This year has been an annus mirabilis for WISU. One culturally riveting student-oriented activity after another- a winning streak. The Halloween bash, award night, spring luncheon and just when we start to wonder what else could there be in stock, WISU comes up with the Sakura competition for all the foreign students. WISU received quite remarkable number of alacritous entries in photography and art work for the first edition of the contest.
The cherry blossom season has been particularly special for everyone connected to WHU. This sojourn of the cherry bloom is the best time of the year to venerate nature before the flowers wither away. Even a stroll around this green campus is like an on-going odyssey where we stumble upon several intangible horizons of knowledge, nature and history that are impossible to verbalize. So the most feasible nonlinguistic way is to capture them onto photographs and canvases.
Clockwise from top left: Winning photos by SAMIULLAH MIR, RAJEENA BASHEER, ANDRIANTSOA DANIEL CHAN SU FAN , , ROMAN KUKHARENKO, KARIM MD FAZLUL and AYOLIB LAHMADI
The subject of the competition is not only foreground but equally creatively challenging but our young students were undaunted by the difficulties. Cherry blossom is just another extension of the coherent aesthetics of this stunning university. Even when we are dwelling on some sort of poignant melancholy, the cherry flowers washes away our doubts and insecurities and puts that blissful smile on our faces, at least for the time being. At this time of the year, it’s virtually impossible to not stop by and click a few close up selfies under the dazzling silhouette of the cherry trees. Even on overcast days, the cherry flowers outshine the gloomy weather and it is just one of the obstacles for our student photographers but the students were more than capable of circumventing them. What everyone gets wrong about photography is that perfect frame can only be obtained by a DSLR camera, but several of our winners shot the photographs with a decent smartphone. They perfected the pictures using filters, focus stacking and exposure fusion before submitting them to WISU.
Sakura is a sweet reminder of the time-honored friendship between China and the outside world. So, the competition is a gesture to see the cherry blossom through the eyes of the foreign students. Getting a perfect picturesque shot is nowhere easier than conjuring a magic trick. The competition tests the student’s prowess and for some, their foray in portraying the scene in the form of outdoor photography or color-paintings. The competition is also a brilliant chance for the students to take a break from their mundane pedagogical schedules and use their out-of-the-school-skills to uncover this vast erudition that lay unexplored.
Paintings themed on cherry blossom
The paintings accentuate the cherry blossom in light of the nuances of the daily life that normally go overlooked. Needless to mention, the campus has inspired several of the most- revered Chinese poets, novelists and painters to create masterpieces in literature and art and no wonder the students came out with such beautiful pieces. These quotidian delights are brought to life with every stroke of the brush and the colorful palette mostly consisting of several shades of green and pink make us muse over these best-kept secrets of WHU.
The competition also serves as a springboard to bring these talented amateurs to light. The competition was judged by an independent panel of teachers and students and picking a winner out of so many amazing submissions was hard. Rajeena Basheer, Roman Kukharenko, Karim MD Fazul, Samiullah Mir,Adrian Tsoa and Daniel Chan Su Fan emerged as winners in the photography category while paintings of Ayan Kerimova, Zaheen Faria, Bukhenova Amina and Anchal gupta claimed the winning prizes. The winning artworks and pictures are truly an allegory of the pristine beauty of cherry blossom and the ever-lasting harmony between China and the diaspora of foreign students from around the world.
EDITED BY: Wuhan University International Students Union (WISU)
