Comment

Casting wary eye on prize

By Andrew Graham (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-04-26 08:12

People like to receive awards. One only has to sit through one of the annual media gush-fests with its endless roll calls of name-checks and thank-you's, and forced smiles and tears-to-order, to see how dear they are to thespians.

Being told you have done a good job, having the value of your work commended, is a universal desire. Receiving that acknowledgement in concrete form, whether it be a bonus, a pay rise or strange statuette, is even more fulfilling, especially as it quite often entails future financial benefits as well. An Oscar-winning actor can go from B list to A overnight. Never mind the kudos, it does his bank balance no harm at all.

The bigger the stage, the more gratifying it is. The Nobel Prizes are probably the most prestigious awards of all and the Peace Prize the most coveted as anyone can win it; you don't need specialist knowledge in chemistry, medicine or physics. Coveted, that is, until its credibility was brought in to question with decision to award the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize to Barack Obama.

A strange choice because no matter what your views are on the man and his mission, he had only been US president a little more than eight months and had no manifest peace achievements to boast of. It wasn't exactly an inspirational choice; the Nobel Committee obviously got caught up in the rhetorical flow.

That's the problem with awards: they usually involve double-talk or subtext.

Take the Beijing Model Worker title, which is awarded every five years. This year, for the first time, Beijing honored foreigners. On the list are Dr Luc Picard, 73, an expert on interventional neuroradiology, who was honored for his training and guidance of more than 10,000 Chinese medical workers since the 1970s, and pharmaceutical engineer Kishi Akira, 56, who was honored for his work with a Chinese company developing a system to deliver targeted drugs to patients.

Both men have obviously worked hard to succeed in their chosen fields. Their peers clearly wished to recognize their achievements, or they wouldn't have been nominated in the first place. They deserve an award, but is the Beijing Model Worker title the right one?

A model worker is supposed to inspire other citizens to greater efforts. As the country has changed, so too have the model workers. In the 1950s, when the first model workers were selected, "proletarian self-sacrifice" was the name of the game, and manual laborers were the chosen ones. Then, as the country shifted from agriculture to industry, scientists and engineers became the standard for others to aspire to, followed by entrepreneurs and managers as the country began to embrace a market economy.

Awarding the title to foreigners isn't going to inspire that many Chinese citizens, not unless they are looking to become expats themselves.

The words of Huo Lianming, vice-president of the Beijing municipal federation of trade unions, explains why foreigners were included this year: "Honoring foreigners as model workers shows the openness of the city and its determination to attract talent from all over the world."

So, the awards weren't actually bestowed in recognition of the two men's achievements, they were merely part of the government's economic agenda.

Perhaps, it's time for the city to come up with a new award. Beijing could honor the achievements of Akira and Picard and countless others with an award that actually says "thank you" for making the city a better place, and then everyone would be eligible and the awards would actually have some meaning.