For the second year of WSDC, entries were accepted from December 2015 to February 29, 2016. During this three-month period, we received 179 online registrations, 120 of which submitted soft-copy entries, including 110 Chinese entries and 10 English entries. Most of the Chinese entrants are from mainland China (50%). Submissions from Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macao made up 41.8% of the entries to this competition, while the rest of the entries came from Malaysia, the United Kingdom and Canada. Bilingual playwrights from Taiwan, mainland China, Malaysia and the United States contributed to the English entries.
Each of the entries has its own strong points. A preliminary screening and an intermediary review were each held for the Chinese and English groups, and 13 Chinese plays and 3 English plays were selected for the final review. Experienced professionals who are fluent in both languages were invited to be the judges of the final screening. Chinese and English plays were reviewed simultaneously, and the top three were chosen. This year, a new “Honorable Mention” award was added to acknowledge the works that, during the license period, will have the opportunity to be produced by existing performing arts groups, with the hope of encouraging more outstanding plays to be staged.