In my years of following Master Yun, I have sporadically met with weird people or remarks, especially as Lotus on Water rises to the top of the fengshui industry, self-righteously demanding that we should donate to the needy, or "if fengshui really works, you should be helping the poor".
Really weird. And I wonder what have these sanctimonious people ever done even just for their community and culture in the first place.
So I presume it must have shook their worlds when China CCTV gave Master Yun this seemingly unrelated "Charity Award 公益奖". I mean, Master Yun is well known as a fengshui master, an artist, (some people are starting to call him a fashionista!), but not as a philanthropist.
Because we seldom talk about it. What's the point of going around unceasingly to remind others of how generous you are? I rather you remember how stunning and powerful our jadeite is.
When CCTV documented Master Yun as a "Chinese Model 华人楷模", they spent a considerable amount of time interviewing him about "charity". And here's what Master Yun said:
我不是对所有的慈善都很认同的。但是在所有的慈善的里头，有一例外，就是我会去做的，那就是教育。因为予人以渔。教他怎样好好的活下去、教他怎样把生活弄好、教他怎样更有效率的工作……我觉得这个是很有意义的。(I don't really agree with all forms of charity. But there's an exception, one that I will patronize, and that is education. It's teaching a person how to fish. Teaching one how to carry on a good living, how to improve one's life, how to work more efficiency...I think this is a meaningful way.)
For many years, Master Yun has been a patron of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (his alma mater). We established the "Lotus on Water Gold Medal Award" and other Book Prizes in the Chinese faculty, rewarding students annually with the best graduating theses.
The idea is to encourage critical and innovative thinking in students studying Chinese, may they not just regurgitate what their predecessors had written, but to come up with something constructive for the community and culture.
Master Yun's passion for education started before he was a fengshui master. During his stint as a Chinese teacher in Anderson Primary School near 20 years ago, he volunteered to do up the Chinese Culture Room (Master Yun gave it a poetic Chinese name: 怡然轩).
The result was so amazing that Principals from other schools came for the opening ceremony; the Press reported about it too.
In 2017, Master Yun donated to refurbish the Chinese Culture Room. His enthusiasm for Chinese education and culture has only blossomed over the years.
Read more about this here.
Master Yun is the Honorary President of Singapore's International Art and Culture Federation 新加坡国际文化艺术联合会, the highest order of all art and culture societies in Singapore.
Master Yun is also the Honorary President of the Singapore Chinese Teachers Literary Recital Society 新加坡华文教师诗歌朗诵学会.
And, Master Yun is also the a key patron of Singapore Teachers Art Society 新加坡教师美术协会.
Master Yun's charity goes beyond Singapore. Over in Cambodia, Master Yun supports and sponsors orphans all the way through their tertiary education. One such person under Master Yun's patronage, is Ratana.
He is currently studying in the Institute of Technology Cambodia, working his way up to be an architect. Ratana speaks and writes fluent Japanese and English.
There are many charity organizations and NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) in Cambodia. Some are doing really good work. But some, as you would observe, are not teaching people how to fish, but just giving them the fish. Or maybe just the fish bone. Giving a bag of rice to villagers living in extreme poverty, great for a photo op, but never truly improving the quality of their lives.
It is curious, come to think of it, that Cambodia actually has the 2nd highest number of NGOs in the whole world, but is somehow still the 2nd poorest in South East Asia, in terms of GDP per capita. Really makes one ponder what's the actual aim of certain charity organizations or foundations.
Master Yun elaborated in the interview:
真正的这个慈善，是我们想清楚，当我们做这个行动之后，是不是能够帮助到这整个社会大多数的人，或者基本上所有的人，让每一个人都能受益。而我觉得这个最妥善的方式就是通过教育。而不是一味的施舍。(A real form of charity, is when we think through, when we do a certain action, does it benefit most or even all people in the society? And I think the most appropriate method is through education. And not keep giving handouts.)
It may seem heartless to "deny" the efforts of giving the poor a bag of rice. And it might just be. There's no point being hypocritical about it. Zhuang Zi 庄子 once said: "大仁不仁" (grand benevolence seems merciless). To give a fish bone might seem merciful, but it helps nothing much. 百年树人 (it takes a hundred years to educate and cultivate people), it's tough, it requires tons of discipline, and it's definitely not a nicey-nicey path. But it is the path of grand benevolence.
Perhaps Master Yun's devotion to education and culture is in his blood. Master Yun's grandfather, 5th generation fengshui master of the family Tianyi Jushi 天乙居士, was a learned man and once the head of the local temple in Penang, which was equivalent to the gentry or mayor of the Chinese community back then.
Master Yun's great granduncle, Mr Yang Zhixiang 杨芷芗先生, was a Xiu Cai scholar of the late Qing Dynasty 前清秀才, and was sent to Penang as Deputy Consulate. He was one of the founders of "Penang Taipu Association 槟榔屿大埔同乡会", and Principal of the famed Chinese school Jit Sin School 日新学校. Read about the interesting tales of Master Yun's ancestors over here.
One can say Master Yun is from 名门之后, a descendant of notable family. Master Yun carried on the bloodline of his ancestors.
But Master Yun was only one of the grandsons. There are others with the same blood. And Master Yun was the only one who inherited the spirit.
Maybe, it is generations of education, and the pursuit of education, that made Master Yun who he is today.
-- Kan, Executive Director
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