The three-month "Putonghua Festival 2004" has attracted over 100,000 participants, its organizer the Standing Committee on Language Education and Research (SCOLAR) said here Sunday at its Closing cum Award Presentation Ceremony.

The "Putonghua Festival 2004", held for a third consecutive year, ran for 12 weeks with 16 school and community-based activities attracting over 100,000 participants.

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

The Closing cum Award Presentation Ceremony for Putonghua Festival 2004 was held with Joseph Wong, Secretary for the Civil Service, as the guest of honor. 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 already held earlier.

Funded by the Language Fund, the Putonghua 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 the language. Over the years, more than 220,000 people 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)