Celebrity Charity in China - A Weird Phenomenon Can Be Dirty

In the recent years, many high profile celebrities in the entertainment industry including well-known singers and famous actors have rushed into their new careers with a very impressive tile, the "founder of charity foundation". One thing is certain, those charity founders have successfully used their social influences to attract huge amounts of cash from a large number of benevolent donors, but no one is really sure where the money has been spent on. Those founders have often set up their charity organizations in a region that is beyond China's jurisdiction, such as Hong Kong, although their targeted donors are inside mainland China. This type of cross border charity system makes it virtually impossible for anyone to accurately track the actual flow of "charity" cash.

Sure enough, these charity organizations all have a vague yet exclamatory mission statement - "helping those in need", which made those charity-celebrities being viewed as hero by a large part of the general public and the entire news media in China. We often hear such commendations from major networks: celebrity X has devoted himself to the great philanthropy while giving up his personal interests. Great, if the entire statement is precise. Many of them have indeed devoted. However, how many of them have given up their personal interests? Probably none. At least, it is quite illogical to make such a statement. Human being is a greedy body. It is the "greed" that has progressed the society. It is a fact that charity is a quite new thing in China. There are hardly any regulations that keeps even domestic "charity" straight. The cross border charity activities may well be outside any regulatory monitoring. How could someone conclude those celebrities have never used the title "charity" to gain personal interests?

Let's look at one example of "celebrity-charities".

Celebrity L is a Kongfu star who became famous with just one Kongfu movie in the 80's. He then virtually disappeared from China for nearly two decades and returned to the country couple years ago with a charity foundation. Since returning China, he has become a frequent talk show guest, appearing in almost every TV network to exclusively promote his "foundation" rooted in Hong Kong. I listened to several interviews and heard of bunch wonderful slogans but nothing about what he has done or what real things he is planning to do for the "people in need". He calls for donations from ordinary citizens but where the donations are to distributed seems to be none of donor's business. L has repeatedly emphasized that he would never disclose any donation amounts made by his foundation. What a joke.

It's reported that L's foundation received over 30 million yuan from individual donors during 5.12 Szechuan earthquake. People had donated that portion of money to his foundation specifically for earthquake relief.  Let's assume 30 million yuan he claimed are all he received. Among that how much has actually been used for the purpose of earthquake relief remains mysterious, other than one million yuan in cash and couple truck loads of relief goods were reported by news media. It really striking how could the celebrity arbitrarily control the use of cash that other people had asked him to forward to the hands of victims, and why the government hasn't done anything about it?

Nevertheless, one thing is of no mystery. While celebrity L intensely promotes his "charity" foundation, one of the most luxury mansion is quietly erected in the heart of Shanghai. Costing nearly 200 million yuan, the mansion resembles an imperial palace and is capable of hosting a gathering for thousand people. Guess who owns the mansion? Yes, you are exactly right, it is celebrity L.

On May 12, the anniversary of the Szechuan earthquakes, celerity L and his foundation put up a huge propaganda show, so-called "supportive walking", in the epicenter town in an attempt to attract more donations. The show virtually disabled the entire city that is under heavy post-disaster reconstruction. Hundreds of security guards were hired to protect celebrity L's safety. Businesses stopped operation. All nearby highways were shutdown. The event triggered strong condemnations from the general public. Ordinary citizens are painfully realizing that the celebrity has recklessly spent their donations. Many have called celebrity L's charity foundation a fraudulent organization. 

A new, weird yet hot job position is now being developed in China, namely "charity solicitor". The job is commission based with great earning potentials. That is true. You may get paid up to 30% if you successfully solicit a donation from a business for a charity organization. This job may not be that hard either, considering a business can gain significant tax and social benefits by making donations to "charity" organizations. In an public appearance, celebrity L once openly urged industrialization of the charity cause. It appears now charity is not only industrialized but also commercialized. If the charity organizations are operated as profitable businesses, the supposedly brightest part of the society would unfortunately  become dirty. We saw many fake beggars running around city streets in China to beg for their rich bosses in exchange for survival. Any differences between this begging business and that commission based charity operation? Maybe. At least, one is running at a retail scale while the other....wholesale or even manufacturing level. 

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