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Billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffett are hoping China's newly wealthy will embrace philanthropy.
亿万富翁比尔·盖茨和沃伦·巴菲特希望中国财富新贵们支持慈善事业。
The men hosted a dinner for over 50 of China's business elite and entrepreneurs on Wednesday to discuss ideas on how to share their wealth. China was home to the fastest growing number of high net worth individuals but has little tradition in charity.
他们于星期三晚设宴邀请50余位中国商界精英和企业家，来探讨如何分享财富。中国是高净值个人人数不断以最快的速度增长的国家，但是却没有做慈善事业的传统。
Microsoft founder Gates put this down to wealth being a relatively recent phenomenon.“The main difference I think is that because the wealth here is so new, a lot of these non-profit groups have not been developed in a notion of what is the role of government versus philanthropy that's still being developed and, you know, it's great to see, like many things in China, it's happening faster than it happened in most other places.”Many rich Chinese are also reluctant to discuss their wealth in public, fearful of unwanted attention from the authorities or resentment from millions of have-nots.
微软创始人盖茨把财富用作慈善事业，是近期的风气。“我认为主要区别在于，财富对于大多数中国人而言是陌生的，许多非盈利机构还没得以发展。在这个民族，政府对慈善事业的影响在不断改善。我们很高兴得看到，相比其它大多数地方许多事物在中国发展得更快。”许多中国富人不愿意公开讨论自己的财富，害怕招来政府的特别关注和上百万穷人的仇富心态。
Buffett says the habit of giving is still being formed, but more and more of China’s newly wealthy are starting to assess their options.“Reasonbly widespread great wealth is a much newer phenomenon. And the habits of philanthropy probably are being formed here whereas they are probably settled in more if you go to Europe where people of the dynasties have passed on wealth for generation after generation. So that the ideas, the charitable inclinations or the more ancient norms in Europe are much more likely to be more solidified and harder to change than a new sociey where people are looking at wealth as they don't have their leading donor and I'm thinking we'll put a clue about this.”Private philanthropy became obsolete after the 1949 revolution, but the country’s wealth gap widened after it embaced capitalist reforms in the 1970s. Recent natural disasters have also stoked patriotic sentiment and rekindled an interest in charity.
巴菲特说赠与是种习惯，可以渐渐养成。然而越来越多的中国财富新贵们开始评估他们的选择。“巨额财富广泛分布是一种合理的社会新现象。捐赠的习惯可能会在这儿形成，然而如果去欧洲，财富则可能会越积越多，因为欧洲的富人选择一代代继承财富。欧洲人的这种观念，这种慈善倾向以及其古老的行事准则很有可能进一步固化，从而比新型国家更难以改变。因为新型社会没有主要捐赠代表，没有做慈善的经验可循，我们可以把这看作是线索。”自1949年改革以来，私人捐赠更是凤毛麟角，但是20世纪70年代实行资本市场改革以后，中国贫富差距拉大。而且近年来的自然灾害也振奋了人们的爱国情绪，慈善的兴趣被重新点燃了。
Ahno Gay, Reuters.
Ahno Gay，路透社。
