The Putonghua Festival 2004 closed in Hong Kong on Sunday with an awards ceremony for schools and students.

Organized by the region's Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR), the festival ran for 12 weeks with 16 school and community-based activities attracting over 100,000 participants.

SCOLAR Chairman Michael Tien said, "In the years to come we will further explore ways to promote the use and learning of Putonghua (Chinese mandarin) among our working population by riding on the success of our Workplace English Campaign."

At the ceremony, awards were presented to winners in the "Best Student Awards for Progress in Putonghua" and the "Most Creative School Awards for Promoting Putonghua" categories, with performances by Putonghua-promotion organizations and the winners of the festival's singing and drama competitions.

Financed by the Language Fund, the festival has been held annually since 2002 to raise people's awareness of the importance of Putonghua and to provide them with more opportunities to learn and use it. Over the years, more than 220,000 people have participated in some 40 activities.
 
Established in 1996, SCOLAR advises the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government on language education issues and on the use of the Language Fund. 

(Xinhua News Agency November 29, 2004)