This photo from April 1989 shows Sanmao cycling on East Huancheng Road, Dinghai district as she visits her family in Zhoushan. [Photo/zhoushan.cn]

A news conference for the fourth Sanmao Prose Prize was held on April 20 in Dinghai district, Zhoushan, East China's Zhejiang province, marking the beginning of the annual event.

The prize is named after Sanmao, the pen name of Echo Chen Ping, a Chinese writer and translator from Taiwan, to honor her outstanding accomplishments. The prize is considered one of the three major literary awards in the province.

Entries for the competition must have been be published between 2020 and 2021 and they should be submitted before Oct 31. The award ceremony is expected to be held in 2023.

Twenty-three prize winners will be selected. Each stands to win a maximum of 50,000 yuan ($7,790).

A series of supporting activities will also be held during the event to further promote the profile of Dinghai, where the ancestral residence of Sanmao is located.

The previous three editions received nearly 2,000 entries from China, the US, Spain, Australia, and other countries. Seventy prize winners were selected.

Sanmao's works range from autobiographical writing, travel writing and reflective novels, to translations of Spanish-language comic strips.

Her ancestral residence in Chen village, Dinghai was built by her grandfather during the Republic of China period (1912-1949) and five rooms in the residence function as exhibition areas for her works, photos, and collections.

Postal address: Dinghai District Federation of Literary and Art Circles No 61 Changguo Road, Dinghai (Zip code: 316000)

For more information, please contact Chen Ying (+86-580-8300323/2022969)