The World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights is open to young writers (age 18 to 36) worldwide. It accepts scripts written in either Chinese or English, and seeks to encourage production of new dramatic works that reflect upon global Chinese culture from a variety of perspectives and enrich our understanding of Sinophone cultures, circulations, histories, and communities. Since 2015, the winning plays have been staged in more than ten cities around the globe (Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Chiayi, Macau, Vancouver, New York, Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai, Monterrey and Mexico City) and published as bi-lingual E-books.

Winners of the competition will receive a monetary prize, a translation of their winning work (either from English to Chinese, or vice versa), and a bi-lingual e-publication of the winning works. The premiere staged reading and workshop will be held during July to September in 2027. In addition, a series of readings by our partners around the world over the following three (3) years will offer winning playwrights an unprecedented opportunity for international circulation of their work. (The collaborating organizers of the competition are from Taiwan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, China and Macao, among others.) For further details, please see the official Terms and Conditions.

It takes time for a river to carve a canyon, so as for a play to be elaborated from a script to an outstanding performance. Accordingly, since the 4th competition, we have arranged dramaturge for the winners, along with 1-2-months of revise before their works’ first debut in Taiwan during July to September, 2027. We take the inherently hybrid and diverse locale of Taiwan as our main stage for engaging artists and audiences both in and beyond the Sinophone. We especially seek new works of hybridized cultural and dramatic aesthetics that will add new voices to Sinophone theatre and further invigorate the already diverse field of global Sinophone cultures.

The World Sinophone Drama Competition for Young Playwrights is open to young writers (age 18 to 36) worldwide. It accepts scripts written in either Chinese or English, and seeks to encourage production of new dramatic works that reflect upon global Chinese culture from a variety of perspectives and enrich our understanding of Sinophone cultures, circulations, histories, and communities. Since 2015, the winning plays have been staged in more than ten cities around the globe (Taipei, Tainan, Kaohsiung, Chiayi, Macau, Vancouver, New York, Nanjing, Beijing, Shanghai, Monterrey and Mexico City) and published as bi-lingual E-books. Winners of the competition will receive a monetary prize, a translation of their winning work (either from English to Chinese, or vice versa), and a bi-lingual e-publication of the winning works. The premiere staged reading and workshop will be held during July to September in 2025. In addition, a series of readings by our partners around the world over the following three (3) years will offer winning playwrights an unprecedented opportunity for international circulation of their work. (The collaborating organizers of the competition are from Taiwan, United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Singapore, China and Macao, among others.) For further details, please see the official Terms and Conditions. It takes time for a river to carve a canyon, so as for a play to be elaborated from a script to an outstanding performance. Accordingly, since the 4th competition, we have arranged dramaturge for the winners, along with 1-2-months of revise before their works’ first debut in Taiwan during July to September, 2025. We take the inherently hybrid and diverse locale of Taiwan as our main stage for engaging artists and audiences both in and beyond the Sinophone. We especially seek new works of hybridized cultural and dramatic aesthetics that will add new voices to Sinophone theatre and further invigorate the already diverse field of global Sinophone cultures.

The Competition is organized by the Research Center for Theatre and Performance Studies at National Central University, Taiwan.

The Research Center for Theatre and Performance Studies at National Central University is devoted to the promotion, preservation and digitization of performing arts recordings. In 2003, it established the Electronic Theater Intermix (eti-tw.com) digital archive of modern Taiwanese theater and has been managing the archive for 23 years. The collection now contains over 600 works. ETI also edits and sponsors the Performing Taiwan e-book publication series and has since then published over 29 volumes of e-books. Responding to the difficulty of finding new scripts fit for production, the Center has founded the competition to encourage collaboration among universities and performing arts groups in Taiwan and around the world and to establish new ground for the creativity and artistic energy of the pan-sinophone communities around the world.