The awarded with Casa Asia Award 2007, the Jesuit Kike Figaredo and the People's Literature Publishing House of China, received Casa Asia Award 2007 on the 30th of December by Princess Cristina. The jury, gathered last July, decided to acknowledge, on the one hand, Jesuit Kike Figaredo for his work in favour of the victims of the explosion of antipersonnel mines in Cambodia and for the great social task he develops in this country of Southeast Asia. On the other hand, the jury also awarded the great dissemination of literature in Spanish in China of Latin American and Spanish authors carried out by the publishing house, as well as the starting of a collection of literature entirely written by women.
The presentation of the award included the participation of the Mayor of Barcelona and President of the Governing Board of Casa Asia, Jordi Hereu, the Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Mª Jesús Figa, and the Director General of Casa Asia, Jesús Sanz. Kike Figaredo personally received the award, which consists of a prize of 6.000 € in cash and a commemorative trophy, whereas in representation of the publishing house, Hu Zhencai, the Senior Publisher, collected it.
Moreover, the jury also mentioned Veer Bhadra Mishra, spiritual leader of the temple Sankat Mochan, and Abdul Batin Nomani, Imam of the Mosque Gyanvapi, for his contribution to peace and harmony between Hindu and Muslim communities of Varanasi, as a result of the attacks of the 7th of March 2006 at the Hindu Temple of Sankat Mochan, attributed to an Islamic group. According to the jury, both personalities are an example for other religious leaders in the management of communal conflicts.
The jury of Casa Asia Award 2007 is made up of Joan Trullén, Secretary General of Industry of the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce; Roser Clavell, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Autonomous Government of Catalonia (Generalitat); José Eugenio Salarich, Director General of Foreign Policy for Asia-Pacific of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation; Antonia Sabartés, Director of International Relations of the Barcelona City Council; Ignacio Niño, Coordinator General of Strategy and International Action of Madrid City Council; Carmen García Ormaechea, Professor at the University Complutense of Madrid; writers Asha Miró and Anna Maria Briongos; writer and journalist Andrés Ortega; and Jesús Sanz, Director General of Casa Asia. Josep Vargas, Secretary General of Casa Asia, acted as secretary.
The awarded
People's Literature Publishing House of China is one of the most important publishing houses on a national scale and holds the first position among all the publishing houses of literature and art in China. It publishes classical and contemporary literature from China and abroad. For more than 50 years, it has published more than 8.000 titles with a circulation of 700 million copies. Since its foundation in 1951, it has translated and published a great number of Spanish classics such as La Regenta, La Celestina, El Buscón or Platero y yo. It also holds, among its titles, the first direct translation to Chinese of El Quijote, carried out in 1978 by Yang Jiang, who is also the first work published in Spanish in China.
Despite the Agreement of Berna about Chinese Intellectual Property of the 90s, which forced publishing houses to reduce their stock of foreign literature, this house has maintained a constant rhythm of publications of Catalan, Spanish and Latin American literature. Moreover, since 2001 it grants an award to the best work in Spanish, which is translated to Chinese and published. The awarded writers have been, in this order, La piel del cielo, by Elena Poniatowska, El vuelo de la reina, by Tomás Eloy Martínez, Los amigos del crimen perfecto, by Andrés Trapiello, Angosta, by Héctor Abad and La hora azul, by Alonso Cueto.
Owing to the Year of Spain in China, the publishing house has prepared the publication, between 2007 and 2008, of 12 new titles of contemporary Spanish literature that make up a collection of gender literature. This collection includes works by Carmen Martín Gaite, Elvira Lindo, Rosa Regás, Carmen Laforet, Belén Gopegui, Maruja Torres and other acknowledged Spanish writers. Among the publications of 2007 we find titles, already edited, such as Nada by Carmen Laforet or La canción de Dorotea, by Rosa Regàs. The list of 2008 will included works such as El lado frío de la almohada, by Belén Copegui, El hueco de tu cuerpo, by Paula Izquierdo, Irse de casa, by Carmen Martín Gaite, Una palabra tuya, by Elvira Lindo, and Recóndita armonía, by Marina Mayoral. The publication of an anthology by Leopoldo Alas Clarín is also being prepared.
The fact that its editorial stock includes not only classical works -of which royalties are paid-, but also literature by writer who are alive, as well as the creation of a collection of literature written by women, which has a special meaning for the jury, and its project contributes in an unquestionable manner to a better mutual understanding of both societies.
Monsignor Kike Figaredo, known as the "Bishop of wheelchairs", was born in Gijón in 1959. He discovered his religious vocation and of service while he studied Economics and taught humble class adults: "I wanted to give numbers a face", he affirms. In 1985, six years after joining the Company of Jesus, he stood as a voluntary for the Jesuit Service for Refugees and was assigned to the Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand. He only went back to Spain to finish his studies -he graduated in Economics, Theology and Philosophy- and was ordained Jesuit priest in 1992. Since then, Father Kike dedicated his life to crippled people, and definitely settled in Cambodia, where he is prefect apostolic of Battambang.
Even if Cambodia has been in peace for more than 10 years, the effects of the war are still present. The antipersonnel mines that were spread around the country during the war between Vietnam and Cambodia are far too many. According to Figaredo himself, Cambodia is the country with most mines per person: a high percent of the people of the country are affected by the mines, one person per 240 has been injured and everyday there are around three new accidents. The effects of the mines do not only affect the physical security of people, but they also make the Government direct part of its funds to tasks of elimination and forget other issues such as building schools, infrastructures or irrigation systems.
Figaredo has begun several initiatives to collect funds and help these victims. Among others, he has founded, together with the Jesuit Service of Refugees, the "House of the Pigeon" in Phnom Penh, capital of the Kingdom of Cambodia. There, education and formation to mutilated children by explosions is given and workshops have been developed so mutilated children build wheelchairs following the "Mekong" model (wooden wheelchair with three wheels). Figaredo actively collaborated with the International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL, International Campaign for the Banning of Antipersonnel Mines), project that obtained the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997, and was directed to the Treaty of Ottawa, signed last year, which bans production, use, commercialization and warehousing of antipersonnel mines. It was originally signed by 122 countries in 1997 and, in February of 2004, was undersigned by 152 and ratified by 144.
The Spanish Government granted the Great Cross of the Civil Order of Solidarity in 2004, for the extraordinary social task that he has carried out in favour of disabled people and marginated people of the Asian country. On the 14th of June 2007 he received the Emilio Barbón Foundation Award for his example for constant search of overcoming solidarity and committment with the most needy sectors of society. First the refugees and, years ago, war cripples. In November of this year, Foundation Vocento granted him Vocento Award to Human Values in its eleventh edition.
More information about Casa Asia Award 2007