sincere thanks to my parents, teachers and principal for their lasting support.
Even more importantly, I have two friends I definitely have to thank. When faced with all these mind-turning prompts, they were the ones who immediately gave me ideas and sometimes even just gave out the entire context of the answer. They did not write out the entries for me, but without their inspiration, I might not have won this competition.
They made me realise that nothing can be won alone. Sometimes, you just have to open up and listen to all the crazy but also inspiring ideas your friends have to offer.
Congratulations to Wong Hang-nam, as well as the first and second runners-up: Libra, Cedric Ng Yan-lun from Wah Yan College (Kowloon) and Cancer, Leah Lei Lok-ching from Cognitio College (Kowloon).
We have prepared some exciting prizes for our top three contestants:
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Winner: Kindle, City’super voucher and a YP certificate
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First runner-up: Instax camera and a YP certificate
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Second runner-up: City’super voucher and a YP certificate
