A collage of some of the winning entries as printed in China Daily Hong Kong Edition.

HONG KONG - China Daily journalists scooped up 11 awards across nine categories at Hong Kong’s annual news contest for local newspapers, which recognized their reporting, writing, photography and design in a year defined by COVID-19 challenges.

The China Daily Hong Kong Edition on Monday bagged top prizes in three categories — Best Science News Reporting, Best Arts and Culture News Reporting, and Best News Writing (English) — at the 2020 Hong Kong News Awards, organized by the Newspaper Society of Hong Kong.

China Daily Hong Kong now has received awards in the contest for 11 straight years, scooping up 95 wins in that time

China Daily Hong Kong now has received awards in the contest for 11 straight years, scooping up 95 wins in that time. Twelve Chinese- and English-language newspapers in Hong Kong competed for 75 awards in 17 categories this year.

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A five-story series on present and future museums made culture editor Chitralekha Basu a back-to-back winner in the Best Arts and Culture News Reporting category. It is also the veteran journalist’s fourth top prize in this category over the past five years, and her most recent win was the only English-language story among the winning entries in the same category.

Basu’s series was based on interviews with 22 museum directors, artists and curators from China and elsewhere.

“As much of what’s happening in the cultural scene is available at the click of a mouse, a print journalist like me would like to give readers an idea of what lies ahead,” Basu said. “Artists visualize the future, and my job is to bring their views to the reader.”

China Daily Hong Kong also took the top honor in Best News Writing (English) for “Death at the doorstep”, a feature by He Shusi, who wrote about the struggles and fears of patients and medical workers at Wuhan hospitals in the face of the then-mysterious new coronavirus.

Focus on pandemic

In the same category, Willa Wu was awarded first runner-up for her story “All at sea with the coronavirus”, which looked at the nightmare of passengers who found themselves stranded at sea on the coronavirus-stricken cruise ship Diamond Princess.

The top prize in Best Science News Reporting went to Shadow Li for her two data-journalism stories on plastic waste and coral conservation. This is the first top prize in the reporting category that the newspaper’s young data journalism team has received, in addition to a number of awards in page design in previous years.

READ MORE: China Daily Hong Kong earns high praise for 20 years of public service

The business desk picked up the first runner-up in Best Business News Reporting for its “Online economy amid COVID-19” series, filed by He, Luo Weiteng and Zhou Mo, and a merit prize in the same category with “Changes amid COVID-19” series, written by Edith Lu, Chai Hua, Sophie He, and Zhou.

Zhou, a senior business reporter, also won the first runner-up in Best Business News Writing (English), for her story “Going for the gold with digital”, which talked about foreign-trade companies surviving and growing stronger during the pandemic by embracing digital transformation that later helped them get orders from all over the world.

Zhou said the public-health crisis prompted the probes into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, as management and technological revolutions in the region were spurred by the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

A worker blends into a billboard as he tucks into his lunch amid dine-in services restrictions. This photo won photographer Calvin Ng a merit prize in Best Photograph (Features). (CALVIN NG / CHINA DAILY)

Visual storytelling

Veteran photographer Edmond Tang secured a merit prize in Best Photograph (Sport), while Calvin Ng received a merit prize in Best Photograph (Features) for his playful picture that captures a worker who blends into a roadside billboard as he tucks into his lunch when dine-in services were restricted as part of the social-distancing rules at the height of the virus outbreak.

Copy editor Greg Ahlstrand was the first runner-up in Best Headline (English) with “Tea time rides bubbles of new popularity”. The story looked at how this ancient beverage is capturing today’s young people on the Chinese mainland with a modern twist in its flavor and a sophisticated business model that boosted the success of several bubble tea chains.

Graphic designers Mok Kwok-cheong and Billy Wong together won the second runner-up in Best News Page Design (Single Page), with a striking layout that elicits readers’ fond memories of martial arts actor Bruce Lee. 

jefferygu@chinadailyhk.com