2007-9-17

The Nobel Prize has a history of more than a hundred years, but the disputes and expectation of Chinese people lingering on it are finally accumulated into a unsolved complex. The latest survey which analyzed the Nobel Prizes in Literature from the point of view of most Chinese people showed several hot findings, i.e., who is the litterateur most deserved the award in the hearts of Chinese people; who is the forever pity in the history of Nobel Prize in Literature; and whether it is fair or not for China, etc. The report was released from the book named Master Classics which was edited by Jianzhao Wang, and published by Hainan Press House. The book has two volumes, with classic works selected from writings of 20 leading writers who were awarded with Nobel Prize in Literature and another 20 writers who missed the prize according to the investigation results. The participators involved in the investigation consist of translators, scholars, writers, and students from the departments of Chinese Language of Beijing University and Beijing Normal University. They achieved a common understanding on the Nobel Prize in Literature as follows:

-20 leading writers who were awarded the Nobel Prize
The result from questionnaires indicated that the Nobel Laureates enjoying high reputation in the hearts of Chinese readers are Hemingway, Sholokhov, Marquez, Romain Rolland, Pasternak, Sartre, Beckett, Faulkner, Thomas Mann, Yasunari Kawabata, Yeats, Camus, Russell, Tagore, Hesse, Eliot, Bernard Shaw, Solzhenitsyn, Neruda, and Bunin, among which, Hemingway was listed top with absolute advantage. The result indicated that the people in China had expressed positive evaluation over the exploratory and advancement reflected in the creation process of poets, novelists and dramatist, however, the key points to move readers remained also in the determination of theme, lasting appeal and the literal information of the works.

-20 masters who missed Nobel Prize in Literature
The list was a typical Nobel Complex of Chinese people, with 20 famous masters: Luxun, Kafka, Joyce, Leo Tolstoy, Hardy, Kundera, Borges, Nabokov, Yi Bo Sheng, Shen Congwen, Prust, Chekhov, Rilke, Gorky, Laoshe, Zola, Valery, Laurens, Manjestam and Akhmatova. It is obvious that Luxun covered an unshakable top position in the hearts of Chinese people, however, when Luxun knew he was nominated for Nobel Prize in Literature in 1927, he said, 'Qichao Liang, definitely not deserved the award of Nobel Prize; me too. I still need hard working for the cash award......I feel no man in China deserve the money.'His words expressed the consciousness and steady of an excellent writer.

-Nobel Prize in Literature is not that fair
When being asked whether the assessment process of Nobel Prize is fair or not, most people would choose to answer: it is hard to say; but for other questions regarding Nobel Prize, more scholars and writers than students would choose fair. Therefore, it indicated that scholars and writers who knew better about the assessment principle of the Nobel Prize had a rational view of point.

The follow-up corresponding investigation also indicated that the geography and languages were commonly regarded as the fatal influential factors in the process of prize assessment. The Nobel Committee, located in Sweden, a Northern European country, would inevitably look after the support from powers of culture and economy, which means, it would pay more attention to the culture works of these countries. It was reported that one member of this committee once professed the Nobel Prize in Literature was just an award for western countries.

-The Nobel Prize is pushing forward the worldwide development of literature
It is a rational conclusion. Most people who submitted the questionnaires expressed strong dissatisfaction against the Western-oriented awarding of Nobel Prize in Literature, however, they still gave a positive appraise of it.

- Novels playing a primary role in world literature circle
During this round of investigation, people selected and ranked 20 litterateurs from Nobel Laureates, and found the novelists had overwhelming advantages over other top 10 writers, which again indicated that the narrative prose played an important role in spirit and culture spreading; however, the so-called poem of elegance was unfrequented in common reading.

-The culture interest is apt to the Western standards and assessment
The investigation showed that most questionnaire fillers read books written by limited number of Western European and American writers, but knew less about the works of Soyinka and Janssen which won Nobel Prize in Literature. This, from another view point, reflected the Western-oriented culture trend in our country, and our ignorance of Asian and African literatures. Therefore, even more people blamed the Western-centered culture chauvinism, but they deeply agreed with western assessment and standards in their hearts.

-Difference between man and woman in literature assessment
Yasunari Kawabata, judging by the questionnaires from Beijing Normal University, became the most favorite Nobel Laureate in Literature; but his ranking was not that top in the hearts of other crowds. The reason was that there were only 5 male questionnaire fillers from Beijing Normal University, while the female readers gave Yasunari Kawabata very positive evaluation, because they loved the sad but sweet atmosphere created by Yasunari Kawabata in his works.