Go West!: Philanthropist Entrepreneurs in Western China

James Fallows took a trip out to the rural West of China where cities are rare and desert landscapes dominate. He and his wife happened upon a fascinating project that has evolved over many years- Taiwanese entrepreneurs who decided to invest in the lives of poor rural children on the mainland. This is an example of people with no direct interest thinking about equity and equality and opportunity in ways that hopefully may become more pervasive.

Here are some excerpts from his story:

On Western China:

If I were running a travel agency, I would skip the likes of Beijing and Shanghai and send foreign visitors out toward these western villages, where they would see aspects of China beyond its urban spectacle and manufacturing prowess.

In the villages, people effectively live in a different century.

This is not the China that most foreigners read about or experience on visits, but its isolation and poverty are important parts of any understanding of China.

On Sayling Wen, entrepreneur, founder of Inventec:

In 2000, he developed a new and very powerful passion: to save the poor people of western China. He had a new idea: western China would have to become fully modernized—brought into parity with Shanghai and Beijing—by 2010. Soon he had written a manifesto called Develop Western China in Ten Years, which was published in English and Chinese, and he steered Inventec’s money toward sites in the west.

On Kenny Lin, engineer, researcher and manager:

The hardship that stunned him most was the powerlessness of rural people against brute natural misfortune. “Oh God, help these simple and innocent children out of the poverty, deliver them from the tortures of the lack of rain,” Lin wrote.

The Story:
These two men made a grand scheme replete with grand gestures. They planned to transform 1,000 rural villages into globally integrated 'internet villages' and worked with western schools on exchange projects. They made grandiose plans for a hotel, resort, conference center that would welcome easterners in a non-confrontational setting where they could learn about the economic reality of their fellow compatriots.

THEN ONE OF THE GUYS DIED...

The management of the resort was turned over and the eco-tourism, international exchange vision was scrapped in favor of a lure-Chinese-businessmen and tourists model.

The internet villages that were training the village kids to dream of an urban lifestyle instead has been refocused to help lure global business to western China.

And the company has also ventured into 'outright philanthropy' where kids apply for a stipend that essentially covers their public school fees and boarding costs ($115/year). In exchange, the kids are required to research and write about aspects of their rural life. As Fallows puts it, 'They are essentially paid to become bloggers.'

The essays are available at WestChinaStory.com; One middle-school student writes about the “moment of joy” when the family wheat crop is ready for harvest. A high-school boy tells about how great it was when his school got a basketball to play with outside. Another, about learning Tibetan dance. Another, what is hard but satisfying about herding sheep. It might sound maudlin, but having met some of these children, I take their accounts as alive, hopeful, human.

Some 2,200 rural students now earn their keep through this kind of blogging, supported by half a million dollars in donations mainly from Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, and a few businesses in mainland China. My wife and I signed up to “hire” a number of blogging students from the school that welcomed us. (On the site, you can not only see all of the students’ essays in Chinese and their pictures but also choose students to sponsor at 800 RMB, or about $115, per year.) I’d like to know what becomes of them.

It is fascinating to see this kind of homegrown philanthropy, one that recognizes the huge burden that the Chinese public education puts on poor families. I remember meeting an American woman in Zhong Dian years ago who had set something like this up specifically for girls in Sichuan and Yunnan. This kind of story makes me hopeful that more people will understand the bifuricated nature of China- East and West- and the great growing inequalities that threaten to undermine any hope of gender and class equality going forward. I personally will continue to think about the modes of development that are most likely create opportunity for rural kids and families.