默默地 中国慈善家时代到来

I never dreamed that one day I would become a philanthropist. I was born in Beijing in 1965, and spent my teenage years working long hours as a factory girl, sewing collars and buttons onto dress shirts in Hong Kong. Today, I am the chief executive of SOHO China, the country’s largest prime office property developer.

我从未想过我有一天会成为慈善家。我是1965年在北京出生的，之后搬到了香港。我在那里当上了工厂女工，我的少女时代就是在缝纫衬衫的日日夜夜中度过的。而今天，我是中国最大的优质写字楼开发商SOHO中国的CEO。

China has seen rapid economic growth over the past three decades, and it is now one of the world’s fastest growing producers of Billionaires — 242 and counting, according to Forbes — which is extraordinary considering that just over a decade ago, there were none.

中国经济在过去三十年经历了飞速发展。今天，中国的亿万富翁数量正以全球最快的速度增长，从十年前的一个都没有，激增到今天的242人（据福布斯杂志）。

Though many Chinese have grown wealthy, few have embraced the practice of philanthropy in a manner and scale that is comparable with their counterparts in the West. But I believe we are on the cusp of change. With a new generation of Chinese who feel grateful for the opportunities the country’s growth has provided, social consciousness is rising, contributing to a growing urge to give back in innovative ways and to contribute to the nation’s future and to the betterment of our society.

尽管许多中国人富了起来，但以西方那种方式和规模投入到慈善事业中去的人还太少。不过，我相信这一现象正在改变。新一代的中国人感激国家成长所带来的机遇，社会意识在逐渐增强，越来越多的人希望能以创新的方式回报大众，为国家的未来和社会的发展做出贡献。

My generation’s success stories are unique. We were born into Communist China, at a time when almost nobody had access to material wealth. The guiding philosophy was to “serve the people,” but no one had the economic means to give back to society, nor were there many philanthropic foundations. It was an impossible time to have a culture or tradition of philanthropy nurtured by the generous individuals and families like the Rockefellers or the Carnegies. There were no philanthropic role models under communism. China was completely insulated from the rest of the world, with very little access to outside information. As children of that society, we could not have imagined the possibility of becoming a philanthropist.

我们这一代人的成功故事是独一无二的。我们出生在共产主义的中国，那时候，大家在物质上都不富裕。被倡导的价值观是“为人民服务”，但经济上大家都没有可回馈社会的东西，更没有很多慈善机构。当时的中国不可能有像洛克菲勒、卡内基那样慷慨的个人或家族去培育慈善文化或传统。共产主义里也从未有过慈善的榜样。当时的中国与外部是完全隔离的，没有太多渠道获得外部的信息。所以，那时候的孩子根本不会梦想成为慈善家。

But in 1978, Deng Xiaoping opened China’s doors to economic reform and capital markets. China’s entrepreneurial spirit was reborn and my generation blossomed. We studied abroad, we started businesses and many of us prospered in unprecedented ways.

然而在1978年，邓小平的改革开放打开了中国的大门，开始经济改革，吸引外资。中国的企业家精神重新得到释放，我们这一代人因此迎来了新的机遇。我们开始到国外学习，开始创业，很多人通过前所未有的方式富裕了起来。

For many Chinese of my generation, our first point of contact with Western philanthropy was the financial aid we received when we studied abroad. Very few of us had money — most only had raw ambition. We were “PHDs”: poor, hungry and determined. Financial aid transformed our lives.

对我们这一代的中国人来说，与西方慈善业的第一次接触就是出国留学时得到的经济资助。我们那时都不富裕，只有满腹的热情。可以说，我们是一群“PHD”，poor（贫困），hungry（饥饿），determined（意志坚定）。经济资助彻底改变了我们的人生。

I studied in the United Kingdom on a full scholarship in the 1980s, earning a bachelor’s degree from Sussex University and a master’s from Cambridge University. My education would eventually lead to a job on Wall Street, and then in 1995 I returned to China and founded SOHO China with my husband, Pan Shiyi, who grew up in rural western China. He had also attended university, which carried him away from village life and into our growing and changing nation’s business community.

上世纪80年代，我在全额奖学金的帮助下在英国读书，先是在苏塞克斯（Sussex）大学读完本科，之后又在剑桥大学获得了硕士学位。这些教育经历最终让我有机会进入华尔街工作。1995年回到中国后，我和先生潘石屹一起创立了SOHO中国。潘石屹在西部农村长大，是上大学的机会让他走出农村生活，投入到正在经历崛起、巨变的中国的商业社会中。

That opportunity to study was the most dramatic turning point in my life. My education opened my eyes to the world, provided me with the academic grooming necessary to pursue an international career, and gave me the courage to return to China, build an enterprise and innovate. Without financial aid, I, and so many other Chinese who have played various roles in advising, consulting and building the modern China we know today, may have never had the chance to attend university.

大学教育是我人生中最重要的转折点。教育打开了我的眼界，给了我在海外求职所需要的知识，还给了我回国创业、革新的勇气。如果没有经济资助，我自己，还有很多在为建设现代中国建议、咨询、出力的精英们，可能永远都没有上大学的机会。

In the decade after I returned to China, many of my peers returned as well. China became increasingly globalized, joining the World Trade Organization in 2001 and preparing for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. The economy boomed. At the same time, the Internet and social media gained remarkable momentum. There was a push for increasing transparency and pressure mounted on businesses and the government to become more socially responsible now that China was on the world stage.

在我回到中国后的十年里，我的很多朋友也都回来了。中国愈发国际化，2001年加入世贸组织（WTO），之后又在筹备2008年北京奥运会。经济快速发展。同时，网络和社交媒体的迅速扩张。随着中国走上国际舞台，人们开始要求提高透明度，也促使中国企业和政府承担更多社会责任。

In those early days of post-economic-reform, most philanthropic giving went to disaster relief and to the construction of schools in remote areas of China. My husband and I joined that philanthropic wave, giving to aid victims of the Asian tsunami disaster in 2004. We then started donating funds to help build schools in China’s highly impoverished western provinces of Qinghai and Gansu, where my husband was born and raised. We also gave to the Sichuan earthquake relief efforts in 2008 — a disaster that took the lives of nearly 70,000 people, devastating communities in southwestern China. The suffering of those affected prompted an outpouring of donations from the public, and philanthropy became a topic that people understood, discussed and debated.

在改革开放后的早期，大部分慈善捐赠用于抢险救灾和偏远地区的学校建设。我也是其中的一员，曾经捐助过2004年东南亚海啸的灾民。之后，我和先生开始在中国西部的青海、甘肃等贫困省份捐资帮助建学校。我的先生就是甘肃人，在那里出生、长大。我们也参与过为2008年的四川汶川地震进行的捐助，那场灾难夺去近7万人生命。地震受害者的痛楚激发了大众的慈善捐助，而且让慈善成了人们认可、讨论和激辩的新话题。

At that point, the giving my husband and I were involved in was sporadic and focused on dire need and immediate solutions. It became clear that this Band-Aid approach did not work, since many communities required long-term aid to deal with chronic problems. We needed a cause that would capture our long-term philanthropic aspirations. Looking back on how my education had opened new doors for me, I knew that was the cause closest to my heart: I believe that education is the primary factor in improving social mobility.

我们初期的慈善工作常常是分散的，主要解决那些急迫的需求。然而，这种“创可贴”式的方法左右不大，因为那些长期问题需要更持久的援助。我们需要一项能激起我们长期慈善意愿的事业。回想起教育给我带来的新机遇，我明白教育就是最接近我的内心的公益事业：我深信教育是改善社会流动性的关键因素。

My husband and I founded the SOHO China Foundation in 2005, which focuses on improving the quality of education in underprivileged communities. Our first project was a teacher-training program in rural western China. Over the course of five years we brought more than 1,700 teachers from rural communities to Beijing for summer training, improving the level of education provided to more than 80,000 primary school students. When we learned of the poor sanitary conditions at the schools, we also built 45 school toilets, impacting more than 35,000 students.

2005年，我和先生成立了SOHO中国基金会，专注于改善贫困地区的教育质量。第一个项目就是培训西部的乡村教师。在之后五年的时间里，我们资助了1,700多名乡村老师到北京接受暑假培训，让8万多名小学生的教育质量得到改善。我们看到合作学校落后的卫生情况后，我们又帮助建设了45个学校公厕，让35,000多名学生受益。

As I worked with the rural schools, I saw that these students have few opportunities. China’s growth has been accompanied by an intensified divide in income distribution, with large cities prospering much more than smaller cities and rural areas. Many wealthy Chinese send their children abroad to study, but countless outstanding rural students lose out on such opportunities due to a lack of financial means. There is a danger that the chance for Chinese youth to study abroad will become purely privilege-based instead of merit-based. Some of our best students are now so intimidated by the economic burden of pursuing a world-class education that they don’t even apply to top universities.

在和那些乡村学校一起工作的过程中，我意识到机会对于这些学生来说是多么有限。与中国的快速发展相伴随的是日益加重的贫富分化，大城市和小城市、农村之间的差距越来越大。在大城市，很多富裕的中国人送子女到国外学习，而另一方面，很多优秀学生因为经济问题而只能放弃这种机会。如果出国留学的机会只是富人的特权，而不是以能力为标准，这将成为潜在的社会风险。现在很多我们最优秀的学生都被追求世界一流教育的经济负担吓退，他们甚至都不敢申请。

It is with this understanding that we decided to create the SOHO China Scholarships, pledging to endow $100 million in financial aid scholarships for Chinese undergraduate students attending leading international universities. Our first gift agreement of $15 million was signed with Harvard University and our second gift agreement of $10 million was signed with Yale University.

这就是为什么我们成立了SOHO中国助学金，并捐出了1亿美元，用于资助中国优秀学生到国际顶级大学就读本科学位。我们的第一笔捐款1500万美元捐给了哈佛大学，第二笔捐款1000万美元捐给了耶鲁。

This instantly created controversy in China. On the one hand, we received overwhelming encouragement, while on the other our decision to partner with international institutions instead of with domestic universities was heatedly questioned. Philanthropy became a hot topic online and across social media.

这些新闻一宣布就立即在国内引起了争议。有的人给了我们非常大的鼓励，也有的人质疑我们为什么不跟国内的高校合作。慈善再次成为网络和媒体的热门话题。

My answer to those questioning our choice: The most striking feature of our time is globalization. It is important for China to be integrated with the rest of the world. Our aim is to enable China’s best and brightest to act as a bridge between China and other nations — an important tool for modernizing the Middle Kingdom.

对于那些质疑我们的声音，我想这样回复：我们这个时代最大的特征就是全球化。持续的对外交流、融合对中国来说至关重要。我们的目标正是，让那些最优秀的人才成为衔接中国和世界的桥梁，这正是“中土之国”现代化的重要工具。

When I look back at our decision to create the scholarships in 2014, I recall the time I met Warren Buffett and the deep impression he left on me. Buffett and Bill Gates had traveled to China in 2010 to encourage high-net-worth Chinese to think about philanthropy. Buffett explained that he had always given, and then one day he realized that the rate at which he was giving was slower than the rate at which he was earning money. He was 80 years old at the time, so he decided to entrust a large part of his fortune to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I walked away inspired by the vision behind his large-scale, highly impactful giving, and ultimately thought, “Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

今年，当我们决定要成立SOHO中国助学金时，我想到了当年与巴菲特见面时他给我留下的深刻印象。2010年，沃伦·巴菲特和比尔·盖茨来到中国，鼓励富有的社会精英和中国企业家参与到慈善事业中。巴菲特解释说，尽管他之前一直在捐赠，但有一天他发现自己捐赠的速度并没有赶上赚钱的速度。那一年他80岁，他随即决定把个人财富中的很大一部分捐赠给盖茨基金会。活动过后，受到他巨额捐助背后的视野所启发，我得出结论，“不要等到太晚再做”。

Soon after the announcement of our SOHO China Scholarships, I heard that my friend the Hong Kong property developer Ronnie Chan and his family made a $350 million gift to Harvard’s School of Public Health, and a $20 million gift to his alma mater, the University of Southern California. I have also heard that Jack Ma of Alibaba, the e-commerce giant, along with co-founder Joe Tsai, have said that they will commit 2 percent of Alibaba’s equity to a charitable trust.

我们宣布成立SOHO中国助学金后不久，我听到我的朋友、香港知名房地产开发商陈启宗和他的家族向哈佛公共卫生学院捐赠了3.5亿美元的消息。他随后又向母校南加州大学捐赠了2000万美元。我还听闻，电子商务巨头阿里巴巴创始人马云和联合创始人蔡崇信也将把阿里巴巴2%的资产捐赠给慈善基金。

I believe that the year 2014 is a turning point in Chinese philanthropy. This tradition is finally getting the impetus it needs to flourish because of an emerging group of Chinese entrepreneurs who are socially conscious, globally engaged and hoping to make a positive and lasting impact on China and the world — they’re not looking for quick fixes. They feel responsible.

我相信，2014年是中国慈善界的转折点，而且这仅仅是个开始，中国的慈善事业蓄势待发，因为这群快速成长的中国企业家不想追求权宜之计，他们有着强烈的社会责任感，密切参与全球事务，希望能对中国和世界产生积极长远的影响。他们把这个看作自己的责任。

With the help of financial aid, I went from factory worker to university student, then became an entrepreneur and eventually, chief executive of my own company. But of my achievements, I am most proud of my work as a philanthropist, and I hope to continue with it for the rest of my days. The world is waiting to see what Chinese philanthropists will do next.

在助学金的帮助下，我从一个工厂女工、到大学生、再到一个企业家和我自己公司的CEO。然而在这些成就里，最让我欣慰的头衔是慈善家，而且我希望在以后的日子里都可以以它自居。世界对中国慈善家也充满了期待。