Among the buzzing hallways of Langley High School, various kids sending in essay submissions for a national competition regarding the inequality observed daily and how it can be approached, a group of students had been selected. The competition was high, but these 9 Langley participants had been victorious in earning their titles as the “National Chinese Essay Competition” Winners.
The winners of this competition included Raymond Zhang, Liann Moreschi, Sophia Filipi, Bennett Huang, Emily Hur, Thomas Murphy, Lucia He, Amber Cao, and Yik Chau Liao. Amid the contestants, senior Murphy was not only successful,but also a voice of insight about the competition itself.
“[The process of] it was pretty simple,” Murphy said.“We just had to write an essay and submit it, there were not really too many steps involved. The teacher, [she] would select students from the class to submit their essay to the national competition.”“[But] it was a little hard writing an essay in a different language, especially since I’m not the best Chinese student. I had a lot of help from my teacher and my mom.”
With such profound topics and talent bursting from many participants, a view into the essay that fascinated the judges was necessary. Murphy engaged the judges with his open minded position on the topic.
“My essay was about fat shaming and how it’s very damaging to people,” Murphy said. “It’s shaped by perceptions and one of the things I mentioned was how in Ancient China one thing people valued actually being fat. It showed [you know] wealth and other characteristics. But, the perceptions we have today about being fat and overweight are really harmful to people just in general.”
Murphy displayed a platform shedding light to social issues such as his own essay’s topic. But another competitor took a different approach to her essay.
“The prompt was the injustices you observe and how individuals can address them. My essay was about the disadvantages of disabled people with an emphasis on blind people and how most roads and public services are harmful and dangerous for them” freshman Cao said .
Expressing her perspective on other overlooked social disadvantages, Cao demonstrated attributes that set her apart from the rest. What makes the essay truly remarkable is Cao’s ability to succeed due to her inexperience.
“This was my first time competing in a national contest, although I have written multiple essays before in my Chinese classes,” Cao said. “It was a pretty good experience overall as I was pretty excited to gain this opportunity, and it wasn’t too stressful afterall.”