Money Matters

Since the earthquake, there have been massive fund-raising drives to raise money for the China Red Cross and other organizations trying to provide relief to the victims. Here at the university, the Foreign Affairs Office informed all of us that if we wanted to donate to the China Red Cross, we could drop off the money at the FAO and they'd take care of it. Great . . . I think most of the foreign teachers were eager to give and the Red Cross seemed like a reliable source to give to.

So last week, I stopped by the FAO with some money. I also had money that Katie wanted to donate because she was busy so I took it for her. When I handed the money to Yang, one of the FAO staff, he wanted me to clearly say how much of it was from me and how much of it was from Katie. He had a chart to keep track of what each individual gave. The list of who gave how much for each school department was going to be posted on the school intranet! Then he wanted me to pose for a photo with Mr. Tian, the FAO Director, handing him the donation so they could post the photo on the school website to show how willing their foreign teachers were to donate money. I was just about to protest the idea of using my donation as a PR opportunity (I wished my donation could just be anonymous!), but then Yang told me that Mr. Tian was not available. I heard later though that a couple other foreign teachers had had to pose for photos with their donations.

I read this story on another China-related blog that I follow:

A Chinese friend of mine told me that at her workplace, there was a fund-raising effort going on for the victims of the recent earthquake. Most employees contributed 100 RMB. My friend wanted to give a bit more, so she was about to put in 500 RMB when a co-worker pulled her aside.

“What are you doing?”
“I’m giving 500 RMB.”
“Everyone else gave 100. The boss only gave 300. Who do you think you are, giving 500?”

My friend ended up giving 100.

There are lists posted around campus of how much each class has given to the relief effort.

My students told me that they might change their cell phone service because China Mobile hasn't donated as much money as China Unicom.

It's very public how much famous people have given--people like Yao Ming and other Chinese celebrities. While they might be willing and eager to donate money, image-conscious celebrities don't really have a choice not to give.

We've heard people praising Taiwan for how much money the Taiwanese have donated; however, I have a feeling that there is a lot of internal and external pressure on Taiwan to make a large donation. Taiwan can show how wealthy and generous it is; China can gain face because Taiwan is willing to help the motherland.

Last night, Katie and I stopped at the convenient store by our apartment. Grandpa Liu was there (the cutest, sweetest old man you'll ever meet . . . he calls us his grown-up granddaughters) and all the store workers were just hanging out so we started talking about the earthquake. They asked us point blank how much money we had donated. Katie and I both looked at each other and tried to avoid the question knowing that our donations put together might be almost as much as their monthly salary. We tried to explain that we don't usually ask specific questions about money in order to avoid making either side embarrassed that their donation was too large/small in comparison. The store workers and Grandpa said that in China you can ask about money and not be embarrassed because we all understand people have different abilities and it's understood that some people can and should give more, while others will only be able to give less ("from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" . . . hmmm, seems like I have heard that somewhere before).

So everyone gives "freely" according to their ability. But be careful not to give more than your boss. Or less than your competition. Good thing all of that info is public in case you need to check.

There are huge cultural differences between the Western mindset and Chinese mentality when it comes to money. I have, however, been impressed with how quickly China has been able to mobilize funds, manpower, and supplies for the relief effort. And, cultural differences aside, I just hope that the money that's collected actually makes it to the areas in need and doesn't end up lining the pockets of corrupt officials.