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从街边小贩到慈善大王:90岁香港商业巨头带你领略人生百味
发布时间:2018-04-16 10:12 点击:
2018年,美国商业杂志《福布斯》公布新的香港富豪榜,嘉华集团现任董事会主席吕志和排名第三,仅次于李嘉诚、李兆基。
中国日报香港版记者对这位年近90的老人进行了专访,倾听了他近一个世纪的心路历程。
皮之不存,毛将焉附
清朝光绪11年,吕志和的曾祖父吕德盈和成百上千的中国劳工一起被塞进船舱里,从广东远渡到美国。
In 1885, Lui Che-woo’s great-grandfather Lui Deying boarded a ship to the United States, among thousands of Chinese laborers seeking a better life for their families.
晚清华人“下南洋”的情景
挨过近百天的旅程,穿越极高死亡率的生死线,15岁的吕德盈来到加州一家农场工作。从最开始领着比白人低一半的薪水,到一度成为美国出口蔬菜市场的最大华人供应商,吕德盈在美40年的生意拼搏为吕家打下了殷实的基础。
通过三代人的奋斗,1929年吕志和出生时,吕家已是江门的富裕人家。吕家坐落在江门东海里第八巷的第一家,是座拥有天井的小洋房,屋内铺着高档的麻石。
In 1929, when Lui Che-woo was born in Jiangmen, Guangdong province, Lui’s family had become one of the richest in the village, thanks to his hard-working elders.
Lui’s family lived in the first house on the eighth alley of Donghaili. The house had a patio. The floor was covered with granite, an expensive building material at that time.
吕志和现在还记得曾祖父笑着走进门来,从怀里掏出一个温热的油纸包,里面包着香喷喷的烧鹅腿。曾祖父一边看着吕志和吃,一边细心地问他在私塾里学了什么。
Lui Che-woo remembers his great-grandfather was amiable to him, always wearing a kind smile. He still remembers a sunny afternoon when his great-grandfather walked into the house and passed Lui a hot roasted goose leg, carefully wrapped in greaseproof paper.
吕志和父母吕金铨及李宝璇
然而,家人为吕志和撑起的保护伞,却无法抵抗大环境的风雨飘摇。
Lui’s carefree days did not last long. Japan’s invasion of China shattered the quiet life.
1931年,日本发动对中国东三省的侵略战争,吕志和五岁那年,吕家举家迁往香港避难。
1941年12月8日清晨,正在上课的吕志和清晰地听见炮弹炸响,那一年的圣诞夜英军彻底向日本投降,香港进入了三年零八个月的黑暗日据时期,人权尊严与社会秩序荡然无存,生存成了极大的难题。
吕志和在自传中回忆道,所有香港市民见了日军都要90度鞠躬。日本兵滥杀成性,看谁不顺眼就一枪打死。吕志和曾亲眼目睹自己的同胞在几米以外的地方被枪杀。
民族的苦难成了吕志和心中最痛苦的回忆,当年受到的讥讽,至今无法释怀。他永远无法忘记日本人那句,“你们中国人,是文盲!”即便已经过了近一个世纪,听到这句话时的苦楚,仍然无法被稀释。
白手起家,迎难而上
作为家里唯一的曾孙,看到战时家人三餐不继,吕志和下决心自己做生意。
回忆起那段少年经历,吕志和哭得很伤心,“日本人攻打香港,当时的生活是很困难的,租也没得收了,生意也没得做了。当时就见证了中国被日本人欺负。在那个环境之下,自己那么小,十几岁......我那时也就十几岁,自己谋生,真的好惨。”
“Life was tough at the time. We couldn’t receive rent, and our business was cut off because of the war. I witnessed our compatriots being bullied by the Japanese. I was in my early teens at that time… It was a hardship for me to make a living on my own.”
他发现成百上千的人为了重返内地,排着队领通关证件,就向他们兜售花生等零食,稍微有了本钱后,就雇人做起神仙糕等需要加工的熟食。他还安排自己的祖母做销售,13岁的吕志和则当起了小老板,跑市场、搞采购、做决定。
1948年吕志和及四位妹妹
凭着超常的辛劳付出和别出心裁的点子,吕志和在油麻地的食品界渐渐做大。那段时期,他赚到了约200万元日本军票,在当时可以买下一条街的房子。
1945年日本宣布无条件投降,香港生活秩序渐渐恢复,吕志和却遭到了人生第一个打击,拒绝兑换“军票”的日军撤出了香港,他手中的200万元日本军票瞬间变为废纸。
消沉过后,吕志和重振旗鼓,在姨夫的介绍下进入了汽车零件行,当了库管员。又依托祖母给的一小笔钱,他开起了自己的汽车零件行,赚到了人生的第二桶金。
1955年,吕志和成立一家名为“嘉华”的公司,并于1964年进军石矿业务。然而次年,吕志和就遭遇巨大的打击。港英政府推出顺利邨公务计划,挖出大量石料,并免费供应给建筑商取用,这给当时只靠卖石料为生的嘉华造成毁灭性的打击,一度没有生意可做。
1960年代摄于雍雅山房
吕志和的长子吕耀东回忆道,“当时我也就十来岁,我爸每天很勤奋,很辛苦,回家身上都带着泥……即使他故作轻松和坚强,我们还是能看到他的失意、不快。”
经过几年的苦苦支撑,1967年,港英政府采取“以发展促稳定”的策略,启动一系列大型基础设施项目,嘉华集团也因此恢复了元气。
半个世纪后,嘉华成了香港本土最大的石矿建材生产商,吕志和被人们称为“石矿大王”。如今的嘉华集团已成了市值数百亿的跨国企业。
始终是中国人
吕志和一直告诉自己“始终是香港人,是中国人”。
在教育下一代时,也一定要孩子们勿忘作为中国人的本分与责任。
Lui has passed on his passion for the motherland to his children. He has asked his children never to forget their roles and responsibilities of being Chinese.
七十年代,送子女出国还是奢侈的事情,每个孩子临行前,吕志和都要叮嘱他们:只要有机会,就一定要回来发展。
吕志和在自传中回忆到:“我的子女去外国读书,我都逐一对他们说,你是中国许多亿人中最幸福的一个,有吃、有住,还有机会到外国读书。你要答应我,毕业后一定要回来香港,以及为祖国办事。”
“Before I sent my children to study abroad I told them seriously, you are the luckiest ones among hundreds of millions of Chinese. You do not have to worry about shelter or food and on top of that, you get to study abroad. You must promise me that when you graduate, you must return to Hong Kong and serve our country,” Lui recalled.
除此之外,吕志和还会向儿子们提出一个特别的要求:“你们下一代也要保持中国人的身份,如果你娶了外国人当老婆就不好了。” 必须要得到孩子们肯定的答复,他才肯送他们去国外学习,“如果不答应,我就留他们在香港。”
Lui had one more demand of his boys: “Your next generation also needs to maintain their identity as Chinese. It wouldn’t be OK if you were to marry a foreigner,” he told his sons. He would send his children abroad only after they agreed to his conditions. “I’d have kept them in Hong Kong if they didn’t agree to make that promise,” he said.
儿女们也全部如吕志和所愿,一毕业连证书还未到手就回到香港工作。大儿子吕耀东在放下行囊的第二天,就去工地上做事。
为香港,为祖国,能做多少,我就做多少
2012年7月1日,香港特区政府授予吕志和“大紫荆勋章”。这是香港特区政府授予公民的最高级别荣誉奖章。而吕志和获得奖章的原因并非商业成就,而是社会成就。
On July 1, 2012, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government awarded Lui a Grand Bauhinia Medal, the highest honor awarded to a local citizen by the government. Lui was awarded the medal not for his success as a businessman, but for his contributions to society.
2012年吕志和获香港特区政府颁授最高荣誉“大紫荆奖章”。
特区政府的颁奖词这样写到:“吕志和博士长期参与社会及慈善服务,表现卓越,尤其对本港各界组织慷慨解囊,并支持商界与政府合作,济弱扶贫。”
吕志和:“其实我们中国人,过去有三百多年是落后的,被外国人看不起,在经历了很多事情以后,我想着有能力了,就尽心尽力回报祖国、回馈社会。”
“China was in fact underdeveloped for around 300 years in the past. We had been looked down upon by foreigners. I had gone through these experiences, so I’ve been driven to make contributions to society and do what I can.”
在云南省昆明市的一次考察中,吕志和目睹了偏远山区穷困农户的状况。儿时亲身经历过温饱不济的生活,他明白,如果生活穷困就更谈不上下一代的教育了。于是他在心中酝酿计划:要为这些孩子们建学校,让他们走出因贫困而受不到教育,因受不到教育而贫困的恶性循环。
He saw the poor living conditions of the local people during a business trip to Kunming, capital city of Yunnan province. Having experienced the poor life when he was a child, Lui knew that for people with empty stomachs, education is a luxury. He decided to provide support for education in remote and poor rural areas of China to help people escape the vicious cycle of lacking money for education and thus growing even poorer without it.
吕志和找到当时的新华社香港分社(中联办前身),吐露了希望在内地建设学校的心愿,又努力与国家教育部取得联络,最终启动了在偏远地区捐建希望小学的计划。至今,吕志和已累计帮助八个省市新建或修复了122所中、小学。
Coordinating with the then Xinhua Agency’s Hong Kong branch, the former Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong SAR and the nation’s Ministry of Education, Lui established a plan to build Hope Primary School in poor rural areas in the Chinese mainland. So far he has set up or renovated 122 primary and secondary schools in eight provinces and cities on the Chinese mainland.
中国人自己创立的国际奖项
2017年10月3日,第二届“吕志和奖 - 世界文明奖”(下称“吕志和奖”)颁发了三个奖项 —— “持续发展奖”、“人类福祉奖” 和 “正能量奖”。这三个奖项分别是由解振华、兰德萨农村发展研究所(Landesa)以及国际残疾人奥林匹克委员会获得。
“吕志和奖”得奖者的奖金是2,000万港元的奖金(相当于大约256万美元)。奖金数额之高,已经超越多个世界级奖项 —— 远高于约110万美金的诺贝尔奖项奖金、120万美元的邵逸夫奖以及100万美金的图灵奖。
在2017年的第二届“吕志和奖”的颁奖典礼上,香港特区行政长官林郑月娥说香港有“邵逸夫奖”、“吕志和奖”及“一丹奖”三大国际性奖项,均以嘉许具国际地位的人士、在社会宣扬正能量为目标。这证明香港是个有建树的国际性城市,值得香港市民自豪。
2017年“吕志和奖-世界文明奖”第二届颁奖典礼
在2015年,吕志和宣布“吕志和奖”正式成立,并表示自己已捐出市值20亿元的资产做为第一期资金。出资创办这样一个属于全人类的奖项,他并没有一个惊天动地的戏剧化理由,他的愿望是中国人能够做出一个奖项来,希望人们在追求物质的同时,不忘对美好社会的追求。
吕志和:“还是那句话 ‘施比受更有福’。在这方面,我内心安乐。我希望吕志和奖的精神能传承下去。这是一粒种子,希望有人能够明白,能够帮助。慢慢地推动下去、发展下去。”
“As the saying goes, ‘it is more blessed to give than to receive’. I feel really fulfilled in this regard. I hope the spirit of the Lui Che Woo Prize can live on. I see it as a seed. I hope people can understand it and help to promote the spirit of the prize and to facilitate its development.