"Auntie," three kids from Beichuan Middle School coyly ask their host, "can we have a hug from Mommy Wang?"

The children looking for playful affection were at the "Love around Beichuan" banquet held in Xi'an during the Euro-Asia Education Forum. The "Mommy" they were referring to is Linda Wang, the Hong Kong-born chairperson of the board of Yihai Garden - a renowned education community in China that combines a first-class kindergarten, primary school and middle school in Beijing - and the philanthropist known as the "Mother of Beichuan".

On January 31, 2008, Wang was in Dubai watching the news on television when it was announced that China was experiencing a snow disaster it had never seen in half a decade.

It was just four in the morning, but Wang could not wait. She called her own company in the capital and made the decision to support the affected people herself. The stock relief supplies she contributed totaled 31.13 million yuan.

Wang Linda [File photo: ftql.net]

That wasn't the only good deed she has done, or even the most important. Her company donated over 200 million yuan toward the construction of Beichuan Middle School - the worst affected school in the Wenchuan Earthquake - and was thus named as its honorable president.

But her road to charity has not always been a pleasant or smooth journey. "It is even harder than running an enterprise," Wang said.

She said the most difficult part about doing charity work was how her friends first reacted to her philanthropic efforts. "My friends avoided me - even regarded me as nuisance - at the very beginning. They thought I was doing it for my own good, and were freaking out when I kept persuading them to donate. So I had to do it myself," Wang said with a smile.

"Finally they understood me; they started to realize I was actually being selfless and responded to my call."

When Wang was raising funds for the snow disaster-affected areas, she came up with the idea of holding an orange bazaar. She ordered 160 tons of oranges from Hunan and Hubei provinces - both severely hit by the snowstorm - and called on Yihai Garden residents to buy.

Her friends in the real estate sector thought there was no hope, but she was unshaken. Wang's action was approved by the people living in the community, who welcomed the idea. "We would certainly buy your oranges even if they were sour or rotten. Just take it easy, Wang," residents said.

At six yuan per kilo, she raised 960 thousand yuan, which was all given to the people of Hunan and Hubei.

The place where Yihai Garden is now located was once a desolate Beijing suburban area back in 1989, when construction started. It is now a celebrated community with complete facility management, civic organization and education service.

It was her first business in Beijing.

"I was very frustrated at first really," she said thoughtfully. "I had to sell the apartment below cost, for it was so remote and the traffic was inconvenient."

"That is the reason why I thought I should develop schools and other facilities here."

Now Wang is eyeing building the best middle school in Sichuan province for the children whose lives were interrupted by the earthquake - a school with all the necessary modern teaching attachments, and most importantly, with the best shockproof structure, she said.

Her care and love of children is clear, judging by her devotion to charitable acts like these and how she hugged each of the three kids asking for their "Mommy Wang", holding them all in her arms.

(Source: chinadaily.com.cn November 19)