On the morning of July 10th, 2018, Dr. Tian Jiabing passed away at the age of 99. Most educators will be familiar with his name. Over the course he donated 80% of his wealth, building over 200 schools and 18,000 libraries across the country since the 1980, earning him the title of "Father of 100 Chinese schools"(百校之父).
Tian Jiabing had great success in business. However, in 1997, after the financial crisis (金融危机) in Asia. Tian's businesses were influenced, making it difficult to fulfill promises of donations. In order to make donations as planned, Tian, at the age of 83, decided to sell his home, in which he had lived for 38 years, for 56 million HK dollars. He then donated it to some schools in China, and moved into a small flat with his wife. In 2005, Tian also sold the 130,000-square-metre Tian Square at the price of 300 million HK dollars which was later donated to over 10 universities and secondary schools.
When he was interviewed, he said, "Since I had promised to organize my donations, I decided to sell my house to help these schools. This felt like a more meaningful action. "In interviews Tian expressed that education is linked to a country's strength and cultural development. He said that spending money on education is "spending money in the most useful of places", and that the value of education is far greater than the value of giving money.
Even though every donation was tens or hundreds of millions, Tian Jiabing lived a modest and simple life in Hong Kong. He was also strict with his children. He insisted that it was better to leave posterity(名誉) to the next generation rather than wealth. Tian was respected by people not only because of his great honour, but also because he never asked for returns for his work. Other than his big donations, Tian also gave an example with small actions which help the society get better.
Tian Jiabing is considered as one of China's all-time greatest charitarian(慈善家). More people will know about his efforts and spirit, inspiring and drawing the attention of more people to do good deeds together.
