The Man Asian Literary Prize — sponsorship and marginalisation

The Man Asian Prize for literature existed from 2007 to 2013, it supported pan-Asian authors, anyone from 34 Asian countries was eligible. Then the sponsors Man group, who sponsor the main Booker prize pulled their funding and stopped the prize.

I found this out from my Observations of the Library piece, I found a South Korean writer called Kyung-Sook Shin.

As I googled Shin I found she won the Man Asian Literary Prize. Going down the rabbit hole on Wikipedia I discovered the prize and sponsorship.

But the Man group continue to sponsor the main Booker Prize. The prize focusing on a significant part of global literature and increased awareness of world writers gets cancelled but the white Western centric prize continues.

The Asian Prize was open to citizens or residents of 34 Asian countries. Even though they awarded prizes to novels in English or translated into English, it still massively championed Asian writers and awareness of Asian literature in the Western world.

This reliance on sponsorship and funding means support for diversity is only there as long as those in power choose to support it. Awareness of world literature (and all other kinds of art) is at the mercy of the people who control the purse strings and their own agendas.

Which is so often white Westerners.

Was the prize no longer valuable? No longer financially viable? Not making Man Group enough money? That’s what it so often comes down to, no altruism, no concern for representation, just the bottom line.

And a story such as this illustrates the tough time we have. A great Asian centric lit prize gets championed for a bit but then the sponsors pull out, Asian literature fades once again into the background until someone else decides to start another initiative.

It’s very difficult to keep a constant forward momentum, keep interest growing when the world is against us.

I saw it in classical music all the time, it’s the same for so many marginalised groups. Awareness and support only exists as long as it’s in the public consciousness.

But people are always aware of white western literature, heteronormative songs, ableist plays etc etc.

Whereas for people of colour, non westerners, LGBTQ community, neurodiverse, disabled and really all the marginalised groups, support seems to yo-yo and it’s a constant push for recognition, a constant struggle for support, funding.

It’s really hard to maintain interest after something like this — Man Group stop sponsoring an Asian prize and immediately we lose a valuable voice and tool in our fight for representation. And it’s much harder to retrieve. The literary world practically forgets Asian literature exists until the next thing springs up.

So, there’s no consistency, unlike the Booker prize which has been going for decades, we get these different prizes and different projects set up at various points to support representation. But without the consistency of funding, the consistency of support it’s really difficult to maintain that public understanding, without the status and prestige granted to long term projects. It’s harder to build up a reputation. It seems like we’re always starting from square one.

And that’s one example of how marginalised art stays marginalised.

See below the link to the Man Asian Literary Prize Wikipedia page with the complete list of winners, shortlisted and longlisted entries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_Asian_Literary_Prize