Dr Joyce Samoutou-Wong Receives Compassion Award at Hong Kong Ceremony  

Dr Joyce Samoutou-Wong Receives Compassion Award at Hong Kong Ceremony  

An English translation of Compassion Award’s 21 December 2020 reporting on WeChat  – (PDF version)

The 15th Compassion Award Holds 2020 Presentation Ceremony  

The Compassion Award has expanded its selection to Chinese around the world. Eight winners were selected: Mainland China – Lu Mai, Liu Haiying; Hong Kong – Chen Shouren, Joyce Wong; Taiwan – Master Xingyun, Ruose Lu, and Shen Wenzhen; overseas – Tina Bow; each received a prize of 150,000 US dollars, for full use on charitable works for the public good. The 8 persons’ charitable works cover many countries and regions at home and abroad, helping many more disadvantaged groups in need. After the announcement, Phoenix and global Chinese media reported enthusiastically and extensively. 

Organized by the Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan Charitable Foundation, the Compassion Award is co-organized and produced by Phoenix Satellite TV, Beijing East-West Charity Forum, Taiwan’s Eight TV, Modern Finance Foundation, Singapore Hengyi Foundation Co., Ltd.: UA Asia United Finance Co., Ltd. sponsored the “15th Compassion Award 2020 Presentation Ceremony” was held at the main venue of Hong Kong Phoenix Satellite Television Tai Po Headquarters, with sub-venues at Beijing Phoenix Center and Taipei GTV Satellite Connection at 5 pm on December 20 (Sunday). The live video of the ceremony will be simultaneously premiered on Phoenix TV’s Chinese, European and American channels at 9:40 p.m., January 2, 2021 (Saturday); premiered on Phoenix TV’s official Phoenix Show App simultaneously; and Phoenix TV’s Hong Kong Channel on January 3 (Sunday). 

The ceremony invited the Chairman of the Compassion Award Final Selection Committee/The former Secretary of Justice of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government Elsie Leung; the Dean of Beijing Normal University China Philanthropy Research Institute Wang Zhenyao; the Chairman of the Lao Niu Brothers and Sisters Foundation Niu Ben; the Secretary-General of the Overseas Chinese Philanthropy Foundation He Jining; and Fo Guangshan Master Yong Fu, Chief Abbot of Hong Kong, Macao and Shenzhen;  Executive Director of Phoenix Satellite TV/Executive Director of Phoenix Charity Foundation, Wang Jiyan; Executive Vice President of Phoenix Satellite TV, Yang Jiaqiang; Tian Chuan, Host and Compassion Ambassador of Phoenix Satellite TV; President of Taiwan Formosa Plastics Enterprise Group/Director of Taiwan Federation of Industries Wang Wenyuan; Chairman of Chang/Wang Zhanyang Foundation, Wang Jianxuan; Founder of Xinhua Compassion Education Foundation/Seedless Watermelon Foundation, Lin Cangsheng; Chairman of Wu Xiuqi Culture and Education Foundation, Li Shenyi; Chairman of Singapore Hengyi Foundation, Taiwan Research Institute/Modern Finance Foundation Chairman Huang Huizhen; Hong Kong UA Asia Joint Finance President Zhang Binghuang; Hong Kong Macau Taiwan Charity Foundation Chairman Wang Maolin; Hong Kong Macau Taiwan Charitable Foundation Vice Chairman Lin Junjie; and other distinguished guests attended the officiating ceremony and joined together to spread compassion. 

The Chief Secretary for Administration of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Zhang Jianzong wrote an inscription for the ceremony: “Love is overflowing with kindness”; Chairman Elsie Leung of the Compassion Award Final Selection Committee said in a speech, “To overcome all obstacles in the severe global epidemic, the “Compassion Award” will be presented as scheduled this year. The ceremony injected positive energy into the society and created multiple firsts: For the first time to enter the global Chinese region, welcoming candidates from Europe, America, Asia and Africa enthusiastically signed up and produced the first overseas winners / The first year-end election to switch to “vote via communications” to select 8 winners / The first time the two sides of the Taiwan Straits are connected with overseas winners, the application of high-tech image transmission technology to bring the winners / VIPs from all over the world together… This year truly reflects the love without distinction of national borders, races, religions, and overcoming difficulties to participate in the grand event. The Compassion Award has been held up until this 15th year. Looking at its growth, development and breakthroughs, I am very pleased. I am very grateful to the founder, Mr. Lin Tianmao, for the purpose and vision of the Compassion Award. With great respect. I wish the Compassion Award can encourage more kindness in people and kind deeds and bring harmony and great love to the world.” Phoenix Satellite TV Investment (Holdings) Co., Ltd. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Liu Changle sent blessings through the video, he said: “Phoenix Satellite TV, which shoulders the responsibilities of the media, will continue to commend the examples of charity, demonstrate the boundless compassion, work tirelessly, and fulfill the mission. We believe that the power of the “Compassion Award” as an example will not only cheer on for the year 2020 which is almost ending, but also bring hope of rebirth in the year 2021.” 

Caption 

Five officiating guests at the Taipei ceremony (from left): Huang Huizhen, Wang Jianxuan, Wang Wenyuan, Lin Cangsheng, Li Shenyi. 

Caption 

The five officiating guests at the Beijing ceremony include (from left) Tian Chuan, Niu Ben, Wang Zhenyao, Wang Jiyan, and He Jining. 

During the ceremony, Phoenix Satellite TV hosts Tian Chuan, Chen Shuwan, Rao Xiangyi, Huang Chengzi, and Jiang Shengyang took turns to introduce each winner’s journey into charity. Together with the 8 winners’ interview story shorts broadcasting on the stage, highlighting their spirit of silent and selfless dedication to society. Eight TV host Shi Yijie was in the Taipei branch, and the VIPs and winners felt the atmosphere of the ceremony, adding warmth to this winter. 

The Compassion Award theme song “As the Sea” premiered at the Beijing Phoenix Center branch. The theme song was composed and arranged by the famous music master Bobby Da, written by Ye Yang, the deputy editor-in-chief of Phoenix TV Chinese Channel, and sung by the mainland female singer Sidan Manchu. The lyrics “There is a piece of sea in my heart, water droplets converge into love”, which echoes the Compassion Award slogan “Water droplets of love converge into the sea”. 

Caption: 

The theme song of the Compassion Award “As the Sea” premiered at the Beijing Phoenix Center branch and was sung by mainland female singer Sidan Manchu. 

At the end of the ceremony, the conference set up a special blessing session, broadcasting the “Pray for World Peace” video written and recited by the awardee Master Hsing Yun himself, expressing wishes for the new year, good thoughts, that epidemic and disasters pass, and the world will restore order and vitality. 

Caption: 

Group photo of two Mainland winners with officiating and award-presenting guests. 

Compassionate Deeds of Awardees 

 1 Lu Mai, Mainland 

He once worked at the Rural Development Research Center of the State Council and the International Development Institute of Harvard University. At the age of 50, he entered the public welfare industry and took charge of the start-up China Development Research Foundation. Since then, the association has made great progress in international exchanges, high-end training and social experiments. Since 2006, we have paid attention to the malnutrition of poor children; in 2007, we carried out social experiments to improve the nutritional status of children in boarding schools; in 2011, the evaluation report on children in poverty-stricken areas was released. After that, the State Council officially launched the improvement plan, benefiting nearly 40 million students. In 2009, the first mountain village kindergarten was established in Qinghai. In the following 11 years, more than 2,000 kindergartens were set up in 11 provinces and 27 counties across the country, benefiting nearly 200,000 children. 

Caption: 

Mainland winner Lu Mai was awarded by Shi Yanhua (left), President of Beijing Wu Jianmin Charity Foundation/Deputy Director of the Foreign Affairs Translation Committee of China Translation Association, and Wang Jiyan, Executive Director of Phoenix Satellite TV/Phoenix Charity Foundation (right). 

 2 Liu Haiying, Mainland 

Founder of Beijing Haiying Spine Health Charity Foundation, Director of Spine Surgery Department of Peking University People’s Hospital. In 2001, he took the lead in establishing the first batch of spinal surgery in China to promote the treatment of spinal diseases; in 2011, he founded the only foundation in the Mainland focusing on spinal diseases; in order to realize the oath of “eliminating the suffering of patients, saving the dead and healing the wounded”, the annual average number of surgeries reached more than 800. Become a physician with the “most single-person spinal surgery and the lowest surgical complications” in the Mainland. In the past 8 years, he led the team to go deep into poverty-stricken areas during vacations and traveled to 43 counties and cities in 16 provinces; 17 spine disease relief centers were built across the country, providing free consultations for more than 6,000 mountain patients. 

Caption: 

Dr. Haiying Liu and the guest of honor-Wang Zhenyao, Dean of the China Philanthropy Research Institute of Beijing Normal University (left), and Tang Yiyuan, former Minister of Taiwan Affairs of the Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (right). 

 3   Chen Shouren, Hong Kong 

The founder and chairman of Luen Thai Group, with Hong Kong as his home, he is an entrepreneur, philanthropist and ambassador of friendship between Chinese and foreign people. He has lived in the Philippines, Malaysia, Guam, Saipan and other places, and has been enthusiastic about overseas Chinese affairs for more than 40 years. He has contributed funds to promote exchanges between the Mainland, Hong Kong and the Western Pacific region. Where his career developed, so did his charity work. The Chen Shouren Foundation has been established in Hong Kong, Saipan, Guam, and Quanzhou in Fujian to actively support schools, help the disabled, run medical services, and help the poor. Donate hundreds of millions of yuan, stand on the list, include the concept of charity in the family motto, and lead children and grandchildren to participate in charity in various places social service. 

Caption: 

Chen Shouren from Hong Kong was presented with the award by his recommender – Chairman of the Cross-Strait Peace Development Federation Lin Guangzhao (left) and Chairman of the Final Selection Committee Elsie Leung (middle). 

4 Joyce Wong Hoi Yan, Hong Kong 

Co-founder of New Sight Eye Care Project. She has participated in many humanitarian projects in various places: setting up mobile clinics and running first aid courses. In 2006, she moved from the UK to Gabon, Africa, and his husband Henri Samoutou established a non-profit eye center in the Bongolo Mission Hospital, helping about 6,000 patients every year. In 2011, they founded New Sight Eye Care, based on the concept that “no one in the world will be suffering needlessly from a treatable eye disease”, moved to northern Congo with her young children and developed the first non-profit eye center. The organization is registered in the United Kingdom and Hong Kong and is currently preparing to build a new, comprehensive ophthalmology teaching hospital, dedicated to restoring the eyesight of patients and changing the lives of more people. 

Caption: 

After receiving the award, Dr. Joyce Wong Hoi Yan took a group photo with her recommender Huang Yushan, President of The Open University of Hong Kong (right) and Lin Yaoming, Vice Chairman of Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Charitable Foundation (left). 

 5  Master Xingyun, Taiwan area 

The 48th generation descendant of Linji Sect, he founded Fo Guang Shan in Kaohsiung, Taiwan in 1967. Throughout his life, he promotes Buddhism with culture, cultivates talents with education, benefits the society with charity, purifies people’s hearts with joint practice, promotes Buddhism in the world, and is committed to the institutionalization, modernization, interpersonalization and internationalization of Buddhism. Founded more than 300 monasteries and 5 universities around the world; and established the Buddhism Association in more than 170 countries/regions, which is the world’s largest Chinese community, practicing the ideal of “Buddha light shines on three thousand worlds, and water flows on five continents”; and a foundation is set up to promote Cultural education, promoting harmony between Taiwan and the mainland, and driving world peace; since 1970, the nursery school, the home of benevolence, the Yunshui hospital, and the Foguang clinic have been established. 

Caption: 

Wang Wenyuan, President of Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Enterprise Group (left), and Chen Zhaolong, Honorary Dean of Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital (right), handed over the trophy and certificate to the representative of Master Hsing Yun, Abbot Xin Bao of Fo Guang Shan Monastery. 

 6 Lu Ruose, Taiwan area 

Born in Padua, Italy in 1940, he has served in Taiwan with his brother Father Lu Daonan in 65 years. Served at Luodong Tuberculosis Hospital in 1967; served in Penghu and Luodong in the 1970s and 1980s. They saw that the physically and mentally disabled did not have proper care and education. They established Huimin Enlightenment Center and St. Goodman Enlightenment Center in the two places; Taiwan entered the elderly society, so the Maruyama Tuberculosis Hospital was transformed into a support center for the elderly. In 2009, the Saint Goodman Long-term Care Center was established. The priest’s wish is to “water the world with kindness and love.” In the spirit of Christian fraternity, give dignity, hope and peace to the physically and mentally handicapped, using every bit of strength to contribute to enlightenment education. 

Caption 

Honorary Chair Professor Yang Zhiliang (left) of Taiwan Asia University and Lin Cangsheng (right), Chairman of the Wu Xiuqi Cultural and Educational Charity Foundation, presented the award to Father Lu Ruose. 

 7 Shen Wenzhen, Taiwan area 

Chairman of Tokai Education Foundation. When the career is successful, we will always be grateful to the society and devote ourselves to public welfare for a long time. Promote the company’s transformation based on the principle of “altruism and mutual benefit” and pursue the business philosophy of more than three times the value of innovation. After winning the award, three times the bonus will be donated and the full amount will be used for charity (a total of 450,000 US dollars). Established the foundation in 2010 to promote corporate social responsibility, media literacy and youth holistic education, to give back to the society systematically, to build a corporate volunteer platform, to create a network of mutual learning of public service experience and resource interconnection, and to expand the ripples of goodness through connection, gathering forces to influence more people to “caring” for the society and arouse the enthusiasm for “participation”. 

Caption 

President of Taipei University of Technology Wang Xifu (left) and Taipei University of Technology Chair Professor Yao Lide (right) presented the award to Chairman Shen Wenzhen. 

 8 Tina Bow Pan Xiaodai, Overseas region 

Founder and president of the “Simply Help Foundation” in Los Angeles. Born in a poor family in Taiwan, she understands that the materialistic world is not the source of happiness and giving back to society is the mission of life. In 2000, she founded the foundation to help the poor in 26 countries including El Salvador, Cambodia and Paraguay, which is self-sufficient through charitable donations and education. More than 400 containers of relief supplies have been sent to disaster-stricken areas or poor countries; 26 schools and vocational training centers have been built in Central America and Asia to equip more than 20,000 poor children with skills; and 6 have been built in El Salvador and Panama for those without parents. A center for the elderly; support more than 200 elderly people in 18 years. The association is recognised by the UN as an NGO. 

Caption 

The winner of the overseas region Tina Bow was presented by the nominators – the chief executive officer of Chinese Channel 18 in Los Angeles, Zhuo Lei (right) and the Executive Director of Foothill Unity Center Inc – Betty R. McWilliams (left). 

Lin Tianmao, the founder of the Compassion Award, said, “When the Compassion Award was founded, I made a 20-year plan to start from Hong Kong and extend it to Taiwan, the Mainland, and the global Chinese regions. We will follow the plan: from the 20th year in 2025, the globe will be included, regardless of country, race, or religion, and we will choose a model of compassion and we would be grateful for your support. Everyone knows that since ancient times, the development of a country, a nation, and a society has depended on the continuous innovation of technology and the mutual tolerance of human cultures. The essential values of Eastern and Western mainstream cultures are “compassion, mercy, and gratitude”. If we don’t have compassion and tolerance in the world, we will not be able to live and we don’t want to live anymore, so I created the Compassion Award. Dear friends: in the future, by integrating technology, we will continue with all our hearts, all our strength and all our minds to accelerate the spread of seeds of compassion to every corner of the world. I pray that the world will be more peaceful, stable and prosperous. This is my wish when I founded the Compassion Award.” 

In the past 15 years, the Compassion Award has been based in Hong Kong, and the two sides of the straits have selected models of charity and used compassion and public good to connect the four places across the straits, and develop in harmony, so that the two sides of the strait can be a family. This year, it will be promoted from the four places across the straits to the global Chinese society, combining the strengths of Chinese and businessmen across the straits and the world to realize the “dream of compassion“. It plans to become a world charity project in 2025, and a global model of love will be selected. The 16th Compassion Award 2021 is about to start, please encourage global philanthropists of Chinese descent to sign up enthusiastically and participate in the selection. 

For the latest information about the Compassion Award, please visit the official website: www.compassionaward.org, as well as Facebook, WeChat and Weibo.