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Billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are hoping China's newly wealthy will embrace philanthropy.
億萬富翁比爾·蓋茨和沃倫·巴菲特希望中國財富新貴們支持慈善事業。
The men hosted a dinner for over 50 of China's business elite and entrepreneurs on Wednesday to discuss ideas on how to share their wealth. China was home to the fastest growing number of high net worth individuals but has little tradition in charity.
他們于星期三晚設宴邀請50余位中國商界精英和企業家，來探討如何分享財富。中國是高凈值個人人數不斷以最快的速度增長的國家，但是卻沒有做慈善事業的傳統。
Microsoft founder Gates put this down to wealth being a relatively recent phenomenon.“The main difference I think is that because the wealth here is so new, a lot of these non-profit groups have not been developed in a notion of what is the role of government versus philanthropy that's still being developed and, you know, it's great to see, like many things in China, it's happening faster than it happened in most other places.”Many rich Chinese are also reluctant to discuss their wealth in public, fearful of unwanted attention from the authorities or resentment from millions of have-nots.
微軟創始人蓋茨把財富用作慈善事業，是近期的風氣。“我認為主要區別在于，財富對于大多數中國人而言是陌生的，許多非盈利機構還沒得以發展。在這個民族，政府對慈善事業的影響在不斷改善。我們很高興得看到，相比其它大多數地方許多事物在中國發展得更快。”許多中國富人不愿意公開討論自己的財富，害怕招來政府的特別關注和上百萬窮人的仇富心態。
Buffett says the habit of giving is still being formed, but more and more of China’s newly wealthy are starting to assess their options.“Reasonbly widespread great wealth is a much newer phenomenon. And the habits of philanthropy probably are being formed here whereas they are probably settled in more if you go to Europe where people of the dynasties have passed on wealth for generation after generation. So that the ideas, the charitable inclinations or the more ancient norms in Europe are much more likely to be more solidified and harder to change than a new sociey where people are looking at wealth as they don't have their leading donor and I'm thinking we'll put a clue about this.”Private philanthropy became obsolete after the 1949 revolution, but the country’s wealth gap widened after it embaced capitalist reforms in the 1970s. Recent natural disasters have also stoked patriotic sentiment and rekindled an interest in charity.
巴菲特說贈與是種習慣，可以漸漸養成。然而越來越多的中國財富新貴們開始評估他們的選擇。“巨額財富廣泛分布是一種合理的社會新現象。捐贈的習慣可能會在這兒形成，然而如果去歐洲，財富則可能會越積越多，因為歐洲的富人選擇一代代繼承財富。歐洲人的這種觀念，這種慈善傾向以及其古老的行事準則很有可能進一步固化，從而比新型國家更難以改變。因為新型社會沒有主要捐贈代表，沒有做慈善的經驗可循，我們可以把這看作是線索?！弊?949年改革以來，私人捐贈更是鳳毛麟角，但是20世紀70年代實行資本市場改革以后，中國貧富差距拉大。而且近年來的自然災害也振奮了人們的愛國情緒，慈善的興趣被重新點燃了。
Ahno Gay, Reuters.
Ahno Gay，路透社。
