Heren • Dewang • Fuyao: Written on the Occasion of the 10th Anniversary of the Heren Charity Foundation

Prelude: The Name

Just in the blink of an eye, I have witnessed as a supervisor ten years’ journey of the Heren Charity Foundation. I have met some of the people and experienced some of the things, and got to know the problems and lessons arising from the development of social welfare organizations. The thought of a collection of essays comes as the Secretariat of the Foundation hopes that each of us write an article for the 10th anniversary of the Foundation. I need to find a perspective for my article. While I was thinking that the Secretariat would describe the specific situations for the passing decade, three names — Heren, Dewang and Fuyao — suddenly occurred in my mind.

These three names are all nice and meaningful ones. No matter it is for an individual or for an organization, a Chinese name is often well-intentioned and racked with full of moral and cultural connotations. Unlike in foreign countries, meaningless Bill, George, Steve, etc. are enough to the point. In addition, the logo of Heren Charity Foundation designed in Chinese characters is also very graceful. The word “Heren” consisting of eight square blocks exhibits much the taste of geometrics and aesthetics.

Movement One: Heren

I did not know that Heren was the name of Mr. Chao Dewang’s father, Chao Heren, until I became a supervisor of the Foundation. And his mother was Chen Huizhen. I simply know that some Chinese philanthropists take one word from each of their parent’s name as the name of the organization they founded. Also, I never inquired of Mr. Cao why he did not integrate his parents’ names into that of the foundation, such as Hehui, Hezhen, Renhui or Renzhen. It may be preconceived. Actually, Heren is catchy. I slightly understand its meaning. He (river) is the source and the water of life, which is especially true when it comes to the Yangtze River and the Yellow River — the mother rivers of China and its civilization of a long history. The source of Heren lies in Heren (the benevolence of a river), and the cause of it is as good as water. Moreover, the four generations of Chao’s family believe in Buddhism, with both wisdom and kindness.

In the preface to his autobiography published in 2015, Like the Heart of Bodhi, Mr. Chao wrote:

“When I was nine and old enough for school, uncle Changfu gave me the name ‘Dewang(Dak Wong)’,‘clever and virtuous, surely prosperous… ’”I felt happy for my name for several days.

I remember my mother used to say at that time, ‘Lack of ambition is far more frightening than is poverty.’ ‘The only way of getting rid of poverty is through your own efforts and hard work.’ ‘The most important thing to be a man is the integrity of your personality, and you need most the trust of others.’ You must stay clear and bright, rich or poor. Therefore, keep your chest up outside and don’t be looked down upon by others.’ Her teachings have been deeply engraved in my mind since then.

After dropping out of school, I learned to do business from my father, scalping tobacco, selling fruits…so to speak, I acquired the initial business philosophy from my father, so did many of my insights into life.

My father once said,‘You should do things with your hearts. You can do as many things as the hearts you have. Just count, how many hearts do you have?’

‘Heart of attentiveness, hearts of sincerity, hearts of benevolence, mind of determination, heart of concentration, heart of perseverance, heart of patience, heart of compassion…’ I counted my fingers and said, ‘Do I have that many hearts!’

‘Sure you do,’ My father said, ‘Yet when you grasp the truth of what I told you, I may not be by your side.’

Later on, I did understand what he meant. With the development of my career, I cannot count my hearts on fingers.

When I fully understood my father’s words … he did left me.”

Mr. Chao Dewang also put it in his autobiography that “All things increase and grow by work as well as by benevolence (Ren)”. I suppose “Heren” is something that really counts to him.

From this, we read out the origins of his family biography and the “heart” biography. Mr. Chao’s great-grandfather was the richest man in his hometown : Gaoshan town, Fuqing city, but his family went downhill later. His father Chao Heren went to Japan as an apprentice from childhood and later came to Shanghai to do business. He was successful and was once one of the shareholders of Shanghai Wing On Department Store. Before Liberation, Mr. Chao Heren sold his family business in Shanghai and bought a cargo ship to carry his family property back to his hometown. The family of six bought another ticket to return. Unfortunately, the cargo ship sank in the sea. From this history, we can understand that Mr. Chao Dewang possesses his family genes for doing business and later ventured to set up factories in the United States.

Mr. Chao holds deep feelings for his mother as well. In his preface of Like the Heart of Bodhi, he first talks about his mother’s teachings, which are constantly appearing in his autobiography.

The introductory remarks of his autobiography is very brief, which takes his mother as an example. I also quote as follows: “I used to get up early… I sleep more when I was young. Every morning at 2 o’clock, my mother always sat on the edge of my bed, shouting and pushing me awake. Even now, the scene often flashes in which my mother sat near me and shouted ‘Dewang, get up’ with tears in her eyes. She gently pushed me in the quilt with one hand and wiped out the uncontrollable tears with the other. ” Nowadays, parents will also wake their children up, but it will not be at 2: 00 a.m., neither to let their children help the father to do business and earn money, but to go to school. Similarly, we might imagine with tears that Chao’ mother called “Dewang, get up” and wiped away her tears. That is how little Dewang got up every day; that is how he started his life. At that time, his mother was unlikely to imagine who he would become; now, she shall be very gratified.

So to speak, the root behind the ten-year-old Heren Charity Foundation is the inheritance of the Chao family for centuries and even millennia, which is the rich soil of Chinese culture. China’s charity, while somewhat drawing on the experience of the West, have such a gene in its blood. Heren Charity Foundation proves this.

Heren Charity Foundation was established with the special approval from China’s State Council, it has become one of the pilot models of Chinese Charity Foundations. Many people from ministries and national commissions have visited Heren and Fuyao Group and conducted researches with a view to improving the nation’s laws and regulations on charitable donations. In the course of working for Heren, I have found that it enjoys several innovations: Firstly, it is the very first charitable foundation donated in the form of stocks, a series of policy and management issues involved. Secondly, it is independently run by the public and separated from its donors. The governance structure of the Board of Directors and the Board of Supervisors are somewhat perfect, among which are representatives from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, State Taxation Administration, Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Civil Affairs. Meanwhile, Heren independently employed four scholars from Xiamen University, Nanjing University, Central University of Finance and Economics and Peking University to participate in the two Boards.

Thirdly, Heren takes the initiative to explore the orientation, donation direction, donation projects, operation standards and other aspects. For instance, on whether the donation is to match government projects, Heren has gone through debates between two different opinions. Fourthly, regarding whether the cash from return on equity can be reinvested so as to obtain proceeds for charitable donations, Heren has discussed many times within the foundation and decided that the capital value-added activities be suspended temporarily for the sake of safety and stability. Last but not least, with the internationalization of Fuyao Group, the charitable projects of Heren have gone global and benefited the whole world. Through the past ten years, a total of 224 public welfare projects have been funded, covering over 20 provinces in China and 5 countries in the world. As I see it, my ten years’ engagement with Heren offers a wonderful course of observation and learning.

Movement Two: Dewang

Let us start with the name, Dewang. It’s a well-meant name. It is said that Xiamen University once intended to name its School of Management as “Dewang School of Management”. Definitely good. We have now “Dewang Middle School”, and how about having a “Dewang University” in the future? If Heren Foundation is named as “Dewang Foundation”, it is equally good. As Mr. Chao wrote in his autobiography, the name was given by his uncle Changfu. Chinese culture values names, characters and numbers so much that some people regard a name called or signed as a blessing. I wonder if it is the blessings repeating blessings that breed and boom his success. To have ample virtue and carry all things, attaining to Dewang and Fuyao, is another story.

In June 2015, at the receipt of Like the Heart of Bodhi from Mr. Chao, I wrote an article – “How Many Hearts Do You Have”, which was included in my collection of management essays Chinese Heart of Management published by Peking University Press in January 2016. I position this article in the first place. Here, I now site it as follows.

How Many Hearts Do You Have?

Chao Dewang said his father taught him to count the hearts he had. When I was reading Like the Heart of Bodhi, I wanted to find out how many hearts I could find in the book. Now, I’d like to briefly discuss the heart I’ve found.

No.1, the heart of benevolence. In 1976, Chao had just made a small fortune and at the request of a teacher from his previous primary school he donated more than 2,000 yuan to replace the desks and chairs in the school. At that time, this amount equaled four years’ salary for a cadre and eight years’ earnings of a worker. Now examples are no longer needed to manifest his benevolence.

No.2, the heart of sincerity. Sincerity can be found everywhere in his preface: He treats people sincerely throughout his life, from Wang Yihuang, the farm director he first met, to the PLA battalion commander and the instructor on the dam construction site, glass agent so and so, and local government officials from Shuangliao and Tongliao cities，Heilongjiang province. As a result, he is also treated sincerely by others, and so many times it saves the day. Definitely, this result is not his motive to show sincerity, but the natural reward of his sincerity.

No.3, the heart of attentiveness. Chao’s father taught him the truth of “heart” when he was a child, although the younger Chao did not understand the “hearty things” that were imperceptibly changing him. This is the so-called enlightenment, and the way of edification. To digest that one should act with attentiveness is not difficult. So the teenager was more diligent than others in planting trees and counting pits, thus winning praise from others like “you are smart “. I believe the most important thing is that through this he gained self-confidence that he had hardly possessed because of his poor performance in school, whereas the praise and reward for his enduring attentiveness made him even more attentive. Hence, he foresaw the prospect of automotive glass, anticipated the coming of the Global Economic Crisis, judged that the US government would bail it out, predicted the decisions of the three major automobile companies, and so on. His foresight and prescience are all long-term natural interpretations of attentiveness.

No.4, the heart of determination. Determination is a kind of aspiration and a mindset. Hu Xueyan, a great merchant of the Qin dynasty, once said: If you have a vision of a town, you can do business in a town; if you have a vision of a province, you can do business in a province; and if you have that of the world, you can do the business of the world. The then world was merely China; now the world of Chao is the whole world. Perhaps this determination was not made in a day, nor did it become so big within a single day. What he has done, from “reselling” tobacco, fruits, white fungus, and tree saplings, to setting up the irregular-shaped glass factory… and to everything afterwards including establishing Heren Charity Foundation, all are the results of his determination. Such as for Heren Charity Foundation, Chao is determined to promote the amelioration of Charity Law, changing from accepting only standardized cash donations to stocks. Regrettably, there has been no movement in the revision of Charity Law, despite the “deferred tax payment” approval obtained from the State Council, in operation for nearly five years and the fact that several department general directors of relevant state ministries and commissions hold positions in Heren Charity Foundation. As far as I know, as soon as this law is revised, hundreds of billions in value of shares will be transferred to charity funds. But I firmly believe that the day will come. Its arrival was initiated by Mr. Chao’s determination. At meetings of Heren, I heard relatives of Chao complaining that they all persuaded him not to go against existing laws, but he refused with real “determination” to promote the progress of the law!

No.5, heart of concentration. As an educator I first noticed that Chao concentrated himself on learning. Due to a bold move, he dropped out of school when in the first grade of junior high. Although he made it clear in his autobiography, I will no longer repeat it here considering the limited space for a clear explanation. After that, he started self-learning while herding cattle and collecting firewood, with Xinhua Dictionary and Cihai. He remembered that the dictionary cost him eight jiao equaling to his one year’s earning of cutting steed grass and Cihai’s price was three yuan equivalent to a three years’ hard work. (In contrast, how happy I was to find all kinds of books in my mother’s bookcase.) At the end of the Cultural Revolution, he eagerly read the Chinese and foreign classics published at that time. Please forgive me for taking pains to list all the titles of books he read then: Tang and Song Poetry, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream of Red Mansions, Water Margin, Collected Works of Lu Xun, Collected Works of Ba Jin, Count of Monte Cristo, The Red and The Black, Scarlet Letter, How Steel Was Tempered, Anna Karenina, A Chameleon, Wuthering Heights, Roots, Eugenie Grandet, etc.

That year, he also studied accounting from the the accounting department chief of Fuzhou Water Meter Factory with which he did business. The chief was a college graduate majoring in accounting before the Cultural Revolution. Cao concentrated on study all his life. In 1985, a friend advised him to read Zeng Guofan and sent him the book. He read through it in two months and did not understand its meaning. Then he read it the second and third time. Only then did he suddenly realize its meaning. He hung up a monk’s 12-character prescription for Zeng Guofan in the office for eight years. His concentration on auto glass business is benefited from a book entitled Focus. Moreover, he focuses his entire life to observing astronomical phenomena and collecting and analyzing all kinds of information to predict the future. For example, in October 2007, he wrote an article “One Falling Leaf Is Indicative of the Coming of Autumn” in the 11th issue of “People of Fuyao”, predicting the coming of winter for business and resolutely closed four production lines ahead of schedule. His concentration on auto glass is a great proof of his concentration.

No.6, heat of patience. In 1986, he was falsely accused by somebody. Although he was not a Communist Party member, he patiently explained and argued, from county, city and province levels to National Public Complaints and Proposals Administration and The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, and finally proved his innocence. When he visited the US the first time, he was not popular at all, but he patiently endured all the days. During his stay in the US, with sufficient patience, he visited the Ford Motor Museum, for there was no one to accompany, he had no idea about where to eat in the hotel and nowhere to go in Detroit. While visiting the museum, he was absent-minded, but in the airport, he became suddenly enlightened. He paraphrased what others said: Ford Museum is the American Museum of Industry. He used this as a benchmark to look into the gap between China and the US, thus getting a lot of enlightenment.

The above six hearts are among the eight ones listed at the beginning of his autobiography. Just as he mentioned that thehearts are countless, I can neither find out all of them one by one or list more. Still, I want to add two hearts: heart of carefulness and that of innocence.

Heart of carefulness: Chao looks like a thoughtless guy. Sometimes he appears to pretending to be such a man, whereas in fact he is a very careful person. For example, when he visited Hong Kong in the early years, a merchant that seemed to do spare parts business with Fuyao spent a lot of money to invite him to dinner and then to XX Nightclub after dinner. Carefully, he discovered a major secret of the merchant. Thereafter, it was said that the merchant would rather get arrested and shot dead than inviting Chao to dinner again. Earlier in 1971, when he was handling affairs of the reservoir project in his hometown, he figured out something strange from the expression of a woman picking swill. He pulled out the swill with his hand and found half a bucket of rice and sweet potatoes under the swill. Such carefulness is profuse in his autobiography.

Heart of innocence. In 1986, at a hearing organized by the county Party Committee, Chao flipped the bird in front of the party secretary and roared off. Two years later at an international sports event organized by Fujian province, he dared to throw the trophy in the face of the province leaders in that the organizer did not keep his words. I myself have seen him stretch out his middle finger and say foul words on an occasion when expressing his view. I envied this childlike innocence very much, so I smiled at it.

I come from Fujian and have known Mr. Chao for a long time. Many years ago, I took my students to Fuyao Glass to interview the senior executives including Mr. Chao, his son Chao Hui and CFO Chen Xiangming. I also visited Mr. Chao’s mansion in Fuzhou city. When I saw his rich collection of books a great many which are on Buddhism and are Buddhist scriptures, I thought it was a kind of decoration. Later, I got to know that he loves reading and that his family believe in Buddhism for four generations. More than that, I participated in a commemorative activity held by Fuyao in Beijing. There I listened to Chao Hui and his aunt bickering at the dining table, witty, humorous and amusing. With great honor, I am invited to serve as a supervisor of Heren. I attend every board meeting by all means as long as I am in China. On one meeting, I heard Mr. Chao say in an impassionate voice: “I donated my money to Heren. I have sworn in front of Buddha that the Chao family would rather starve to death than use any money from Heren. I entrust it to all of you.” To this, I was deeply moved and my soul was shaking.

Chao Hui is lucky. Even though he is unable to control so many hearts, his father Mr. Cho is still adding heart to them till he finds his own heart. It seems that I haven’t seen Cho Hui for two or three years, but the last time I saw him, I could clearly feel Cao Hui’s demeanor as a leader and his confidence in his words and deeds. I think Heart of Cho has been passed on.

Everything generates from heart, go mature with heart, and end with heart.

The above is the main part of the article I wrote five years ago. The theme of this article is charity. Of course, I want to talk about charity. Mr. Cho’s research in the US proves that the US has a mature social relief service system containing 2 million charities with a population of less than 350 million, 80% of which are funded by enterprises or owners’ families. He was inspired by this so much that he said: “This cannot help but remind me of what my father told me – ‘The blessed must have a large pattern first, and blessings are sought from it’.”

Then he wrote: “Since 1983 when I was self-employed, I have helped tens of thousands of students to complete their studies through donations and aids, helped more than a hundred thousand poverty-stricken households, and built schools, parks, roads, temples and libraries, along with circulating stocks donated. I have donated more than 6 billion yuan in total. And I make great wishes for a harmonious and stable society to go forward with hands in hands. I have developed my enterprise into, veritably, a multinational group through which process I also grew from a penniless youth to the president of today’s group. Hard work pays off! Benevolence pays off more so! For the past over thirty years, I have grasped the truth of impermanence and realized the meaning and value of ancestors’ pursuit of seeking development and helping the world. ”

Overall, it is evident that Mr. Cho’s sense of charity is rooted in the bottom of his heart. One reason is his father’s influence bit by bit with words and deeds, and the other one is the constant transmission of the Chinese belief – In success, one tries to let others be benefited. Just under the inspiration of a subjective “success” and other objective conditions, he has crossed from cultivating his own good to helping the whole world. It is another five years since the above data released in 2015. The updated data of Heren shows that Mr. Cho has donated 5.8 billion yuan in cash to the society, of which 3.306 billion was donated after Heren was established. The value of the shares is now up to 10 billion yuan. In my impression, Mr. Cho does not often attend meetings. Almost every time he comes, he urges everyone to donate money as soon as possible. He said that the next year’s money is about to come and will depreciate if not spent.

Movement Three: Fuyao

I ponder over where the brand Fuyao comes from.

In 1976, Mr. Cho proposed to set up a “Gaoshan Irregular-Shaped Glass Factory” in his hometown Gaoshan, which was completed in 1979. Later, after contracting and joint ventures, he set up China-foreign joint venture Fujian Yaohua Glass Industry Co., Ltd. in 1987, referred to as Fuyao Glass (“Yaohua” is a factory in Shanghai that supported them to set up the factory). When Fuyao Company was officially listed in 1993, it was named Fuyao Glass. The evolution of “Fuyao” seems to be a natural process.

Today, Fuyao is already an international company. The story of Fuyao setting up factories in the United States has been made into a documentary film American Factory and won an Oscar, thus becoming famous all over the world. Mr. Cho said that before filming, he promised not to interfere with the selection, shooting and broadcasting carried out by the filming team, and to present a true Fuyao to the world. This is of great sincerity and confidence. Watching the Americans in the film keep saying “Fuyao”, they speak so smoothly that I feel warm. I wonder if Americans know what Fuyao means. Is it the blessing light shining? Lucky shining? The blessing light Glory? Glory of good fortune? Or the glory of Fuqing, China? Anyway, It’s Fuyao. If you merely listen to the sound people saying it, it can also be a homophonic pun denoting “bless want”, which means you want blessing and will get it. I think if I explain to Americans that Fuyao means to be blessed, it is quite good.

However, blessing comes through hard work. While watching American Factory, I sense the kindness to see Mr. Cho fighting with the opposition forces in American society, to hear the strong local accent of the simple Fujian people, to feel Mr. Cho’s familiar voice and expressions, and to recognize the figures of those senior managers and cadres I know. This film records a story told by the American filming team from their standpoint and perspective: it is reality. It is very real to see Fuyao’s struggle with local opposition forces in the US and the impact on the US Management team when they came to China, especially their surprised expression when they saw a Chinese worker working in a pile of glass debris without gloves. Based on this, the filming team clearly expressed Americans’ respect for Mr. Cho and Fuyao Group. Fuyao then is no longer the local corporate in Fuqing. Instead, it represents China’s move to the world. It represents the exchanges and running-ins between Chinese culture and American culture. As for Mr. Cho, he has always reflected the wisdom and mind of Chinese entrepreneurs, both in his cooperation with Americans and in the remarks of the China-US trade war.

Seen from Fuyao’s financial data, it has made a piece of glass to the extreme to become the world’s largest auto glass company. In the industry classification of listed companies, it belongs to the auto accessories industry. In domestic market, Fuyao is steadily ahead of this industry with a market value of over 100 billion yuan. At this point, the value of the stocks donated by Mr. Cho to Heren ten years ago has exceeded 10 billion yuan. In American Factory, I learned that Fuyao recently merged another German enterprise into its global layout. This time, Fuyao is already World Fuyao, rather than China Fuyao.

Epilogue

As it were, Heren can be, so Dewang can be; then Fuyao can be. This is probably the cause and effect of these three names.

Being a corporate foundation, corporate is fundamental to Heren. Entrepreneurs first have to do a good job in the corporate and serve the needs of people in the market. Then entrepreneurs give back part of the value added through the currencies voted by market to the society, and thus realizing the continuous virtuous cirlcle between the corporate and the society. This is the benign market economy society among which Fuyao-Dewang-Heren Charitable Foundation is a typical case with Chinese characteristics based on human charity practice.

As the subtitle of this article is written in musical language, let us end with Song of Fuyao:

A Transparent World

Pure spirits are transparent;

Innocent smiles are transparent;

Sincere friendships are transparent;

Noble sentiments are transparent.

 

For the sake of transparency, we’ve gone through difficulties;

For the sake of transparency, we’ve struggled very bit.

Fuyao holds up a transparent world;

Fuyao opens up a bright future.

 

China is filled with spring, and happiness is everywhere;

All the blessings from Fuyao are transparent.

Enduring as the universe, happiness is everywhere;

All the promises from Fuyao are transparent.