The Award
The Barwis-Holliday Award is given for an exceptional article on the anthropology, art, history, literature or religion of any part of East Asia that has been published in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society. The author of the award-winning article receives a £250 cash prize.
About the Prize
The Barwis-Holliday Award was established in 1977 with a donation from Major J. Edward Barwis-Holliday (1907–83) to encourage papers on an East Asian subject in the JRAS and was later supplemented by a further bequest from his estate. For the purposes of this award, East Asia is defined as being Japan, China, Korea and the eastern-most regions of the former Soviet Union. The award is given intermittently as and when an eligible, meritorious article is published.
Major Barwis-Holliday was a member of the Royal Asiatic Society from 1970 until his death in 1983 and served on the Society’s Council. He was the British delegate at the 8th congress of the International Organisation for the Industrial, Scientific and Cultural Advancement in Japan, where he gave a speech on tackling food shortages and population crisis. He had a particular interest in agriculture and delivered a lecture at the Society in 1979 on ‘The Japanese cult of Inari, the rice deity’.
Past Recipients
Awarded in 2006
Dr James Huntley Grayson, for the article They first saw a mirror: a Korean folktale as a form of social criticism
Awarded in 2007
Professor Richard John Lynn, for the article Women in Huang Zunxian’s Rihen zashi shi
Latest Recipient
Awarded in 2014
Dr George Mak
for the article
To add or not to add? The British and Foreign Bible Society’s Defence of the ‘without comment principle’ in late Qing China