The first-ever UNESCO award named after a Chinese figure, the
Confucius Literacy Prize, will debut this September in Qufu,
Confucius' hometown in eastern China's Shandong Province.
The prize, which was approved at a UNESCO Executive Board
conference last year in Paris, aims to award government bodies,
non-government organizations and individuals for outstanding
contributions in the area of universal education.
The Shandong provincial government and the municipal government
of Jining will offer US$150,000 annually for the prize, which was
initiated by Chinese experts in 2001.
Confucius, who is revered in China as a legendary philosopher,
educator and politician in olden times, established Confucianism
and did much to spread his theories that are deemed a mainstay of
Chinese traditional culture.
(CRI July 23, 2006)
