[Opinion] Kwanjeong Asia Award

Eight years ago, Samyoung Chemical Group Chairman Lee Chong-hwan, now at age 84, took the nation by surprise by announcing that he would set up a scholarship fund with over 100 billion won. The self-made man hailing from Uiryeong, a remote village in South Gyeongsang Province, turned himself into one of the nation’s leading entrepreneurs and now heads a group with 14 affiliates. He used to be called a miser since he would wear the same suit for several years and have noodles with bean sauce for lunch. At the time of the announcement, his wife lodged a lawsuit for divorce and asked to divide his assets. Rumors swirled that his family members were disgruntled at his decision to give away his immense wealth for society.

Two years after that, he contributed his personal wealth worth 1 billion won and established the Kwanjeong Educational Foundation, and the next year he also donated to the foundation 300 billion won, three times the amount he pledged three years before. The fund had snowballed and now reaches some 600 billion won. Though the foundation was set up by a company with annual revenue of about 400 billon won, which pales in comparison with those of Samsung and Hyundai, it is the nation’s third largest fund after the Asan Foundation and the Samsung Foundation of Culture. In terms of its purpose, it is the largest that is entirely dedicated to giving help to students in need. The Kwanjeong Scholarship is granted to impoverished students without any strings attached. Chairman Lee’s dream is to see one of the students who have studied on his scholarship win the Nobel Prize. Kwanjeong is his pen name.

One can trace the reason why he chose to devote himself to philanthropy while reading his autobiography titled “Jeongdo” meaning “the right path,” published marking the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Samyoung Chemical. He wrote in the book, “When I became 40, I realized that the money matters little and was getting anxious to spend it for society.” He also said the news that an American man of great wealth died a lonely death at a motel had shocked him. For a time he was pondering over establishing a hospital for his second son who was on his sickbed, but eventually decided to commit his money to “growing human beings.” He has once left impressive remarks during an interview that he wanted to “clean up his evil with good deeds.”

Lee said, “Ways of raising money were not decent in the past. John D. Rockefeller also made a fortune by illegal transactions, collusion with politics and suppression of labor unions. But he gave away all his assets in his later days. I give many thoughts to people’s standards over what is good or evil. I did both good deeds and bad deeds in the past. I will just strive to make up for evil with good for the rest of my life.” Chairman Lee, who frequently said philanthropic work made him free from care, is now set to create the Kwanjeong Asia Award that grants Asian humanities scholars and scientists $1 million, or about 1 billion won, the amount unprecedented for humanities and comparable to the Nobel Prize money. His ambitious charity work is eye-opening and admiring.

Editorial Writer Huh Mun-myeong (angelhuh@donga.com)