Michelle Yeoh’s extraordinary moment in winning an Oscar recently was widely celebrated by most Malaysians.
Many of us do not dispute her acting prowess, which was honed in Hong Kong and Hollywood, the two places that provided the infrastructure and opportunities to develop her acting and martial arts talent.
Malaysians shared in her success by virtue of her being an Ipoh-born.
However, I would like to defer on a pertinent point raised by certain quarters about the Oscar being the most prestigious, coveted and celebratory award, comparing it to an Olympic gold medal or a Nobel Prize.
All three awards are for excellence in their respective fields.
But an Oscar is dependent on the subjective evaluation of the panel and the prevailing temperament in the film world. It is a collective achievement, for acting is reacting to other actors who support the collective action.
One does not win an Oscar for reciting a monologue. One needs dialogue, and one’s acting skills is also dependent on the reaction of the other actors. An Oscar is a personal glory.
On the other hand, an Olympic gold medal is coveted by all world-class athletes. Malaysia recognises that, and had even offered cash remuneration to any Malaysian athlete who wins the gold at the Summer Games.
It is a personal effort of excellence in sports, training physically and mentally to be the best in the world in one’s chosen sport. It is a challenge and a test of human endurance and courage.
An Olympic medal in any track or field event is testimony to a person’s athletic prowess, endurance, courage, and determination. What more a gold medal.
Unlike a Nobel Prize, an Oscar recipient does not innovate in creating a new style of acting, for the recipient is guided by the performance of other great actors, using established techniques of character development. The only innovation is rendering a character in a specific way.
However, the main criteria for the selection of a Nobel Prize are that the recipient has conferred the greatest benefit to humankind through physical discoveries, theoretical and conceptual knowledge in the sciences, humanities, economics, and governance, and an insight into human existence through literary works, or by fostering fraternity among man and/or nations.
Thus, the Nobel Prize is the epitome of excellence in innovation for the betterment of humankind. It outshines the other two awards by a cosmic distance.
This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Twentytwo13.
