From the The Goethe-Institute website:
“In Berlin on the 2nd of October, 2004, an international jury composed of writers from ten linguistic regions announced the 2004 winner of the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage .
The annual Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage was established in 2003 initiated by the cultural magazine Lettre International in connection with the Aventis Foundation . is a project partner.
The first prize , worth 50,000 euro , was given to the Chinese authors Chen Guidi and Wu Chuntao for their unprecedented and controversial book Survey of Chinese Peasants , (People’s Literature Publication Company, Beijing 2003, Chinese). The explosive text is the first thorough investigation into the economic, social and political conditions of the approximately 900 million Chinese peasants , which are almost unknown in the West. It describes the problems of despotism, of arbitrariness, of corruption, of violence which sometimes extends to murder, and lawlessness, along with unjust taxation, from which a large part of the rural population suffers. The book also shows how China’s enforced industrialisation is built largely upon the impoverishment of the Chinese peasantry. This book, compiled with immense courage despite enormous personal risk, swiftly became a best-seller in China. Several million copies were sold before the book was withdrawn from sale in governmental bookshops following an official directive, and now it is only obtainable in pirate form.”
