The passing of renowned entrepreneur Dr William Mong Man Wai is indeed a sad event. His life story of building up a business empire from scratch is legendary and the best illustration of the "Hong Kong Spirit" as we know it. What made him even more outstanding among his peers is that he was prestiged throughout the world not only for his career success but his dedication to charity as well. The Shun Hing Education and Charity Fund he founded won him enormous respect. It has donated more than HK$500 million over the years and helped numerous students and underprivileged communities on the mainland and in Hong Kong as well as overseas. While his departure left his family and friends in profound sadness, it also constituted a great loss to the local charity circle, where he was regarded as a generous giver with boundless compassion. He will be eternally remembered for his lifetime contribution to society far and wide!

I had the honor to become Dr Mong's friend back in the mid-1990s, when the mainland was in its economic takeoff. As the nation's fast economic growth led to tremendous demands for talent and made the development of education more urgent than ever, the two charity funds I managed at the time began offering financial support to the mainland's drive to build better schools and nurture more talents. Unfortunately those two funds did not have enough cash to satisfy some of the pressing demands, such as Nanjing University's much-needed new library. As a result I decided to seek donations from fellow entrepreneurs in Hong Kong. Dr Mong was one of nine dear friends who responded enthusiastically with substantial input. With that funding the new Nanjing University Library was named "Ten Friends Hall" in honor of the ten Hong Kong donors. We also donated an academic building on the Tongji University campus in Shanghai the following year. That memory will stay with me all my life, thanks to the wonderful bond and true friendship formed among us by our common devotion to charity work.

Through my cooperation with Dr Mong Man Wai and others in charity work, I felt deeply the power of collective efforts in various forms of charity. Giving help as much as we can is no doubt commendable, but motivating those around us to join our cause and donate is more effective than I can imagine. That's what we mean when we say, "With enough sand one can build a tower; with enough wool one can make a blanket." In the following years I initiated several drives for donations to help develop education and other charitable causes on the mainland. Dr Mong Man Wai never hesitated to pitch in generously. Recipients of those funds included the Zijinshan Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences for purchasing advanced instruments; physically-challenged people in need of wheelchairs; and, through the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, townships to build clinics and other facilities. By doing so, Dr Mong truly lived up to the spirit of charity his family fund was established upon and set an excellent example for all successful career makers. It is gratifying to know that Dr Mong left us with a competent successor - his son Mong Tak-yeung - who is not only running the family business but also carrying forward the family's giving spirit wholeheartedly, thus keeping the well-established fame of his family as a generous benefactor of society sound and true as ever.

Dr Mong Man Wai is no more, but his spirit lives on forever. And his name is etched in our minds as long as we breathe!

The author is chairman of the Hip Shing Hong Group of Companies and managing director of the Kam Wah Investment Company Limited.

(HK Edition 07/30/2010 page2)