Campus design award celebrates heritage, digital innovation in Beijing

The 2024-2025 Perfect World Campus Art Design Award concluded Monday in Beijing, highlighting how young creators are drawing on traditional culture while embracing fast-developing digital and AI-driven art forms.

The competition's award ceremony took place at the historic Zhihua Temple in Dongcheng district. Winners were chosen across categories for cultural products, digital art and international short films, with honors also presented to standout educators. Ten incubated products were featured at the event.

Cultural and creative products are showcased at the award ceremony for the 2024-2025 Perfect World Campus Art Design Award in Beijing, Nov. 10, 2025. [Photo courtesy of Perfect World]

Launched in 2020, the competition has become a major platform connecting traditional Chinese culture with the creativity of young designers.

Over the past five years, it has attracted more than 20,000 students from nearly 800 universities around the world and generated over 11,000 submissions, including entries from almost 100 overseas institutions.

Outstanding works from this year's competition were also presented overseas, appearing at the Beijing-London Short Film Festival and the Oriental Odyssey Digital Art Exhibition in London, marking the event's first large-scale appearance overseas.

Wang Tiefeng, director of the Dongcheng District Bureau of Culture and Tourism, stated that the event has evolved into an ecosystem that supports cultural preservation, creative design, commercial incubation and student development.

"It has continued to deliver high-quality ideas and practical outcomes for Dongcheng's cultural and creative sector," Wang said.

Keeping pace with new trends, the contest added digital and artificial intelligence design categories in its third year, including AI-generated images, music and short films. Entries in this year's AIGC short film and digital art category blend international perspectives with creative technology.

"Technological innovation is one of the competition's defining features," said Yi Di, senior vice president and editor-in-chief of Perfect World, a co-organizer of the event."With technology as its core driver, the competition continues to introduce new themes. As one of the first university-level contests in China to establish an AIGC art category, it has already produced a significant pool of design, operations and cross-disciplinary talent, helping ease industry shortages and becoming an important talent pipeline."

This year's ceremony also featured a nighttime tour of Zhihua Temple as part of Dongcheng's Intangible Cultural Heritage Renewal initiative. An immersive experience inside the nearly 600-year-old complex was developed by Perfect World's digital art team, highlighting ways technology can bring historic spaces to life.

The competition is jointly organized by the Dongcheng District Bureau of Culture and Tourism and Perfect World Holding Group.