With a story titled “Humans Vs. Aliens”, Ong Chen Xi from Jr2Z(2) of Kuen Cheng High School became one of the Young Author Award 2020 winners. On the 17th of July, Chen Xi’s book was launched along with 4 others via Facebook Live, making him one of the three students in Kuen Cheng to receive the award.
Touching on deeper and more concerning subjects, Chen Xi’s book “Humans Vs. Aliens” talks about racial discrimination. It tells the tale of how aliens known as Hemans crash-landed into Africa. The Hemans were then brought to a facility where they were forced to learn the ways of humans or face harsh punishment if they didn’t. One day, an alien named Hephaestus who was not happy with this manages to escape and finds a city where he then meets Elijah, a human. The rest of the story writes about how the two manage to save the other aliens.
With several cases of racial discrimination on the uprise in 2020, Chen Xi wanted to shed light on the situation, especially given the occurrence of the Black Lives Matter movement. He found the topic highly important since it is still happening all around the world, so he wanted to help spread the message by using humans and aliens as a metaphor for modern racism.
Though Chen Xi has a deep interest in writing, he states that he faced burnout and writer’s block when writing the story. It was very hard for him to write a 5000-word story in two days, and he claims that he definitely faced a fair share of writer’s block. Even with the difficulties he faced, Chen Xi was determined to finish his piece with encouragement from his father.
Having written the story in just two days, Chen Xi was surprised to be shortlisted, especially since he only submitted the first draft, which he wasn’t satisfied with. He mentions that writing a story last minute is not advised. Instead, aspiring writers should plan out their story much earlier and try to be straightforward with their writing, capturing the eyes of their audience using their plot instead of bombastic words. He also advises writers to read more variety so that writers may apply their knowledge to their writing.
To those who are interested, Chen Xi’s book, “Humans Vs. Aliens” is now available for purchase at Janus Education e-store with a 20% discount until the 21st of August.
