When Fa No-hsin sent her boyfriend a text message saying: "I'm not in your he art ... I'm right downstairs," little did she know it would win her NT$70,000.

Fa, along with other mobile phone users, was honored yesterday in the second annual text message competition held by Taiwan Mobile Foundation, aiming to spur user creativity.

Text-messaging, or sending text messages via handheld devices, has become a new form of writing. The phenomenon is global, as users of cellular phones run wild with their imagination, tapping various buttons on their handset's keypad to craft words and symbols understandable only in the text-messaging vocabulary.

The competition was divided into three categories: messages to lovers, messages to the president, and original ringtone composition. Fifty winners were announced, taking away a total of NT$800,000 in cash prizes. The panel of judges this year included such famed writers and songwriters as Yu Kuang-chung, Chang Hsiao-feng, Chang Ta-chun, and Huang Shu-chun.

The first-place winner in the "lovers" category was Fa, whose message made a big impression on Chang Ta-chun, one of the judges.

"Most messages between lovers go like this, 'Where are you,' 'I'm in your heart,'" Chang said. "But when you say 'I'm not in your heart ... I'm right downstairs,' that's way more interesting."

Chen Li-chen, one of the two second-place winners, was more poetic: "When you came into my life, the numbering of the years began. Send me a message, and take me away from the pre-historic era that was without you."

Tseng Tsai-wang, the other second-place winner, sent a message that was more direct and simple: "Hi, it's me. Hope it's still me after 50 years." Each of the winners got NT$30,000.

The three third-place winners got NT$10,000 each.

Wei Hung-chun, meanwhile, wrote the following entry that got him first-place in the "presidential" category, a line that spoke for the thousands of unemployed in Taiwan: "President Ma, we helped you find your job. Isn't it time you helped us find ours?"

The second-place entry conveyed basically the same idea: "Aren't all the airfares, train fares and bus fares worth my vote?"

As for the original ringtone composition, the first-place honor went to the team of Chen Mei-ying, Chen Mei-chieh, and Hsu Su-wei for their entry, "Your Phone, Your Majesty!" They will split the NT$200,000 prize.

source:the chinapost