"Rescuing" national quintessence by donating 25 million Yuan, the calligraphy complex of entrepreneur Yang Feng
Yang Feng (1st from the left) in the donation ceremony to Inheritance of Calligraphy program
Calligraphy works of Yang Feng: We will conquer the impregnable pass and path
Long scroll calligraphy works of Yang Feng--Preface to Poems Composed in a Party on Spring Night
Yang Feng (2nd from the left) gave a speech on the donation ceremony
Recently, Yang Feng donated 25 million Yuan to China Literary and Art Foundation, which will be used for the cultivation of calligraphy teachers for primary and middle schools. It was the greatest donation received by the "Calligraphy Teachers Training Program for Primary and Middle Schools".
Hu Baoli, vice president of China Association for Promotion of Minority Groups and executive vice president of Chinese Academy of Calligraphy and Painting, commented that Yang Feng is the best calligrapher among entrepreneurs and an excellent entrepreneur among calligraphers.
To many media people, few entrepreneurs will spend more time on their interest than their career; and fewer entrepreneurs are professional in their interest as their career and can even rank top in related field at home and abroad; not to say real estate entrepreneurs will lift their interest to the height of social responsibility of the enterprise and put it into action and make it a big event influencing the inheritance of traditional Chinese culture.
Yang is such an "exception" in the eyes of common people.
The calligraphy and architecture planning can be understood as "different in approach but equally satisfactory in result". Calligraphy emphasizes the balance of sparseness and denseness, which can be "so dense that no needle can be inserted" or "so sparse that even a boat can flow". Architecture planning also cannot do without a balance of sparseness and denseness.
The purpose for us to mention "seeds of calligraphy" is to take "inheritance" as the principle and norm and make ancient Chinese calligraphy art and today's calligraphy art come down in a continuous line. To a certain extent we refuse or limit the saying of "calligraphy creation", for the space for "creation" and "inheritance" is limited. The "seeds" in my goal are neither seeds that have been genetically modified, nor "drivers" that run the red light at random.
Nanfang Metropolis Daily: On December 8, 2016, Great Aim Group donated 25 million Yuan to China Literary and Art Foundation for a calligraphy teachers training program. As a private entrepreneur, why do you take such an action?
Yang: It is not sudden in fact. As a member of Chinese Calligraphers Association, I have an unusual enthusiasm for calligraphy. Today it is difficult for calligraphy class to be introduced into primary and middle schools. Due to the shortage of calligraphy teachers, calligraphy teaching cannot be organized normally in many schools. Facing this reality, we feel very upset and worried. Many people want to do something for the inheritance of calligraphy, but find it helpless. As an entrepreneur, it's lucky that I have the strength to make some contribution to the inheritance of calligraphy, of which I feel very proud.
Daily: 25 million Yuan is a big sum. Why don't you directly aid a calligrapher with potential, but choose to fund the calligrapher teacher training for primary and middle schools?
Yang: From six years old I was asked by my grandpa to learn calligraphy. Later, after I went to school, I was always criticized by my teacher when I held a pencil in the same way as I held a writing brush. However, after I went home from school, I was praised by my grandpa, who said that I had laid a solid foundation in the practice of calligraphy. I have been enthusiastic about calligraphy for decades, perhaps because the example and verbal instruction from the elderly had buried a seed of enthusiasm in calligraphy in my childhood. Perhaps I choose to fund the inheritance of Chinese calligraphy just to carry forward the original intention of my grandpa.
Decades have elapsed in a blink. Now I have become the founder and leader of an enterprise. With the growth and development of the enterprise, generation after generation of new employee enter the enterprise. I find that there are few calligraphy lovers among the generations born in the 1980s, 1990s and fewer in the 2000s. Without the keyboard, none of them can write neatly. In the face of shortage of inheritors of calligraphy art, as a calligrapher lover and a member of Chinese Calligraphers Association, I am anxious about the current status and worried about the inheritance of Chinese calligraphy.
Daily: So you choose to start from the source of education?
Yang: Yes, I wish to set an example by donating 25 million Yuan to the calligraphy teachers training program for primary and middle schools nationwide, do well in the fixed-point training of "calligraphy inheritance", and drive more entrepreneurs to support the inheritance of Chinese calligraphy with actual actions, thereby promoting the calligraphy teachers training for primary and middle schools. After teachers are trained and cultivated, we can then teach more students to practice calligraphy. I believe, the inheritance of our calligraphy by the youth must start from the cultivation of faculty.
Daily: In 2015, your album of photos Pursuing Dream in Wilderness won two awards in the 66th ceremony of Benny Award for the printing industry of the US. Now you donated a big sum to fund the "Inheritance of Calligraphy" program. Photography and calligraphy are your interest, but few entrepreneurs can do so well in their interest and even combine their interest with social welfare and charity as you do. How do you think of the relationship between interest and career?
Yang: Many people believe that interest and money are closely tied and many integrate the two as a whole. They cultivate interest for earning money. Take photography as an example, in the circle of photography, there are many "masters", but few of them can earn money with the interest. One photo of the late Ansel Adams can be auctioned at a price of 800,000 US dollars, which is the only case. Today there is another example, who is my good friend Wang Jianjun. As a photographer of Western scenery, he is a practitioner that has achieved a perfect integration of interest and career. His benefit from his interest can satisfy his living needs. For the pursuit of my interest, I cannot earn money with my interest. Without money, I cannot satisfy my own interest. Therefore, I started up business first before satisfying my own interest. The album of photos taken in the west of the US is perhaps a fruit of practice in which I started up business to satisfy my own interest.
Interpreted from the angle of career, my interest in calligraphy and photography has created me and also is the dynamic force to drive me on in my career.
Daily: As an entrepreneur mainly engaged in real estate, calligraphy and architecture seem unrelated to each other. In your opinion, is there any necessary connection between the two?
Yang: The calligraphy and architecture planning can be understood as "different in approach but equally satisfactory in result". Calligraphy emphasizes the balance of sparseness and denseness, which can be "so dense that no needle can be inserted" or "so sparse that even a boat can flow". Architecture planning also cannot do without a balance of sparseness and denseness. For example, the bricks of ancient architectures such as the Forbidden City follow a funny pattern of arrangement. They are not arranged in the same position, but a brick is placed on two bricks. Arranged like this, the whole appears stable and coordinated. The same requirement applies to the rule of calligraphy, which strives to achieve steadiness and orderliness.
Daily: On the donation ceremony held by China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, I heard a key word about the purpose of donation. All leaders at the site have mentioned "cultivating 7,000 seeds of calligraphy". Can you talk about the actual significance of the key word?
Yang: The "Seeds of Calligraphy" we have mentioned in fact is "the aim of the project". Like the meaning of seed in biology, the "seed of calligraphy" also has a life. A seed buried in the earth can sprout, blossom and bear fruits, so can our "seeds of calligraphy". Through the project of "Inheritance of Calligraphy", we will select calligraphy lovers from the faculty of primary and middle schools nationwide. After a systematic and strict training, as seeds, they will be sown in the primary and middle schools and will also sprout, blossom and bear fruits.
Daily: What requirements do you suggest for the regulation of "seeds"?
Yang: The coverage range of the term "regulation" is too wide. Here I simply talk about its general meaning. Chinese calligraphy is an art with Chinese characters as the written object. Chinese character integrates image, sound and meaning into one and is created following six principles (namely, pictograph, self-explanatory, associative, phonogram, mutually explanatory, loan), and forms man's unified understanding of natural phenomena and happenings. Since the ancient time, calligraphy has followed the same vein by worshiping image, rhyme, method, meaning, shape and quality, which can be called "Way of Calligraphy". Now that there is a way, there should be rules, just like "traffic rules" for drivers: Stop when the red light is on, go when the light turns green. According to the traffic rules of the UK, we must go on the left side of the road, while in China we go on the right side. Hong Kong's traffic rules have been introduced from the UK, so nowadays people still go on the left side. Therefore, the "Way of Calligraphy" is also under similar regulation as traffic rules. However, who will set these rules? In fact no one is qualified to set them. The rules can only be "inherited", which are the classical copybooks that have been passed down for thousands of years. Without these classical copybooks, calligraphy will be like a tree without roots and a river without source. And inheritance will be out of question. Like Hong Kong has learned the traffic rules from the UK, it is also inheritance. The life of calligraphy seed is also from inheritance. Calligraphy also involves natural beauty, which is an ultimate goal pursued by calligraphers.
Daily: Does natural beauty mean creative existence?
Yang: Now that natural beauty is pursued, some people deny the existence of regulation. In fact, I think that natural beauty and regulation can co-exist in a certain space. I remember that an ancient calligrapher Cai Yong mentioned in Jiu-Shi that "Calligraphy originates from the nature, where yin and yang come into being and the force is displayed". Here "originates from the nature" is a dynamic existence covering "the origin", "the foundation" and "the issue". In Bi-Zhen-Tu, Wei Shuo said that the depiction of each stroke comes from the nature. In the Comments on Calligraphers of Ancient and Present Times, Xiao Yan depicted the calligraphy works of calligraphers such as Wang Xizhi by mentioning that "they emphasize on aesthetics rules of charm and natural beauty". Shi Tao also said, "The calligraphy should keep pace with the era". So we can understand that there is "creativity", but the existence of "creativity" is not without rules. We cannot run the red light randomly. So the aesthetics rules cannot be broken. That's to say, we should be properly natural. Some calligraphers uphold a natural law of "Looseness, extension, meaning, originality". Kang Youwei mentioned "full of interest" and "natural structure" in ten kinds of beauty of stone inscriptions in Guang Yi Zhou Shuang Yi, which indicates that as long as calligraphy works are natural in style, force and charm, the requirements will be the rules, but the precondition is that we cannot change the style, force and charm of characters at random. Otherwise, we will "run the red light" and violate the traffic rules.
The purpose for us to mention "seeds of calligraphy" is to take "inheritance" as the principle and regulation and make ancient Chinese calligraphy art and today's calligraphy art come down in a continuous line. To a certain extent we refuse or limit the saying of "calligraphy creation", for the space for "creation" and "inheritance" is limited. The "seeds" in my goal are neither seeds that have been genetically modified, nor "drivers" that run the red light at random.
Daily: What is the force propelling you to make such a big investment to cultivate the "seeds"?
Yang: First of all it's my interest. Secondly, I am perhaps a seed that has not been "genetically modified". The seed of me has sprouted, flowered and fruited under the guide of the elderly. I also hope that my strength can help bring force more "calligraphy seeds" and make them sprout, blossom and bear fruits.
Daily: Great Aim Group used to take root in Zhuhai, and now has deployed in Shenzhen and Huizhou too. Can you introduce the specific strategic deployment in Shenzhen and Huizhou?
Yang: From 2012 to the autumn of 2016, Great Aim Group had completed a third strategic deployment in real estate segment.
In 2012 we entered the first-tier city Shenzhen for the first time. The first phase of Great Aim Central City developed by us was put into market on May 1, 2016, which was highly praised by the market. In 2016, with the implementation of "Expansion Eastward" strategy in Shenzhen, we began to deploy in Huizhou too.
At present, our real estate business has been developed into three parts, the part in Zhuhai headquarters, the part in Shenzhen and the part in Huizhou. We have been developing and reserved a total floor area of over 4 million ㎡. This is the starting stage in the third strategic deployment in real estate segment. In accordance with the group's strategic planning, the group's real estate expansion will grow with an annual increase of 2 million ㎡.
Daily: Great Aim Group has put forward a development strategy of "one body with two wings". As far as I am concerned, the two wings refer to real estate segment and high-tech segment. We have known much about the former segment, so can you introduce more about the high-tech segment?
Yang: In 2016, our real estate segment ushered in a leap in quality, and our high-tech segment also made distinctive achievements. Our Optical Communication Company has innovatively applied white light communication technology in the field of indoor positioning, which has filled a gap of the field in China and even in the world. By the first half of 2016, the company's invention patents had increased from 7 to 32, which took the lead in the world.
As to commercialization of our scientific research and technological achievements, the "KJ975 miners positioning management system" developed by us received a "coal mine product safety standard license" from the state in February 2016. The supporting facilities supplied by our Optical Communication Company will consist of lane-way positioning light, miner's lamp for positioning, other auxiliary systems such as power cable and wireless substation. Estimated by the market share of Hengqin Great Aim Investment Holdings Co., Ltd. under the group, at present it can achieve an annual output value above 3 billion Yuan.
As the smart shopping terminal with the most complete functions across the world, at present the smart shopping cart for supermarkets has finished technology verification in TKL Supermarket of Shijiazhuang and made a success. By 2025, it's expected that the project will realize an annual output value not less than 30 billion Yuan.
In addition, we have also achieved a good commercialization effect in areas such as smart warehousing and logistics management system, indoor positioning and navigation system for smart service robots, which will be promoted across the country.
Nevertheless, in addition to real estate and high-tech segments, the group has introduced an important propeller--the financial segment. At the end of 2016, through increase in capital and share, the group joined the financial sector of central enterprises. At present, the segment is still under the procedure of review and approval. I will not disclose more details about it for the time being.
Daily: On the capping ceremony of Great Aim International Building in Hengqin on January 9, we learned that the headquarters of Great Aim Group will be relocated to Hengqin, along with its high-tech segment. However, as far as I am concerned, it will only be the technology headquarters of the group's LED white light communication industry, where will be the production base of the industry located?
Yang: At present, the whole operation center of our high-tech segment is set in Hengqin, among which our White Light Communication Research Institute and Product R&D Center, etc. will all be relocated to Great Aim International Building. However, only the production base of miners positioning management system involved in coal mine industry is set in Linfen, the commercialization of the other technologies such as smart shopping cart for supermarkets, positioning and navigation system for underground parking lots have always been mixed with the experimental base set in Changzhou.
With the rapid commercialization of our scientific research achievements across the country, at present it has involved the selection of a site for the volume production of the products.
Daily: Do you have any suitable option of site?
Yang: If the conditions are mature, we will consider relocating the production base of our entire high-tech segment back to Zhuhai, for Great Aim Group is an enterprise indigenous to Zhuhai and Zhuhai is also where our corporate responsibility lies. If we relocate our high-tech segment back to Zhuhai, it will contribute to the economic construction of Zhuhai.
