UM students win two first prizes in international Portuguese short story competition

MACAU, May 26 - Two students from the Department of Portuguese of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Macau (UM) have won two first prizes in Contos do Dia Mundial da Língua Portuguesa, an international Portuguese short story competition for World Portuguese Language Day. The competition attracted over 120 submissions from Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa.

Li Renlan, a student in the Department of Portuguese and Stanley Ho East Asia College, won the first prize in the Youth-Adult Category (B1–B2) for her story ‘O Lugar ao Lado da Cozinha’ (‘The Space Next to the Kitchen’). Her story poignantly portrays the quiet life of a grandmother—a woman defined by silence, sacrifice, and devotion—while revealing the invisible struggles of her generation and their gradual awakening to the right of self-expression. Wang Siyi, a student in the Department of Portuguese and Cheong Kun Lun College, won the first prize in the Youth-Adult Category (C1–C2) for her story ‘O Batom’ (‘The Lipstick’). Her story centres on a woman who endures domestic violence and societal oppression, with the red lipstick serving as a powerful symbol of her dignity, defiance, and yearning for freedom.

Both students were mentored by Carla Lopes, senior instructor in the Department of Portuguese at UM. She said that the two awards not only reflect UM students’ outstanding performance in Portuguese language and creative writing, but also underscore UM’s success in cultivating high-calibre language talent and advancing Portuguese language education.

The competition was jointly organised by Porto Editora in Portugal, Instituto Camões in Portugal, and the Portuguese government’s National Reading Plan (PNL). This year’s theme was ‘Direitos Humanos: mudam se os tempos, mudam se as vontades?’ (‘Human Rights: As times change, do our wills change too?’), and participants had to write original short stories in Portuguese on this theme. All submissions had to be original, unpublished works by students, with authorship and originality certified in writing by their supervisors.