2004 KIRIYAMA PRIZE WINNERS ANNOUNCED

Two Canadian Titles Recognized as “Notable Books”

SAN FRANCISCO (March 23, 2004) ­ The 8th annual
Kiriyama Prize was awarded today to novelist Shan Sa,
the 32-year-old author of The Girl Who Played Go
(Chatto and Windus, UK; Alfred A. Knopf, USA); and to
historian Inga Clendinnen for her book exploring the
first years of European settlement in New South Wales,
Dancing with Strangers (Text Publishing, Australia).

The two authors will share equally the US $30,000 cash
award, presented by Pacific Rim Voices, the
independent nonprofit organization dedicated to
celebrating literature that contributes to greater
understanding and cooperation among the peoples and
nations of the Pacific Rim and South Asia.

Also today, Peter J. Coughlan, administrator of the
Prize, announced the 2004 Kiriyama Prize Notable List
of 45 titles, two of which originated in Canada. The
first, Dragon of Heaven: The Memoirs of the Last
Empress of China by David Bouchard (with paintings by
Zuong-Yang Huang) (Raincoast Books, Canada), is the
beautifully illustrated, fictionalized memoir of
Tz-u-his, a former Imperial concubine who ruled China
for decades from "behind the bamboo curtain" while her
lover, her son, and finally her nephew actually sat on
the throne. The book includes fascinating details
about court-life during the period Tz-u-his lived and
presents a convincing account of how this
self-determined woman achieved power in a
male-dominated world. The second Canadian notable
book is INITIATION by Virginia Frances Schwartz
(Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Canada). This novel, aimed at
a young-adult audience, is a gripping coming-of-age
story, based on a Kwakiutl myth about the salmon. The
book not only tells a great story, it may also inspire
a deeper understanding of the First Nations peoples of
northwest British Columbia — and respect for the
environment besides. The list of 20 fiction and 25
nonfiction books comprise a contemporary bibliography
of importance to readers, librarians and educators.
[The complete list can be found at
www.kiriyamaprize.org]

The Girl Who Played Go: Shan Sa’s novel ­ the first of
her books to be translated into English ­ is set
against the brutal backdrop of war-torn Manchuria in
the 1930s. It chronicles the story of a spirited
16-year-old Chinese girl and a Japanese soldier in
disguise. Their paths cross in the occupied town
square over a game of Go, the ancient Chinese board
game that requires artful strategy and skill. As the
game’s complexities are revealed, so are the
characters’ motivations ­ and their surprising fates.

Shan Sa was born in 1972 in Beijing. In 1990 she left
China for France, where she studied in Paris and
worked for two years with the painter Balthus. Her
two previous novels were awarded the Prix Goncourt du
Premier Roman and the Prix Cazes. The Girl Who Played
Go (translated by Adriana Hunter) is also available in
19 other languages, and is being adapted for film.

[A review of The Girl Who Played Go and a conversation
with the Kiriyama Prize judges are published in
WaterBridge Review www.waterbridgereview.org, a free
online newsletter sponsored by Pacific Rim Voices.]

Dancing with Strangers: The title of Inga
Clendinnen’s book is a metaphor for the initial
contact in the late 18th century between two vastly
different peoples: the British settlers and Aboriginal
Australians. (“The Australians and the British began
their relationship,” Dr. Clendinnen writes, “by
dancing together.”) The centerpiece of this immensely
readable book is the vivid recreation of the events
surrounding the spearing of Governor Phillip at Manly
Cove in 1790. By retracing the difficulties in the
way of understanding people of different cultures, the
author’s stated hope is for greater tolerance and
social justice.

Inga Clendinnen is also the author of Reading the
Holocaust, a New York Times Best Book of the Year in
1999, and winner of the New South Wales Premier’s
General History Award. Her 1999 Australian
Broadcasting Corporation Boyer Lectures, True Stories,
were published in 2000, as was her award-winning
memoir Tiger’s Eye. She lectured for many years in
the La Trobe University History Department, Melbourne,
and now lives in Townsville, Australia.

[For a review of Dancing with Strangers and a
conversation with the Kiriyama Prize judges, visit
WaterBridge Review www.waterbridgereview.org, a free
online newsletter sponsored by Pacific Rim Voices.]

*

The 2004 Kiriyama Prize fiction finalists included
Brick Lane by Monica Ali (Random House, Australia;
Transworld Publishers/Doubleday, UK; Simon &
Schuster/Scribner, USA); My Life as a Fake by Peter
Carey (Random House, Australia and Canada; Faber &
Faber, UK; Alfred A. Knopf, USA); The Great Fire by
Shirley Hazzard (Virago/Little Brown, UK; Farrar,
Straus & Giroux, USA); The Guru of Love by Samrat
Upadhyay (Houghton Mifflin Company, USA).

This year’s nonfiction finalists were White Mughals:
Love and Betrayal in Eighteenth Century India by
William Dalrymple (Penguin Books, India;
HarperCollins, UK; Viking, USA); Out of God's Oven:
Travels in a Fractured Land by Dom Moraes and Sarayu
Srivatsa (Penguin Books, India); Secrets and Spies:
The Harbin Files by Mara Moustafine (Random House,
Australia); and Kamikaze, Cherry Blossoms, and
Nationalisms: The Militarization of Aesthetics in
Japanese History by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierny (University of
Chicago Press).

*

The Kiriyama Prize is awarded annually in recognition
of outstanding books that promote greater
understanding of and among the nations of the Pacific
Rim (East and Southeast Asia, Australia, Pacific
Islands, Canada, Mexico, New Zealand, the United
States, and the Pacific-bordering nations of Latin
America) and of the South Asian subcontinent. Authors
from anywhere in the world are eligible, provided that
their work is written in English or translated into
English, and that it relates to the nations of the
Pacific Rim or South Asia in a significant way.

Past finalists and winners include Canadian authors Gu
Hua, Michael David Kwan, Rohinton Mistry, Michael
Ondaatje, and Kerri Sakamoto. Other past winners and
finalists include Sherman Alexie, Cheng Ch’ing-wen,
Carlos Fuentes, Patricia Grace, Ha Jin, Ruth L. Ozeki,
Elena Poniatowska, Pascal Khoo Thwe, Pramoedya Ananta
Toer, Simon Winchester, and Tim Winton.

Along with the Kiriyama Prize, Pacific Rim Voices
(www.pacificrimvoices.org) continues to develop a
family of projects celebrating literature from and
about the Pacific Rim and South Asia:

Interviews with authors and critics, capsule reviews,
and a roundup of relevant news and events are all
featured in the free newsletter WaterBridge Review
www.waterbridgereview.org available online and by
email upon request.

Recognizing the importance of nurturing among young
people an appreciation and respect for other cultures,
Pacific Rim Voices also sponsors www.PaperTigers.org,
a website offering a lively, colorful presentation of
children’s and young adults’ books and featuring
reviews, interviews, and a virtual gallery of picture
book illustrations.

For more information about the 2004 Kiriyama Prize
Winners, Finalists, and Notable List, visit
www.kiriyamaprize.org or call Jeannine Cuevas, Prize
Manager at (415) 777-1628.