Dream takes off

THE STORY OF Chiang Chen is a compelling tale of how an orphan from a poor Chinese farmer's family became a wealthy industrialist.

During a two-hour conversation in the sprightly 78-year-old's office at the Tai Po Industrial Estate, he explained how two engineers, starting out 43 years ago, turned HK$200 into Chen Hsong Holdings, one of the world's largest makers of plastic injection moulding machines.

What most marks Mr Chiang from other self-made Hong Kong businessmen was his 1990 decision to donate his entire Chen Hsong shareholding - valued at the time at HK$800 million - to a charity fund intended to nurture industrial development in Greater China.

Giving away the family fortune rather than passing on a dynasty goes against the basic instinct of most Chinese business leaders. So what made him do it?

'This was my dream. I always wanted to be a kung-fu hero who in classical Chinese literature was willing to give up his life and wealth to help his country and people,' said Mr Chiang.

'I didn't have any money and the ability to help China when I was a young boy because my family was very poor. But I had the money when I was 68 and so I did what I always wanted to do.'

Having grown poor in war-torn China, Mr Chiang says his youth was spent reading classical martial arts novels. What appealed to him was not the hero's ability to kill enemies with the sword but their self-sacrificing spirit to give up their wealth and even their lives in the service of their country.