2024 CKS "Comfort Women" Creative Project Contest

"Taken Away" by Soon-duk Kim @ comfortwomeneducation.org

Through this creative project contest, CKS aims to educate the UCLA community on ongoing issues pertaining to "comfort women" from Korea, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, and elsewhere, who were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Pacific War.

Contest Results

The Center for Korean Studies thanks all of the students who entered the 2024 "Comfort Women" Creative Project Contest. 

We were impressed with the range of media of the projects. We are sorry that we could not have an in-person awards ceremony to view all of the entries in person. 

Each student who entered will receive a goodie bag as a thank you, and the top entries will receive Visa gift cards.

Congratulations to our top entries: 

First place: Katie Choo, "Wianbu" ($500 gift card)

Second place: Joyce Kim, "Resilience in the Shadows" ($300 gift card)

Third place: Elvia Mendez, "Never Forget" ($200 gift card)

Special recognition to Cassidy Cheng, "My Prophecy"  and Rainer Lee, "Justice for Comfort Women" ($100 gift card each)

A panel of three judges scored each submission on the following criteria for a maximum of 60 points: originality and creativity of work (10); artistic skill (10); difficulty or complexity of project (10); conveyance of message about "comfort women" (20); and historical accuracy (10). The total scores of the panel were compiled to determine the top three entries but because of the closeness in scores of two other entries, we awarded two additional special recognition prizes.

To view all of the entries as a video, please click 2024 CKS contest entries.

We are pleased to announce the 2024 UCLA Center for Korean Studies "Comfort Women" Creative Project Contest

In 2022, the Center for Korean Studies announced a gift to create a permanent endowment to support creative projects by UCLA students and faculty, together with an online archive, research and programming.

The contest is open to all UCLA undergraduates who are enrolled in the 2024 Spring quarter. Each work must address the topic of "comfort women" in some way in literary (poetry, prose, or video of spoken word), visual (such as drawing, painting, print, textiles, sculpture, ceramics, photography, film, video of performance), or multi-media format.

Students should read this brief article on "comfort women" to familiarize themselves with the topic:

Beverly Milner (Lee) Bisland, Jimin Kim, and Sunghee Shin, “Teaching about the Comfort Women during World War II and the Use of Personal Stories of the Victims,” in Education about Asia 24 no 3 (Winter 2019), https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/teaching-about-the-comfort-women-during-world-war-ii-and-the-use-of-personal-stories-of-the-victims/.

Submissions are due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. 

We will have an in-person showcase of all of the entries and an awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 29, 2024 from 3:30-4:30 pm in 10383 Bunche Hall. First place will win a $500 Visa gift card, second place will win a $300 Visa gift card, and third place will win a $150 Visa gift card. There will also be many non-monetary prizes.

Submit your entry here with your project as a PDF, JPG, or MP4/MOV file along with your completed and signed release form.

Please see the article on last year's contest. 

You can also find out more through the Museum of Social Justice exhibit going on through July 14.

If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Jennifer Jung-Kim at jungkim@ucla.edu. 

Published: Friday, March 1, 2024