Home

Contact Us

1. Found School and Support Education in China

[Shijing Hope Schools in Shanxi Tongchuan and Hunan Yuyang in China]

An article of Donghan Kang, the 'Shanghai Charity Star'

An article from Shanghai Daily – Donghan Kang as the ‘Shanghai Charity Star’ (2007.9.2) 

An article from Asia Business Daily - Donghan Kang’s donations(2009.12.31)

 Donghan Kang, the president of Shanghai Shijing on Caring magazine

Donghan Kang is tall, with salt and pepper hair and large hands. Although he is the founder and General Manager of the successful Shanghai Shijing International Trading Company, Kang exudes a quiet, charming humbleness through his soft-spoken and thoughtful manner. Dozens of certificates in honor of Kang’s charity donations line the walls of his company’s small conference room. Kang, who is originally from Korea, generally does not publicize his extensive charity work. But last year he decided that displaying these certificates would give his employees a sense of pride in their work, and in the knowledge that some profits from their company go directly toward supporting poor and needy people. To date, Kang’s company has donated 1.23 million yuan to the Shanghai Charity Foundation and Project Hope.

“There are five children in my family and when we were growing up, my father had the responsibility of earning the salary, as in most traditional Korean families,” says Kang, explaining the genesis of his lifelong motivation to help others. When Kang was younger, his mother was struck by a serious illness for a whole year. “I took a year off from my studies to help support my family through this crisis. All of us children frequently think of this difficult period. My whole family suffered greatly, but we also came to realize how important it was to have help at a critical moment in life.” After moving from Korea to China to head the trading company, Kang began volunteer charity work at a hospital for the elderly on Hongqiao Lu in 1998. He helped with common chores like washing clothes and cleaning up, “but I did not feel this kind of work made enough of a difference,” explains Kang,

“I decided that giving money through charity foundations is the fastest and most effective way to help the greatest number of needy people.”

Later, Kang went online to learn more about charities in Shanghai and he found the SCF website. He immediately arranged a meeting at the SCF office, and since then, Kang has donated to numerous SCF projects every year. “Working with the SCF is like a joint cooperation,” says Kang, “I really appreciate the clear and detailed reports I receive from the SCF, which include information on each person who is helped, what they receive, and even what kind of sickness they may have. And whenever I meet with the SCF―although I am just a small company and my donations are not very big―they always ask for my approval of each person or program which is supported by out donations.”

Most recently, Kang’s company helped to build a Hope School in an area where the students previously had to travel two hours to get to school. Kang points to photographs of himself, his family, and his employees posing with students at the school he helped to build in Shanxi. As part of another Hope project, beginning in 2004, Kang has continuously supported 27 poor students who he personally selected as the neediest children in that area. Every year Kang and his wife organize an event to meet with all their sponsored students.

  When explaining his philosophy of helping those in need, Kang draws a diagram of a road, a visual image of a path through life.

“When people are in school, it is very important to enable them to continue. If there is some kind of barrier, or some kind of sickness,” Kang draws a slash, like a break in the lifeline, “and if you give them a little bit of help, just to get over this small thing in the way, they will be able to smoothly continue on their pathway or life.” For Kang, charity is not only company policy, but part of his daily family life. Not only Kang’s wife and mother, but also his children are extremely devoted to charity work. Every weekend Kang’s two daughters volunteer at a local orphanage. “I especially like to take my daughters to participate in charity work when they are on vacation or school break,” says Kang, “This kind of work will have a great effect on a child’s education.” Clearly Kang’s children have taken this lesson to heart. This past October holiday, Kang’s older daughter, a high school student, volunteered by her own choice to spend her vacation helping build houses for the poor in Yunnan.

When asked what he would say to those who have not given to charity before, Kang laughs modestly. But he quickly picks up his pen to write on his paper again. He writes some characters and arrows. It’s clear that he approaches problems in an orderly manner. “A lot of people say, well after I am successful in three to four years, then I’ll give to charity,” Kang says, “but by that time it may be too late. For people who are sick, or can’t go to school, if you don’t help them at that very moment, they won’t ever get that opportunity again. You must not wait, you must help right then. There is a period at which people desperately need help and when that passes, they will never come to that critical point again.”

Kang practices precisely what he believes, making charity a motivation for gaining profits, rather than the other way around. “My company is quite small and we have only a small amount of profit,” points out Kang, “but we still have to use these profits to help others.” He explains that he usually makes donations from March to June, a typically low period for donations. “A lot of other companies think, ‘Well I will see what our economics looks like at the end of the year and when we see our numbers we will try to figure out what we can give then,” says Kang, “But at my company, we give money first, and then determine how we will get through the year. When you participate in this kind of giving, then you have the motivation to work even harder.”

One of Kang’s good deeds was so unusual that it was written about in many newspapers. A few years ago, an employee of Kang’s company was seriously injured and partially paralyzed in a train accident on her honeymoon in Yunnan. Although Kang’s company has no legal liability to her, he continues to pay her salary today, years after the accident. And Kang say without hesitation that he will pay her salary “forever”. “She has a great personality,” says Kang, “her parents have retired, and her husband has left her. If I didn’t give her this money, maybe she would get an even more serious illness or even want to commit suicide.” Recently, since this woman has recovered somewhat, Kang decided to give her some very light work so that she would feel useful and have something to do.

“This is about unity and the power of society,” says Kang. “People should think to themselves: am I capable of helping anyone? That is the time to give. Even though I have a lot of difficulties, yet I can see others who have even greater difficulties. I am willing to sacrifice some of my things to help those who are even needier. You have to have this kind of spirit and resolve.”