Comment

National Model Worker honor to foreigners meaningless

By Dan Chun (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-07 08:53

The State Council has recently drafted a new regulation suggesting that foreigners who have made outstanding contributions to China's socialist modernization be awarded the honor of a "National Model Worker".

Obviously, the move is a reflection of China's increasing openness. However, it may have no practical meaning due to the current selecting system.

I don't think it's wise to commend all-star performers with the honor of "National Model Worker". We are already offering titles exclusively for foreigners, such as "Dunhuang Award" by Gansu province, "Qilu Friendship Award" by Shandong province and others like "Honored Citizen" and "Distinguished foreign expert" from other cities.

It seems that the honor of "National Model Worker" is getting increasingly distant from the ordinary people and tending to become a status symbol of the elite. What we need to do right now is to honor more ordinary workers with this title instead of starting to involve the foreign elite.

According to a comment by Sun Liping on the problematic selecting process for national model workers, giving the title to celebrities may result in a diminishing marginal satisfaction for them. And the stars may feel tired of people's admiration. If the title is given to more ordinary workers rather than celebrities, it may motivate more people to follow the example.

Just imagine how weird it would be if Bill Gates or Warren Buffett are selected as "National Model Workers". To be rational, a regulation must first and foremost be made to address a specific situation.

If many foreigners are contributing their time and energy in China and there are no proper awards to acknowledge their efforts, such a new regulation may have some meaning. Unfortunately, the realities don't merit the regulation on conferring such an honor on foreigners.

The problem with the award system is that it provides more decoration to the elite who already enjoy a lot of fame; while there is not enough honor for common workers. Therefore, I think the draft regulation should adjust their criteria and make the people pay more attention to the grassroots workers.

As to our foreign friends, we already have various awards for them. There is no need to worry if they will be ignored.

(Excerpts of a comment that appeared in qianlong.com on Jan 6.)