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Chinese Character

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Billionaire battles madhouse

Family turns against leather tycoon – declaring him insane
Mar 12, 2010 (WiC 52)

"Harmony within family is the basis of success in any undertaking,” reckons a Chinese idiom. In theory, those words should resonate with someone like Wang Min, the chairman of Far East Leather Group. However as he stepped out of the courts ...

Yang Rong is offering investors a 6% return and a US green card
Feb 19, 2010 (WiC 50)

Forced from one’s homeland, unable to return, it is impossible to give up hope. As Greek tragedian Aeschylus put it more than two thousand years ago: “I know how men in exile feed on dreams.” Just ask Yang Rong. In the eight years that ...

Chen Tianqiao and the rise of Shanda Interactive
Feb 12, 2010 (WiC 49)

"Money itself doesn’t mean much to me,” says Chen Tianqiao. “I just think by making more money, I’ll be able to prove that I’m more capable than others.” Chen often says wealth has never been his ultimate goal. To him, making the ...

King of the sands

Meet the man growing tomatoes in the desert
Feb 5, 2010 (WiC 48)

Yu Gong, a character from the Chinese classic work Liezi, is well known for his strong will and constancy. He mustered the support of family and friends to remove two mountains that were blocking access to their village, despite being mocked for ...

A former soldier and restaurateur is now buying foreign oil and gas assets
Jan 29, 2010 (WiC 47)

In life, a person should always be looking to progress,” says Sun Guangxin, the chairman of Xinjiang Guanghui Enterprise Group. Sun certainly practises what he preaches. One of five children of a cobbler from Shandong who settled in ...

Zhang’s welfare state

For migrant workers, the boss of Quanshun is a hero
Jan 22, 2010 (WiC 46)

If you’re in trouble or hurt or in need – go to the poor people. They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones,” wrote John Steinbeck, the American writer known for his works set during the Great Depression. That depiction ...

Hunan’s green entrepreneur

The tycoon who ditched his private jets to save the world
Jan 8, 2010 (WiC 44)

In 1997, Zhang Yue caused a stir by becoming the first person in China to own a private jet. Later he was one of the first to acquire a private licence to fly a helicopter. These days Zhang, who still admits to enjoying various forms of ...

On a (legal) crusade

China may have found its very own Ralph Nader
Dec 18, 2009 (WiC 43)

"I’ve always believed the three ultimate means to protect individual rights and eliminate injustice in a modern civilisation are litigation, litigation and litigation.” It may sound like John Adams (an American ‘Founding Father’) but ...

Yan the builder

He built a construction empire, now he wants to build a business school
Dec 11, 2009 (WiC 42)

More than three decades after China began its economic reform, the country now faces a situation in which 99% of its small-and-medium-sized enterprises may go out of business in the next decade. Such bold predictions come not from ...

Trouble in store

The rise and fall of China’s richest man
Oct 30, 2009 (WiC 36)

Naming is a true art. The Chinese believe the name of a child will set his or her fate, and commonly opt to change their names later in life, hoping to improve their destiny. For Huang Guangyu, who was born Huang Junlie, he got some of it ...

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