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)