Su Nets Man Prize

(CFP)

Su Tong, one of China's best-selling writers, won this year's Man Asian Literary Prize in Hong Kong on November 16 for his latest work The Boat to Redemption.

The three-member international jury for the prize said that The Boat to Redemption, which depicts the life of a man between 1966 and 1976, was "a picaresque novel of immense charm." Su said in an interview with China Daily it was just a novel "centering on the fate of people caught in an absurd time."

The $10,000 Man Asian Literary Prize is an annual literary award for an "Asian novel unpublished in English." Su is the second Chinese to receive the honor, after Jiang Rong won the inaugural prize in 2007 for Wolf Totem.

Su, 46, began his literary career in 1987 and has published six novels. He is well-known as the author of Wives and Concubines, a novella written in 1989 that was later adapted into Oscar-nominated film Raise the Red Lantern by director Zhang Yimou.

The Boat to Redemption is scheduled to hit the bookshelves in the UK next January, says a report in The Guardian newspaper.

Female Taoist Principal

(CFP)

Wu Chengzhen became the first ever principal Taoist abbess on November 15, after she was installed as fangzhang of the Changchun Temple in Wuhan, capital of central China's Hubei Province.

Taoism is China's only indigenous religion, with a history of more than 1,800 years. Fangzhang is the highest-ranking position in a Taoist temple.

Wu, born in January 1957, was formally initiated into Taoism at the Changchun Temple in March 1984. She was elected head of the temple by all its resident Taoists in May.

A graduate from Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a Master's degree in philosophy, Wu also serves as chairwoman of the Hubei Provincial Taoist Association and the Wuhan Municipal Taoist Association. She is also a standing member of the Hubei Provincial Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the local advisory body.

Chipmaker Steps Down

(CFP)

Richard R. Chang resigned as chief executive of the Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. (SMIC), the Chinese mainland's largest contract chipmaker, on November 10 with immediate effect to "pursue other personal interests."

Reports are circulating that Chang was forced to quit by major stakeholders, because he failed to head a turnaround for the cash-strapped SMIC, whose share price has dropped steadily since its initial public offer in 2004.

Hours before Chang's resignation, SMIC agreed to pay $200 million and gave the right to purchase up to 10 percent in the company to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., a world leader in the industry, to settle lawsuits over patent and trade secrets infringement.

Chang, 61, was born on the Chinese mainland but moved to Taiwan with his family in 1949. He had worked for 20 years at Texas Instruments Inc. and served as president of Taiwan's Worldwide Semiconductor Corp. from 1998 to 1999 before founding the SMIC in Shanghai in 2000.

SMIC has appointed David N.K. Wang to replace Chang.