Golden Mendel Award winner stripped of title
- Source: Global Times
- [13:38 January 12 2010]
- Comments
By Zhu Shanshan and Chen Rui
The China Photographers’ Association (CPA) announced Tuesday that it has decided to strip the 2009 Golden Mendel Award from winner Sang Yuzhu after an investigation accusing him of plagiarism.
“After our investigation, the organizing committee decided to revoke the award from Sang Yuzhu, including his certificate and trophy. The committee will also notify his work unit,” the Golden Mendel Award organizing committee said in the statement.
His entry featuring a series of landscape photographs of Changbai Mountain in Jilin Province was later revealed that he did not take four of those pictures on his own which looked the same as those by other photographers
In an investigation conducted by the photography association, Sang denied plagiarizing the photographs and said in a written statement that he cooperated with Meng Tie and Wen Bo, two local photographers, in shooting the four photos. Meng and Wen echoed Sang’s stand in their respective written statements, according to CPA’s investigation.
As a result the association declares that three people took those four photographs.
According to the rules of the Golden Mendel Award, the submitted works must reflect a photographer’s skills and personal style. Sang’s four photos that were taken by three people cannot meet this criterion.
“It’s a big mistake that Sang didn’t explain the situation when he submitted his entry to the competition and then the four photos were allowed to join the contest,” said the organizing committee in a statement Tuesday.
However, the association’s reverse decision on the winner hasn’t calmed down public accusations surrounding the scandal. Lang Qi, a senior photographer who first tipped off the scandal, told the Global Times that it was Xiao Ming, a staff member of the Publicity Department of Baishan city of Jilin Province, who actually went to Changbai Mountain with Wen to shoot these scenic photos and Sang wasn’t even there.
Lang also revealed this information to the investigation team when they visited him last week, but according to Gao Qin, secretary general of the Golden Mendel Award organizing committee, the investigation team didn’t even try to contact Xiao.
“We haven’t contacted Xiao yet, but we hope he would speak out and tell the truth,” Gao said in the news briefing today. “The investigation only involves people named in the complaint letter.”
Questions also linger as to whether or not Meng and Wen told the truth since Sang is vice president of the Jilin Photographers Association, who has greater seniority over the two. Gao responded that it was Meng and Wen’s personal decision on what to disclose, but Gao declined to reveal any details on how the three photographers cooperated.
The scandal sparked heat discussion after Xu Lin, the People’s Daily former senior editor exposed the issue on his blog. Internet users also questioned the transparency and credibility of the award.
Gao said it is the first time the Golden Mendel Award has been involved in this kind of scandal since it was first awarded in 1989.
“In 2009 we started to put the list of the winners on the website for the public to give us feedback and released the award when there were no complaints,” Gao told the Global Times.
However, their works were put on the website only after the award was handed out. Gao promises the association will discuss and consider the suggestions proposed by some experts after this scandal, like showing to the public the applicants’ works beforehand.
Despite the latest announcement by the CPA, Xu is still not satisfied as Sang is member of the association.
“The investigation is not fair,” Xu told the Global Times. “If the son steals something from others, and the investigation is done by the parents and his brothers and sisters, people will not trust the result.”
Xu suggested a new investigation be conducted by a third party.
