Wednesday, December 08, 2010

China creates new Serve China prize

A committee in China has invented a faux Nobel peace prize, the Confucius Peace Prize, which is being given this year for the first time, to none other than longtime authoritarian and KMT heavyweight Lien Chan, whose son was shot by mistake the other day. AFP reports:
Named after the famed philosopher, the new prize was created to "interpret the viewpoints of peace of (the) Chinese (people)," the awards committee said in a statement it released to the AP on Tuesday.

Awards committee chairman Tan Changliu said his group was not an official government body, but acknowledged that it worked closely with the Ministry of Culture. He declined to give specifics about the committee, when it was created and how the five judges were chosen, saying it would be disclosed later.

The first honoree is Lien Chan, Taiwan's former vice president and the honorary chairman of its Nationalist Party, for having "built a bridge of peace between the mainland and Taiwan." A staffer in his Taipei office said she could not comment Tuesday because she knew nothing about the prize.

.....

Tan, who leads the awards committee, acknowledged that the new prize, which comes with a purse of 100,000 yuan ($15,000), doesn't have international recognition: "It needs to grow gradually, and we hope people will believe the award is of global significance."
This victim mentality prize? Note how the prize is envisioned -- for fulfilling the Chinese definition of peace, opposing "China" to the international standard. Scary/hilarious. The first choice, of Lien Chan, is sublimely parodic, the perfect culmination to a profoundly silly idea. The stinginess of the award, a mere $15,000, is the cherry on top of this dessert. How different this idea is from the USSR's Nobel parody, the Lenin (originally Stalin) Peace Prize, "awarded by a panel appointed by the Soviet government, to notable individuals whom the panel indicated had 'strengthened peace among peoples'" (Wiki). The prize went to Communists and sympathizers, but even so, the USSR felt that a pretense of universality was necessary.
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9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love how it is exemplified by Confucius... hater of women and enemy of the proletariat.

Ben Goren said...

Let's not all forget that Chinese are Exceptional. Their interpretation of peace is of course singularly and distinctly different to the rest of the world - a peace that can only be interpreted by and between Chinese. Much in the same way the sun's heat is experienced in a completely different way in China because they are Exceptional and have 5000 years of Exceptionalism to prove it. Come to think of it, I heard they even breathe in a different way that foreigners will never understand. Ok. rant over.

D said...

I want to see if Lien will accept, and if he doesn't (won't even he be embarrassed by this?) how he goes about declining it. This could be a good show, but my bet is that China backs off on it for fear of setting off anti-KMT sentiments in Taiwan.

The list of 18 countries that join China in boycotting this year's Nobel ceremony is an interesting mix of trade ties and insecure dictatorships. Of course Iraq and Afghanistan are on board.

Afghanistan, Columbia, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Pakistan, Philippines, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sudan, Tunisia, Ukraine, Venezuela, Vietnam

Anonymous said...

I predict Kissinger in 2011.

Anonymous said...

Ben, that was a good one.

Anon: re: Kissinger, yep. Maybe Maurice Greenberg too.

Unknown said...

Saudi Arabia boycotted the Nobels. Need we say more? Douches!
Down with Wahabis, authoritarians, and the politically correct!

Anonymous said...

"Anonymous said...
I love how it is exemplified by Confucius... hater of women and enemy of the proletariat."

If the old rumors are true, that adds another level of irony to the choice of Lien Chan.

Anonymous said...

Hm... shouldn't this price be awarded to _foreigners_? :)

Brandon said...

This is so great to hear when China would receive that. When could America have it too?