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Charity work differs in Taiwan and China
By Lin Cho-shui 林濁水
Reports on the way Chinese tycoon and philanthropist Chen Guangbiao (陳光標) has
been throwing money around during his trip to Taiwan have become a hot topic on
the Internet, with Chinese netizens saying Chen should become “Minister of
Unification.”
However, the pan-green and pan-blue camps disapprove of Chen’s action and a
Yahoo online poll found that 43.3 percent of respondents disliked him, while 20
percent thought he was going too far. This is probably the first time in a
history that philanthropic work has caused such a strong reaction. If Chen’s
actions were part of China’s unification strategy, they must have had a rude
awakening because his actions have in fact hurt China.
Chen said he wanted to set a good example by showing what charity was all about.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) issued a statement saying this could help
avoid “fake donations.”
Taiwanese have a reputation when it comes to charity donations, whether they are
made through the Tzu Chi Foundation or the Red Cross. Taiwan’s GDP per capita is
much lower than that of Japan, but the amount of donations per capita after the
921 Earthquake was much higher than the Japanese donated after the 1995 Kobe
earthquake. Taiwanese businesspeople also donated much more than their Chinese
counterparts after the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.
Given these facts, it is strange for Chen to say that he wanted to come to
Taiwan to demonstrate what charity is.
Chen should understand that charity not only involves distributing wealth, but
also respect for other human beings. He should also know how in civilized
societies, people make use of official channels or non-government organizations
to put donations to good use.
When the TAO said Chen’s way of showcasing charity helps avoid cases of “fake
donations,” it was making a statement based on its experience in China. For
instance, Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi (章子怡) had been accused of exaggerating the
amount she donated following the Sichuan earthquake. Another form of “fake
donation” is when donations are appropriated by disaster relief officials, as
what happened after that earthquake. Given China’s lack of concern for society
and volunteer work and the undeveloped state of its non-governmental and charity
groups, Chen’s actions might be seen as appropriate there.
However, things are very different in Taiwan, which is why Chen’s behavior has
been viewed as being strange.
Some people liken Chen to the rich gentry of old. However, in traditional Asian
societies, where people have very fixed value systems and a strong sense of
community, businesspeople tended to be disliked. It is true that examples of
charity purely for altruistic motives and not out of the desire to be seen doing
good are quite rare, regardless of how difficult it is to remain discreet about
it. However, certain rules of propriety did apply to the gentry helping the
unfortunate. In modern civil society, charity mechanisms are even more complex.
It is only when values are in flux due to rapid social change and explosive
economic growth and when non-governmental organizations are lacking because of
control by a totalitarian government that we see odd varieties of philanthropy
like Chen’s.
China’s current values are different from traditional ones, and its values,
politics and social organizations are out of line with modern society. As a
result, Chen’s and the TAO’s ignorance of the differences between Taiwan and
China has led them to mistake Taiwan for China. It is this that has caused the
recent uproar over Chen’s charity work.
Lin Cho-shui is a former Democratic Progressive Party
legislator.
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