Interview: Grace Before Meals post-rocking Shanghai
Around Shanghai: No more airplane temperature checks, but we're getting a Wall St. Bull and Linkin Park!
A big THANKS to all our Independence Day Party sponsors
A group of about a dozen celebrities including Andy Lau (刘德华), Sammi Cheng (郑秀文), Joey Yung (容祖儿), Gilbert Lam (林韋辰), Joey Meng (萬綺雯), Grace Cheung (張家瑩), Bowie Lam (林保怡), Astrid Chan (陳芷菁), Zhang Guoli (张国立), Chen Daoming (陈道明), Feng Xiaogang (冯小刚) and Jiang Wenli (蒋雯丽) are part of a contingent of celebrities taken to visit the earthquake zone in Sichuan Province and to rally the troops that have been serving non-stop in rescue operations.
Pop Confucian scholar, lecturer and best-selling author Yu Dan (于丹) now appears on Dragon TV to offer spiritual solace and words of comfort to the masses. When the earthquake happened, Yu Dan cut short her lectures in South Korea to fly back to China immediately, and went straight to the earthquake zone to comfort students that were being pulled out alive. Also watch this clip where she broke down on set in a live interview on Dragon TV a few days after the quake.
Jet Li (李连杰) has stepped out to criticise the use of rankings to keep track of which corporations/celebrities have donated the most toward earthquake relief, saying charity should not be measured in purely monetary terms and that there are a lot of people donating RMB1 or RMB5 when that is all they've got.
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Good for Jet Li. I think what he says needs to be repeated as much as possible at the moment. Charity isn't a 面子 pissing contest. Anybody who thinks it is cheapens the lives of the very people they pretend to be helping. I wish for once, especially after something as massively tragic as the Sichuan earthquake, that people could stop thinking about themselves or how others perceive them for two seconds.
Thank you, moneyinabox. If one's only purpose of giving is to aggrandize yourself, that is a selfish and arrogant way to behave. Praise should be given to those who open their hearts and give what they can, no matter how small.
What about the red boards in every xiao qu that show who gave what? Obviously it is a contest. Let's shame them and shake 'em down.
The use of rankings is a cultural relic of people being unmotivated to do good things unless they are compared against others, and unless they get recognition for it. It's not just in China, but we're sure seeing a lot of it right now because it's relevant now.
But their use also perpetuates the problem. Example: If I am thinking of donating money, but only have so much to donate, then I will be sure to NOT DONATE until I think that I'll get proper recognition for it. Otherwise, I might give all my available money away, and when someone else tells me I should donate through them, I won't be able to and will be shamed. So I am left with no choice but to not donate, and hope that when I do, everyone will see.
This is not logical. You seem to equate charitable giving to handing out money to the homeless people on the street -- once you let one kuai go you'll be swarmed by a whole mess of kids saying "money money" and then feel bad if you don't spread it around. If someone "tells" me I should donate through them (rather than asking), I tell them to go away, or, if it's someone I know from a reputable organization, I tell them why I gave money to someone/somewhere else and feel no shame at all in that. However, if they posted a big-ass sign near my house that had a noticeable empty spot where I should be, I would be ashamed. I would also call that a shakedown.
The only reason I care about this is that I've heard of local groups, offices, homes, etc, getting approached by someone (typically of the baoan persuasion) saying "You haven't given your quota." It sounds like you condone this. If you're gonna do that, why not just raise taxes? Who are you fooling?
Public shaming can be overdone, of course, but I just wanted to point out that not using public shaming at all is also bad for a community. In the United States, I think people don't use it enough. The point is not for it to be a pissing contest, but for the wealthy people to set an example for other wealthy people and for those who strive to be wealthy. It's to say, becoming wealthy means you should contribute more to the community in order to be respected.
Mirthbottle, you are right, but nobody was ever debating the necessity to shame people into donating from time to time. The problem is with the publication of rankings.
If multinationals A and B are of similar size, and B donates a little less than A, this does not make B reprehensible in itself. Naturally, if B gives nothing at all, or just gives an embarrassingly small amount, than they might be worthy of a little reproach.