To the Chinese, a tripod suggests a heritage of authoritative presence, so it has been adopted as an award for outstanding publications in the Republic of China. Each year, Golden Tripod Awards are presented by the government to affirm to authors that their works are as valuable as gold...that their words are as authoritative as the symbolic effect of the tripod.
Since the Golden Tripod Awards were established in 1976, the presentation ceremony has been annually improved. Cartoons, slides, and multimedia effects are used to introduce winners to the audience. In the last two years, the whole goings-on have been televised live to arouse the interest of the general public, with striking success.
Last year's presentation, held December 22, is rated as the most successful, witnessing substantial improvement over previous efforts. In the past, the event aroused limited interest from publishers, authors, and audience because there were far too many winners; almost any entry could win a prize, and no winner was happy at heart. In 1982, the number of awards and of categories was drastically reduced.
Entertainment between awards lightened the evening for both the audience and TV viewers
The 1982 awards covered four categories—magazines, journalism, phonographs, and books. In the book category there were five awards; the other categories were allotted three winners each. This reduction made the competition more lively than before, and the winners began to feel that they really were the best in their respective categories.
Despite the reduction in categories, a composers' award and a news editors' award were added to the phonograph and journalism categories. This was done on the basis that, while a song writer gives more life to a song, the composer actually makes it live, and though a reporter can write or present a top report, it cannot be discerned by readers or audience if it is not properly handled by a competent editor and well illustrated with headlines and pictures.
In the past, the winner of a Golden Tripod Award received no cash prize, so many criticized the Golden Tripod as a pot without real gold. Aware, also, that the publishing industry has encountered great difficulties amid the worldwide economic recession, the government decided this year to accompany each Tripod with a monetary award—NT$100,000 (US$2,500) for an organizational winner and NT$30,000 (US$750) for each individual winner. These welcome, if somewhat scanty, awards added up to NT$1.68 million (US$42,000).
Presentor and awardee—Fewer in number, greater in significance
Unlike past practice, when the awards were presented at lesser known premises, the government took pains to establish the ornate Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall as the setting for the 1982 occasion. This change heightened the audience's awareness of the importance accorded the event: male guests spontaneously wore dark suits, and ladies, long gowns. One woman writer even had a purple gown and a pair of purple shoes custom-made for the occasion. She later told a bemused press of her affection for purple-including purple eggplants for meals, with purple grapes for dessert.
Two top television news anchor persons—Kao Hsin-tan and Miss Li Yen-chiu—were selected as co-masters of ceremony. Kao opened the ceremony by chanting a doggerel:
It is not easy to preside over a pageant,
Because all participants have great
talent.
If my introductory words seem unhappy,
Ladies and gentlemen please do not
blame me.
Entertainers in traditional costumes recall the olden days
His humorous approach cut the ice; the restless audience responded with laughter. Even the very venerable writers and imposing public figures invited to present the awards became equally humorous. Prof. Hsia Yuan-yu, for example, remarked on stage, "I have been invited to present awards several times, but I have never gotten one for myself. Tonight, I hope I can make a deal with a young winner to switch roles. For he is still young and will still have many opportunities, whereas I am now too old to wait."
Since the presentations are a cultural event, the preparatory committee took pains to give them a distinctly Chinese cultural flavor. All beams and pillars in the theater were painted in crisp Chinese colors within traditional Chinese patterns. The entire event was interposed with Chinese culture-linked stage performances to assure its entertainment value.
Premier Sun Yun-suan has joined the occasion for the last two years. At the 1981 ceremony, he expressed his wish to "see more people read books." He noted that in the Republic of China, 99.6 percent of all homes had access to electric power and expressed the hope that this percentage would someday also apply to good books. Taking a cue from the Premier, the Government Information Office (GIO), which sponsored the event, helped 40 publishing houses and book distribution companies to join in issuance of NT$10 million worth of book-purchase coupons for people to buy and send to friends as gifts. These were sold out within three months. Now, a second issue is on sale and the number of participating companies has increased to 100.
In coordination with the 1982 presentation of the Golden Tripod Awards, GIO and the Central Library of the Republic of China jointly organized a major book show. All 2,756 titles on display were published in the award year. Though the books on show were not themselves for sale, many visitors placed orders for friends and relatives abroad.
Performer and spotlight—An appropriate metaphor for the awards
Following the award presentations, there was some criticism that the selection jurors had laid too much emphasis on the "theme" of each book chosen, and not enough on the total content, in their determinations of the winners. Others charged that many of the awards went to big books and big publishing companies, to the neglect of the works published by small companies.
An organizing official noted that the publisher of one of the winning books, White Cloud Cultural Enterprises, was so small in terms of capitalization that it did not even have a checking account. The company won the award with its colorful book, Miracle in the Insect World. As for themes, the same official said, "You can't win them all; it was the jurors' decision, and the Government Information Office had no say."
The jurors included almost all of the best known literature professors, associated scholars, artists, writers, and librarians, and most people could easily identify who was who. One critic charged there were too many scholars on the jury, and that the book-winners for this year were too scholastic as a result. The GIO fell that whether the winning titles were too scholastic was really a matter of opinion, and commented that everyone recognized, nevertheless, that all the jurors were disinterested personalities—people unconnected with any publishing house. He noted that the Republic of China had presented Golden Tripod Awards for only seven years, and acknowledged they were still far from perfect. "There is still a long way to go before they can become the Pulitzer Prizes of the Republic of China," he said wryly.
Because the Golden Tripod Awards now arouse widespread interest, some suggest that non-governmental organizations serve as its sponsors. The problems are: the publishing industry and related organizations do not yet have the finances, and each group, also, does not have a knowledge of developments outside its respective field. Government policy is to develop the event step by step and to let non-government circles take over when they are fully prepared to take on all the preparations.
The 1982 Golden Tripod Awards ceremony is over, but is still echoing in the minds of many people. It was not perfect, but it was the closest thing.