100 students in Lijiang win "individuality scholarship"

An award ceremony for a scholarship that stresses individuality is held in Lijiang on Sept 13.

A student who received the individuality scholarship and wrote the award's name in Dongba characters, hands her artwork to the event's organizer.

Students who won the individuality scholarship show their certificates.

A total of 100 children received the Huatuo Lunjian individuality scholarship at a ceremony at Lijiang No 1 middle school on Sept 13, xinhuanet.com reported. Each of the students received 10,000 yuan ($1635).

The individuality scholarship was established in Shanghai in 2011 by a businessman named Yan Jiehe, and it awards a total of 100 million yuan ($16.35 million) a year to students who demonstrate distinctive personalities, rather than those who display only academic merit.

The ceremony marked the third time that the award ceremony was held in Yunnan province this year, after similar ceremonies in Mengzi and Dali.

The scholarship's assessment criteria include individuality, intelligence, kindness, diligence and vigorousness and a candidate's individuality is considered to be the most important aspect during the selection.

Half of the students who receive the scholarship are from senior middle schools, 30 percent attend junior middle schools and 20 percent go to primary schools.

Edited by Niva Whyman