The association invited Xu ZhuoYun, a famous historian from U.S.A Pittsburgh University to give the talk

http://www.sina.com.cn 2005/06/29 18:08

　　At the second SEE forum held by Alxa SEE ecological association in Moon Lake Holiday Village in Beijing east suburb on November 6th, 2004, Xu ZhuoYun, a famous historian from Taiwan, was invited to give the talk "The entrepreneur class in China's modern history", and Cao JinQing, a famous sociologist made the comments. Entrepreneurs participating in the conference exchanged their opinions thoroughly.

　　Xu ZhuoYun was born on July 10th, 1930. He got his doctor degree in the department of history in National Taiwan University. He is an academician of Academia Sinica of Taiwan, and lifetime professor of U.S.A. Pittsburgh University. Though he has lost the use of both hands and both legs since childhood, Professor Xu, known as a ‘library alive’, is knowledgeable and perceptive.

　　Professor Cao JinQing, born in Lanxi, Zhejiang province in 1949, graduated from the Department of Philosophy in Fudan University in 1982. He has a master degree in history. Now he teaches in the Sociology Department of East China University of Science and Technology. Since recent years, he has published many works that enjoy considerable academic influence as well as practical and reference values in China. The book 'China by the Side of Yellow River' published in 1999 arouses enormous responses in all walks of society because of his concerns for rural economy and profound opinions on history and culture.

　　Over 30 entrepreneurs from member enterprises and nonmember enterprises took part in the salon, involving Liu XiaoGuang, SEE's chairman and general manager of Beijing Capital Group; Gao WenNing, deputy chairman of SEE and board chairman of Singapore Yaoheng consulting firm; Han JiaHuan, vice-chairman of SEE and board chairman of Dachan Great Wall; Wang Shi, vice-chairman of SEE and board chairman of Vanke group; Zhang ShuXin, vice-chairman of SEE and board chairman of Unite Yuntong; Zhou Zhou, board chairman of Foshan Tianchuang Digital group; Huang QingPing, board chairman of Silver City Property firm; Ai Xin, board chairman of Sichuan Santong enterprise; and Wang Jun, board chairman of Tailong City Credit Cooperative in Taizhou Zhejiang province. Nearly ten Scholars participated in the salon, including Professor Cao JinQing from East China University of Science and Technology; vice-director Ba ShuSong from the Development Research Center of State Council; Zhang WeiYing, vice-president of Guanghua School of Management in Beijing University; Yang Peng, director of Tianxiagu Enterprise Culture Research Institute; Wen TieJun, president of China Rural Development Research Institute in People's University of China; Fang Ning, vice-director of the political science institute of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. Chief editors of Beijing Youth Daily, People's Daily, China Business Times, and Truth newspaper also participated in the salon.

　　In his speech titled "The entrepreneur class in China's modern history", Professor Xu ZhuoYun expounded that: "From modern times (the end of Qing and the beginning of The Republic of China) till the War of Resistance against Japan, China national industry was on a beginning stage. Situation was very hard for Chinese entrepreneurs, and the scale of enterprises were very limited. All entrepreneurs started from the fields which concerned them most, without any consciousness of group or stratum. From today’s viewpoint, these hundreds of enterprises were all small enterprises. It was a painful and painstaking beginning."

　　Professor Xu put his speech in a nutshell: Part Ⅰ, an analysis of some typical characters on their intention and motivation; Part Ⅱ, his personal opinion, viz., to regard entrepreneurs as an industrial group and a social component. As a part of social groups, what kind of selfhood should the business circles develop? Only when they had this clear self-consciousness could they define their mission, their status and their future.

　　Then, which modern enterprises did professor Xu chose as models?

　　The first enterprise is a chemical industry group in Tianjin. The entrepreneur is Fan XuDong. His elder brother was director of the Education Ministry of The Republic of China and an adherent to Liang Qichao. During his sojourning in Japan, he learned what was modern industry and modern economy. After his return to Tianjin, he got license from the government through his family’s relationship with the Northern Government, and then initiated a refined salt factory. At that time, Chinese even did not have refined salt to eat. Ordinary people could not afford crystallization salt imported from abroad, but had to eat the impure and unhealthy salt dried on the seashore. Crude salt manufacturers and dealers colluded with each other to oppose him. When his first batch of red refined salt was launched to the market, all dishes in Chinese families became red. Obviously, situation was very bad in China then, and starting a business was very painstaking. It was the modernization he experienced during his stay in the aggressive Japan that stimulated his patriotism and motivated him to do better than Japanese. Based on his Jiuda refined salt factory, he excogitated the first acid of China’s three acids (sulfuric acid, nitric acid and carbonic acid) ----the sulfuric acid. Then he invited Hou DeBang, who studied chemistry in the west, to take charge of this business. Mr. Hou overcame numerous difficulties, utilized the intelligence of Chinese and created his own, also the simplest, purest, most convenient and economical way in the world to produce sulfuric acid those days, which was known as a landmark in China's chemical industry history.

　　More respectable was his dedication to the cultivation of Chinese chemical talents. He cultivated the first chemical talents for China through his Jiuda refined salt factory, Rongxing, Rongjiu sulfuric acid factories, by encouraging universities to establish chemical departments, with scholarship offered by Huahai Chemistry Association. My elder brother attained his chemistry degree with the help of Huahai scholarship. During the War of Resistance Against Japan, his enterprises were moved to Luoshan and Yibing in Sichuan province. After the victory of the war, he left these enterprises in the hinterland. During 8 years’ war of resistance, his enterprises expanded from Sichuan to Yunnan, Guizhou and Gansu. They set up the foundation of modernization in the hinterland.

　　Though the enterprise drew support from the Northern Government in its initial stage, but during its development, especially during the period of Nanjing government and the War of Resistance Against Japan, it grew and expanded through hard work. As a chemical enterprise, for the first time it constructed a rudiment for modern chemical industry chain characterized by corporation between business circles and academia to explore resources and develop new products.

　　A second model was private enterprises located in the south—modern textile plants and flour plants established by Rong Desheng, Rong ZongJing in Wuxi, uncle and father of Rong Yiren. Why did Chinese have to buy their own wheat and cotton only after they were processed in foreign countries? With the ambition to break the rule, they had maintained more than twenty factories before the War of Resistance by establishing another new factory through mortgage of the previous one. My uncle happened to be operating their factories in Hankou, so I knew relatively more about Rong’s enterprises. The Rongs were kidnapped many times because their bad relationship with Chiang Kai-shek. So, they were unwilling to move to Sichuan with Chiang. But the son-in-law of the Rongs, Li GuoWei, removed the factories in Wuxi into the hinterland. It was a very brave and noble-minded process. They moved all things they could and destroyed and bombed what they couldn’t. At last they dragged a factory to caves in Sichuan with wooden boats and ox carts. To shelter from Japanese’s bombs, they ran factories in caves. However, it was impossible to build boilers in the caves. Adapting measures to local conditions, they took locomotive engines from Longhai Railway as the generators. Under such conditions, they set up some factories in Sichuan, Shanxi, Guizhou, which remained there even after the victory of the War of Resistance. In fact, these factories were seeds of Chinese industry sowed in the hinterland.

　　Another thing worthy of mentioning was that at that time in order to move the coastal industries in the South into the hinterland, they established an association called "the federation of moving factories to Sichuan". This was the first inter-trade, trans-regional entrepreneur association in China. This association revealed that the entrepreneurs were asking for some supports from the government.

　　The third model was Mr. Lu Zuofu, an entrepreneur from Sichuan Minsheng Company. Originally a middle school teacher, Lu was appreciated by Yang Sheng, a warlord in Sichuan, and became a business founder. Lu found that there were only some small shipyards in Chuangjiang River, so he proposed Yang Sheng establish a shipping company. Then, Minsheng Company brought and dragged the first gabbart named "Minsheng Ship" to Sichuan. From then on, Minsheng Company became the main force in shipping industry of Chuangjiang River. By the victory of the War of Resistance, Minsheng Company had already owned a lot of ships. Mr. Lu also established a Minsheng middle school in Beipei at that time, giving every child in Beipei the opportunity to attend school, where they could study, with shoes and pencils all available. Such conditions were rarely good at that time. Then, Mr. Lu funded a physical training program for young men and a nurse training program for girls, providing for an ultimate fight against Japanese invading Sichuan. Later he initiated the ‘Minsheng hall’, where local people held recreation activities. Though covered by grass on the housetop and painted with mud, it was still the first folk entertainment playground in Sichuan where films were put on, a place equipped with loudspeakers where people could hold meetings and women literacy classes. Mr. Lu also provided money to made Beipei the first town that spread ‘tabia’ on the roads. So, Beipei was a model town in Sichuan and even in China at that time.

　　The fourth was Chen GuangFu, an entrepreneur born in a family with little education. Appreciated by compradors of a foreign firm, he was send to U.S as an apprentice. After getting a degree through study-working program, he came back to run a bank. He persuaded many small money houses in Ningbo to incorporate to form the Shanghai Commercial Bank, Zhejiang Xingye Bank and other two banks. These were the first commercial banks in China. He also established the first modern travel agency --China Travel Service, the first Hotel in China with branch hotels all over China. He cooperated with Lu ZuoFu in Minsheng Company to provide Chinese with a continuous line of service in their traveling at that time. If taking the ship of Minsheng Company with the traveling ticket of Shanghai Bank, you would be entitled to stay in the hostel of China Travel Service, enjoying meals provided by GuanShengYuan. They spread sanitary, nutritive, convenient and cheap modern life to average people in China. During War of Resistance, he borrowed 50 million for the government on the base of his prestige and overseas experience with his own company as guarantee. It was the patriotism that encouraged him to do this.

　　In the second part, what was the motivation of entrepreneurs? Why did they ask for pains by working laboriously and worrying about their enterprises day and night?

　　Western entrepreneurs, especially the first modern entrepreneurs at the northwest corner of west bank of the Atlantic Ocean, were deeply influenced by Calvinism after Christianity's Protestantism reform. They believed that God gave some special missions to men, and entrepreneurs had to testify these missions, so they needed success desperately. They were different from traditional businessmen, never content with present scale, never immersed in personal enjoyment; they enlarged their reproduction and improved the quality of their enterprises constantly. These were the first entrepreneurs with a sense of mission. Like the four entrepreneurs we mentioned just now, their sense of mission was to rescue the Chinese, their task was to run their enterprises well and popularize their influence to the society. Such as Lu ZuoFu in Minsheng Company, another example is that my uncle gave the most humanistic treatment to his works. So the Chinese entrepreneurs’ common motivation was patriotism at that time.

　　Everybody here has already far exceeded the past entrepreneurs' production scale. Today your insightful entrepreneurs started from rescuing ALE desert. This is an opportunity for you to change yourself from merely an economic developing driven force to someone who takes up great community responsibility. Different from saving the nation from subjugation in the past, now we should promote the society to a new level. We have surpassed the narrow nationalism and patriotism, regarding the common ecological rescuing as our own responsibility.

　　In fact, development is a contradiction to protection. Both America and Europe set up very bad models for us. Resources and energies were consumed at high speed. Especially, the non-renewable energy consumption reached its peak in the 20th century, and remains high without any basic changes until now. Now we have reached the stage of the resource crisis, about which we can do nothing. The automobile and oil companies in the U.S.A. obstruct the research and development programs related to replacing petrol with alcohol. However, if such programs succeeded, the whole industrial structure of automobile and petroleum would be turned over.

　　China is free from U.S.A.'s restriction, and its inland markets are large enough. If China concentrates on developing the substitute of energy (petroleum), the situation of burning petroleum for transportation can be broken soon. We Chinese business circles have the chance to do things that have never been done by others, but none of the enterprises can achieve its destination by itself. It needs the supports from the whole set of industry chains, just like paving the carpet. Today, Alxa ecological association is a good starting point, from which new industrial structures will be established with new designs, new experiments and new enterprises. This is a very magnificent goal. This type of industrial society can be the world’s industrial society of tomorrow that replaces the one developed by America and Europe from the 19th century to the 21st century. For America and Europe industry, the first half section was driven by coal; the latter half was driven by petroleum, from the late 20th century to now, it entered an information society and a biochemical society. We have the same starting line with them, not backward, and no prejudice, so we are most likely to exploit a new way. This is the challenge that every entrepreneur faces.

　　On my lectures in Nanjing University and Southeast China University, I said that we were in the time that values were lost; our mankind's progress was the progress of tools, not the progress of living ideas. Science and technology overwhelmed men, we had become the servants of science and technology. So, I said you might be the generation who sent a death notice to human culture. Our coal was used up, so did our resources. We got good automobiles, fine highways, but when cars died on the road, for oil was exhausted, we would be unable to know where we came from and where to go.

　　So, I admire that your entrepreneurs have joined together to rescue Alxa ecology consciously. Alxa was the crownland with plenty of water and lush grasses for Hun’s ‘Youxian King’ in Han Dynasty. We do not want to see the whole world turns from the crownland of ‘Youxian King’ to the desert of Alxa and archaeologists come to excavate Beijing ancient city some day. So, your mission is to look for a new way. At the same time, I offer my dream to you so that you’ll have more opportunities to fulfill it. This also can be regarded as my hope to you-all. Thank you!

　　After professor Xu’s speech, entrepreneurs and scholars participating in the conference made some comments.

　　Cao JinQing (Professor in the Sociology Department of East China University of Science and Technology) said: Mr. Xu is an elder member to me; I do not dare to comment as the younger generation. I’ll talk about some notions. His speech has three levels, first, several cases of the modern entrepreneurs; Second, illustrate the hardships and the ideological impetus of China's modern entrepreneurs through the cases; third, with 1.3 billion people and 9.6 million sq. km, where should the Chinese civilization go? Could China consume the non-renewable resources like America and Europe? This is a question on which I can't make any comments. From big cities to the remote, all filled with the demand—Getting rich as fast as you can. Through China economy’s high-speed growth for more than 20 years, all the major economists think that the goal can be achieve by this way. Someone says we need 3-5 earths for the 1.3 billion Chinese to live in the manners of American with fast consumption of non-renewable resources. If this way is obstructed, will Chinese have new living manners? I don’t know where the way is. I am quite puzzled. What kind of historical mission should contemporary entrepreneurs undertake? How do they make China stronger and richer? Mr. Xu asks them to undertake another kind of mission; do we have other kinds of living manners? For entrepreneurs — an economic driving force which actually dominates and leads the development of China’s economy, leading the way to a better harmony between human and nature, between man and man, between man and all living creatures is not a new mission, but a burden too heavy to shoulder. This is not the thing I can comment. Thank you!

　　Liu XiaoGuang (chairman of the association, general manager of Beijing Capital Group): Listening to professor Xu’s lecture and professor Cao’s comments, I feel very excited. The colloquium today is very short, but I gain a lot. Please air your views, put the discussion forward.

　　Yang Peng (director of Tianxiagu Enterprise Culture Research Institute): As to professor Xu’s lecture, I’ll talk about two points. First, the entrepreneurs at that time took up the mission of rescuing the nation by industry; they devoted much effort and made significant sacrifices for the nation and people. Though terribly criticized by the academe, the motivations of entrepreneurs, I think, must have been various actually. This may help us get a more comprehensive understanding of the entrepreneur group. Second, competitions between nations were in the form of military and political affairs at that time. All walks of society, including entrepreneurs, put their strength to the hands of politicians and militarists. Today, competitions between nations have turned to those between entrepreneurs. The government and the military would be very frail if the enterprises were weak.

　　Professor Xu ZhuoYun: China today is quite similar to the U.S.A. at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, when America copied the industrial mode of Europe by importing industrial products from Europeans. But the Americans found some thing, they started with the auto industry, which powered the development of steel, transportation, and petroleum industries as well as internal-combustion engine technology. America had very large markets and no burdens. Now China has the same conditions and good chances to connect wealth with a new way. A world market is just beneath our feet, and the new way will bring the entrepreneurs a larger world.

　　Ba ShuSong (deputy director of Financial Research Institute in Development Research Center of the State Council). Professor Xu is an influential historian; I’d like to compare his views with another influential historian, Huang RenYu’s. China realized the transition from Middle Age civilization to modern civilization in the past 100 years. Chiang Kai-shek roughly built up the upper strata such as the Ministry of Finance and the Central Bank. Mao Zedong rebuilt the microstructure of agriculture. Today it is an era when micro restoration and macro restoration have combined to form an increasingly consummate system of laws and regulations. We have achieved a great transition from a society of agriculture to modern society. This society regards enterprises as the center. Assessing the function of market by the eyes of economists, I believe that the market mechanism will stimulate resource development at a more rapid speed than we can imagine.

　　Liu XiaoGuang: Does the society really regard enterprises as the center? It would be another kind of situation if enterprises were regarded as the center.

　　Zhang WeiYing (vice-president of Guanghua School of Management in Peking University): I hope there were more communications to improve our quality. Professor Xu pays close attention to ideality. In fact the core value concept is tremendously critical to every enduring enterprise, which not only pays attention to the growth of annual output value, but also implements social responsibility in their business development. For example, American Morgan Company deems that what they are doing is to reduce the human agony. In fact, social responsibility is an issue of both the enterprises and the society. I think Alxa ecological association not only orients Alxa, but also calls for our social responsibility of the time.

　　Liu XiaoGuang: Watching you discuss, I feel that Alxa SEE ecological association is also a platform for thoughts to take off; it is a chance for us to improve our quality.

　　Zhang MinGeng (broad chairman of Yinxin Property corporation): I benefit a lot. All history is contemporary history. Different from bureaucratic entrepreneurs, the four private entrepreneurs that Mr. Xu mentioned all grew up from the grass roots. Though very pitiful in the latter-day society, Chinese entrepreneurs enjoy unprecedentedly privileged status today. But is it enough? I joined Alxa ecological association partly because the influence of Liu XiaoGuang, and partly because I want to earn a social status for entrepreneurs. Could professor Xu ZhuoYun say something about this, please?

　　Xu ZhuoYun: You need not to fight for it; it is right here. Now the mankinds regard economic activities as the backbones of their activities. It is certain that entrepreneurs and businessmen are the mainstreams; you even can’t make it if you do not want to be the mainstreams of the society. The entrepreneurs' social status today is blameless; they are pillars of the society. But the pillars should be linked by beams to become an interactive system. Alxa ecological association is a beam, a combination of entrepreneurs. I’m a historian, a recorder, I’ll write down what you’ve done.

　　Wang Shi (broad chairman of Wanke Group): I agree with professor Xu that history should be used to solve today’s problem. The historical status of entrepreneurs is right here. Thanks to the good environment of market economy, we are here today. Compared with Taiwanese entrepreneurs after World War II, we have much better situation and opportunities. I came to Shenzhen in 83, and I’m always thankful to the era that gives us such chances to develop more rapidly than expected. But why after the 1990s the entrepreneurs are still complaining about their low status and deprivation of right of speech?

　　Zhang MinGeng: I’m mainly concerned with the sense of safety; it is a very important question.

　　Wang Shi: On my lecture in Guanghua School, I said I’d never taken or offered bribes but nobody believed me. I became a controversial case in Chinese business circles. We are talking about entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial responsibilities; I think bribery is a loss of human dignity, without which entrepreneurs can never succeed in their businesses as well as further development of entrepreneurship. Your bodyguard may be the very man that injures you.

　　I believe that an entrepreneur is far more than an entrepreneur; he should also be a social activist who is willing to take up social responsibility. The sense of safety today is much better than entrepreneurs in the turmoil of war. If you are too fragile to endure this, how can you run your business? Those complaining even in such a good condition will not make successful entrepreneurs.

　　(The second session of SEE forum was sponsored by Beijing Yihe health center)