Chinese TV Star Leads Charge to Build ‘Culture of Philanthropy’
July 26, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
A wealthy Chinese television personality has become a leader in the movement to encourage philanthropy among the country’s fast-growing billionaire set, The Seattle Times says.
“Business people [in China] want to demonstrate their social value beyond personal material success,” Yang Lan told the daily in an interview conducted when she came to Seattle in May to meet with Bill Gates and other local philanthropists to give a talk at the University of Washington.
Ms. Yang, one of the country’s wealthiest women, hosts two popular TV shows and co-organized the September 2010 dinner in Beijing at which Mr. Gates and Warren Buffett met to talk giving with Chinese billionaires.
She and her husband, investor Bruno Wu, donated half their shares in their media company in 2005 to start the Sun Culture Foundation, a Hong Kong institution that promotes education and the “culture of philanthropy” in China.
