Commentary

A Recent Visit to Shantou University: A Brainchild of Li Ka-Shing

Da Hsuan Feng
The University of Texas at Dallas

Preamble and the Board of Trustees of Shantou University

Recently, I was bestowed the honor to sit on the 7th-term of the Board of Trustees (BOT) Shantou University (STU) in Shantou, China. The chair of the BOT is The Honorable Li Hai, Vice Governor of the Province of Guandong whose portfolio is education. A term is defined as three years. Some of the other members representing the educational community are

• Fujia Yang, former President of Fudan University and now Chancellor of Nottingham University,
• Liu Depei, President of Peking Union Medical College,
• Zhu Qingshi, President of University of Science and Technology and
• Li Peigen, President of Huazhong University of Science and Technology.

It is clear that within the educational camp, these are all individuals with enormous achievements and could be termed as some of the leading "architects of higher education" in China.

Unlike many "Board of Trustees" of Chinese universities, in which BOTs generally serve in peripheral and advisory capacities, with little or no real and/or substantial responsibilities and obligations, STUs BOT de facto "operates" the university at the 5000 feet level. According to its charter from day one, this BOT is one of the two bodies which the President, the sole chief executive of the university, reports to. The other presidential line of report is Guandong Provinces Education Office. Guangong Province is one of the economically most powerful provinces of China. With 90 million inhabitants, it geographically sits right next to Hong Kong.

The reason why this BOT is unique among Chinese universities is because the way the university was conceived and set up around the early 1980s. Indeed, Shoutou University is the brainchild of Mr. Li Ka-Shing, the most successful and legendary entrepreneur of Asia. According to Forbes.com in 2006, Li is now the 9th richest man in the world with net worth of about 26 Billion USD.

In reading as much about Mr. Li as I can get my hands on, he has two fundamental characteristics which are worth underscoring for the present discussion.

1. Mr. Li is a man of deep emotional ties to his hometown, which is Chaozhou. Shantou is in the same region of Guandong Province.
2. From his action in the past quarter of a century, Mr. Li has demonstrated his palpable profound conviction that education is the fundamental engine for societys well being.

"Armed" with these two characteristics, Mr. Li made the monumental decision to build this university in his hometown, within existing higher education structures of China but also admixed it with ingredients which are different, such as the way the BOT is organized. I would assume that by doing so, Mr. Li must have taken some calculated risk. Indeed, in order for such a new system to be successful (however success is defined) with impact down the road in the region as well as in China in general, leveraging his personal prestige as a world class entrepreneur is transparently unavoidable.

With this as genesis, Shantou University was born. Quarter of a century later, it is today a full fledge comprehensive university, with colleges spanning the entire gamut, from medicine to law to literature.

In order to put his fingerprints on the BOT, in the past quarter of the century Mr. Li serves as its honorary chairperson. The annual board meeting always dovetails with the annual graduation ceremony, thus allowing BOT members to have first hand knowledge of the students as well as their aspirations.

Apparently, Mr. Li never once missed any of the graduations in the past quarter of a century, nor the BOT meetings. For someone whose one of his "day jobs" is to manage one of the worlds largest conglomerates, as the chairman of the Hutchison-Whampoa Limited which operates in 55 countries and have over 220,000 employees and whose financial turnover in 2006, according to its website, is "approximately HKD268 billion (USD34 billion)," this can only be termed as true commitment.

This makes being a part of BOT all the more heavy with responsibilities.

Li Ka-Shing Foundation, Li Ka-Shings "third son"

In order "to put resources where his mouth is" and to run the many philanthropic activities globally as efficiently as possible, Mr.Li set up a Li Ka-Shing Foundation, a not-for-profit organization sitting in Hong Kong. The Foundation, as far as I can tell, is run efficiently by a relatively small cadre of dedicated and by nature of the business being global, very hard working staff members. Mr. Li is so passionate about this Foundation, and what it is doing worldwide, especially with respect to Shantou University, that in his recent acceptance speech for his "lifetime achievement award" from Forbes, he referred to it as his "third son!"

Activities of the Foundation are global and numerous. Examples are as follows:

Funding (with nearly 2 billion HKD donation to date, which at todays exchange rate, is more than 250 million USD) and overseeing the overall operations of Shantou University;

Funding of 66 million USD of the Lee Kuan Yew School for Public Policy of National University of Singapore;

Funding of 40 million USD of the University of California Berkeley for the "Li Ka Shing Center for Biomedical and Health Sciences";

Funding of 25 million (Canadian dollar) of the "Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute" of Michaels Hospital in Toronto.

Perhaps the most notable achievement within China is the so called "Cheung Kong Scholars" program. According to the website of http://hgm2002.hgu.mrc.ac.uk/Sponsors/LKSF.htm, this program is

"In support of the Chinese Governments objective to promote national prosperity through science and education, the Foundation established The Cheung Kong Scholars Program in collaboration with Chinas Ministry of Education. The Programs two main initiative--The Cheung Kong Achievement Award and the engagement of specially appointed professors--recognize outstanding Chinese scholars and encourage them to return to China. Donation amount: HK$70 million"

To date, there are now more than 1000 Cheung Kong Scholars doting the landscape of China higher education. I have no doubt, just as the 1000 or so CUPEA laureates in the 80s and 90s, a program for educating some of Chinas best and brightest in physics, and was the brainchild of Professor Tsung Dao Lee (Nobel laureate in 1957 in physics), which became the pillars of the science and technology globally today, the Cheung Kong Scholars will surely be the movers and shakers of Chinas intellectual and economic pillars of the years to come.

The Visit

In order to learn more about the Shantou University and how it operates, and to explore ways in my capacity as the new Board member to assist this "new" and "unusual" university in China, the Foundation graciously invited me for a visit on May 28 and 29, 2007.

During my visit, I had extensive discussions with the

• President of the University Professor Xu Xiaohu (interestingly, Xiaohu means "little tiger"). By training, Xu is a forensic scientist and a former Dean of the Medical School of Shantou University;

• Vice President (Academic and Research) Professor Gu Peihua. Gu joined Shantou University in less then 2 years ago. He was formerly chair of the Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering of the University of Calgary of Canada;

• Associate Vice President and Director of Research Divisions Professor Lin Danming;

• Executive Vice-Dean of Shantou University Medical School Professor Huang Dong Yang. Huang is also professor biochemistry and molecular biology;

• Director of International Cooperation Department Dr. Lawrence K. Liao. Liao has a doctorate in management from the University of Leicester in UK.

• Consultant to Shantou University Medical School from LKS Foundation Ltd Dr. Frieda Law. Prior to working with the Li Ka Shing Foundation, Dr Law was a medical educator and program director with Project HOPE (USA), based at Shanghai Second Medical University. During this period she established a first class paediatric and neonatal facility at the Shanghai Childrens Hospital. Dr. Law received her medical education from the University of Melbourne in Australia.

• Senior Project Manager of LKS Foundation Dr. Katherine W. F. Lo.

Here are a few thoughts of my visit.

1. Shantou, which is part of what Chinese globally refers to collectively as "Chaozhou," is a region that has linkages to very powerful overseas Chinese. For example, significant percentage of Thai-Chinese, many are well-to-do, have this region as their heritage. In Singapore, where I grew up, although this clan is not the majority, the Chaozhou Association is a very economically powerful local entity. Many important and highly successful Singaporeans in banking and education are people one refers to as "Chaozhou Ren," or a people of Chaozhou. Of course, Mr. Li is probably one of their most "favorite sons." Since Shantou is a bit far (four to five hours drive on superhighway, which is translated to approximately 200 – 250 miles) from Hong Kong – Shenzhen – Guanzhou economic corridor, its development is less far along. However, since the Overseas Chaozhou clan is known to be fiercely pro-hometown, I suspect that this region will catch up with the rest of Guandong, with assistance coming from the Chaozhou clan in the foreseeable future.
2. In reading many of his speeches, Mr. Li outlined his grand vision for Shantou University, which is to become an institution whose products, namely students, will someday mitigate some of the ills of mankind. His profound interest in healthcare and life sciences, which became abundantly clear from my visit to the Medical School, and talking extensively to Dr. Law over dinner, even in the area of "hospices," is indicative of Mr. Lis profound interest and respect of human dignity. While this is clearly an incredibly tall order, every one I talked to in more or less the same language agreed that Shantou Universitys experiment is unique, full of challenges, but also rich in opportunities. Of course, how the "experiment" will turn out in the long run, say within a decade or two, or maybe longer, is unclear. Yet, I do detect a significant sense of optimism. I also sense from the discussion that from the perspective of the LKS Foundation as well as from the university, there is some level of anticipation that the BOT may be critical in this journey. I find such a challenge exhilarating.
3. One of the critical and urgent tasks, in my mind, confronting Shantou University is to define, maybe vaguely, what it should project to not just China but to the world. To this end, careful recruiting outstanding individuals seems in area to bolster that vision may be one of the important steps. As Vice President Gu emphasized to me during lunch that to move along rapidly the pathway where Mr. Li vision illuminates, recruiting better and better people for the university is not a luxury. As I mentioned earlier, this is both possible (because of the resources available, which is what I mention often: vision without funding is hallucination) and difficult (because the university is perhaps still far from its projected destiny.) To this end, the situation reminded me of what I read about the history of Caltech when it just got started in the early 20th century. During what is known as the era of Arthur A. Noyes, George Ellery Hale and Robert Millikan, the trio who went to dusty old West coast, which is far from the then intellectual center of the East Coast, Caltech was set on a pathway to become what it is today. Thus armed with a vision, with resources, and most important with network (a euphemism for globalization, which is a favorite term in the 21 century), they were the people who made Caltech, Caltech! I see there is similarity here, if the likes of the Noyes, Ellery and Millikan can either be nurtured among those already within the university or recruit from the outside world with the Chaozhou clans and/or Li Ka-Shing Foundation assistance. I find this possibility very intriguing!

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Personally, perhaps the most startling is that I discovered the Director of the Cheung Kong School of Arts and Design is Professor Kan Tai-Keung. Professor Kan not only is one of the most well known designers of Asia in particular and the world in general, he also happens to be the brother of my office mate Dr. Kan Kit-Keung in the University of Texas at Austin when we were both "aspiring" young physicists. Interestingly, Kit-Keung also today has emerged to be one of the most remarkable artists in the 21 century.

The Kan brothers are breathtakingly exciting artists!

But the intriguing story does not end there. I discovered from the web in late night before I were to depart from Shantou University that, Professor Kans Deputy Dean is Professor Wang Shouji, one of the most well known designers and a distinguished professor in Los Angeles School of Design. Well, Professor Wang happens to be none other then my cousin-in-law. His wifes father and my father are BROTHERS!

Who says that between any two human beings, there are six degrees of separation!!