The 2nd Sanmao Prose Prize begins in Dinghai, Zhoushan on April 20. [Photo by Yu Ruowang/zjol.com.cn]

A delegation from the Dinghai district of Zhoushan, an island city in East China's Zhejiang province, attended a symposium in Taiwan on June 9 and exchanged ideas on the influence of the famous writer Sanmao with Taiwan scholars.

Sanmao (1943 –1991), or Echo Chan, was a Chinese contemporary novelist, writer and translator born in Southwest China's Chongqing. Sanmao was her pen name, which she adopted from a Chinese comic book.

Sanmao's family was from Dinghai. At the age of six, she moved to Taiwan with her family, and in 1989, she returned to Dinghai to visit her relatives. "I'm coming home. I can't believe this is happening. It's like a dream," she said.

To commemorate the great writer and her close links with Dinghai, the district initiated the Sanmao Prose Awards in 2016 with plans to build the award into a cultural hallmark of Zhejiang.

The second edition of the award began on April 20, 2018.

At the symposium, to promote the award in Taiwan and strengthen cross-Straits cultural ties, the Dinghai delegation made an introduction of the district's development at the symposium in Taiwan and shared stories of the bond between Sanmao and Dinghai.

Sanmao rides a bike in Dinghai, Zhoushan in 1989. [File photo]