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Hong Kong Harvard Book Prize scholarship winners started young

Four winners of HK$110,000 prize all began reading books at an early age

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From left: Ariel Chan, Parmeet Kaur, Lau King-heng and Chau Tak-huen, winners of the Harvard Book Prize. Photos: May Tse

When Ariel Chan Hin-man read the book by American author Ned Vizzini three years ago, it gave her a more positive outlook on life.

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Back then, she was a pessimistic teenager who often placed herself in a victim's role when things went wrong.

But this book - about a suicidal teenager who awoke to the fact of his blessed life in a hospital - inspired her to stop finding excuses for not facing up to adversity.

"I realised that using depression as an excuse was a terrible thing. Many people are, in fact, less privileged. The experience caused a 180-degree change in my outlook," says Ariel, a student at Hong Kong University Graduate Association College. She is one of four recipients of the Harvard Book Prize scholarships worth HK$110,000 each. The winners beat more than 110 candidates after rounds of interviews about their aspirations and responses to the impact social networks had on their lives. All contestants were nominated by their schools for their reading habits.

The Harvard Book Prize, set up by university alumni who have formed 180 clubs in 70 countries, has been around for more than 100 years.

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The Hong Kong chapter was established in 2005. Traditionally, a book written by a Harvard scholar was offered as the prize. This year's selection is physicist Nicholas Christakis' .

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