Chinese photographers snap up more top prizes

China's recent run of success at major international photography competitions has continued after a number of Chinese entrants won honors at the Pink Lady Food Photographer of the Year 2020 awards in London.

Last year the competition's overall top prize of 5,000 pounds ($6,246) went to Liao Jianhui for his image, Cauldron Noodles.

Since then, the 2019 International Wildlife Photographer of the Year award has been won by Bao Yongqing for his picture The Moment, which received huge international exposure, and the 2019 Astronomy Photographer of the Year awards, organized by the Royal Observatory in London and the Royal Meteorological Society's Weather Photographer of the Year awards both had Chinese entrants on their shortlist.

Now the 2020 staging of the Pink Lady competition, which has been running for nine years and this year drew nearly 9,000 entrants from more than 70 countries, has extended China's run of success into the new year.

Sun Xiaodong won the Food for the Field category with an image of bees being removed from their hive, entitled When the Hive is Filled. Another category first place went to Du Xueping in the Street Food category for Ramen Act, an image of noodle making.

Other notable entries from China that scored well were Gu Liya's second place in the Food for the Family category for the image Share, and Marc Yang's third place in the Politics of Food class for Behind the Boy. Several other Chinese photographers were highly commended in other classes.

Last year, the awards were announced and distributed at a prestigious ceremony at the Mall Gallery in London, with top prize winner Liao traveling over from China to pick up his award.

A similar event had been planned for this year but because of the novel coronavirus outbreak, it had to be cancelled and replaced with an online awards ceremony.

"These are all stunning images which show an incredible diversity and depth of talent," says Caroline Kenyon, founder and director of the awards. "The world is in the grip of COVID-19 and normal life, whatever that may be, has stopped for all of us. But photos such as these remind us of the ways and cultural habits that mean so much to us and bind us together."

Judges for the competition included many high-profile photographers and magazine editors, and Phil Turnbull, CEO of APAL, the parent company of event sponsors Pink Lady, said the standard of entries had been "exceptional" and showed the common bond of the competition's theme.

"There were nearly 9,000 entries from over 70 countries－this competition inspires across the world," he added. "It is a truly global coming together of talent."