April 25, 2009

Dragon’s Heart Charity Trip: Day 1 in Erdos

I’ve been quite busy in Beijing lately and today I flew to Erdos, Inner Mongolia. This is my second time visiting the area and the reason for coming was to participate in activities for the Dragon’s Heart Foundation charity project. I received a very warm welcome from the local mayor and residents when I arrived in Erdos. I’m deeply grateful for their love and support for me. After unloading our luggage, we immediately set off to the Erdos Qiate Theater and attended the People of Compassion Gathering.


I am very pleased to come and visit Erdos again. The last time I came here was in 2007. Time really does fly; two years have already passed in the blink of an eye. I’ve been thinking about Erdos lately because in the new movie Big Little Soldier that I just finished filming with Leehom Wang, there were four actors filming with us on the set from Inner Mongolia. Whenever I had dinner with them, they would sing me songs and every time they sang, they would make me drink wine. Ha ha ha. They’re very warmhearted people and it made me miss the places in Inner Mongolia even more.


I received a lot of support from many businesses and organizations two years ago which allowed a school to be established successfully. This time I also received assistance from various government departments and organizations. At the gathering, I wholeheartedly thanked everyone on behalf of the local children and the people in need, thanking those who had previously donated money or their time and efforts. I believe that all the kind donors who have been actively participating in charity related events will influence the younger generation because I think that if each person is able to give a little bit of love then the whole world will be filled with love. We won’t have an Earth that is turbulent with unrest; we will have a very harmonious family, a country in harmony and a peaceful planet, and there won’t be any wars anymore.

It’s already been four years since the Dragon’s Heart Foundation first started. The achievements of the Dragon’s Heart Foundation today couldn’t have been successful without the support from the local government of various areas, large organizations, businesses, and the media. To some people, four years might not seem like a short period of time but to me, that amount of time is too short because I’ve already been doing charity work for over 30 years. To me, each charity program is about the same - it’s just that the name of the program and the objective of the activity are slightly different. To tell you the truth, I have no obligation to do charity work but deep inside my heart, I’ve always had this unexplainable force continuously pushing me to do it. I think it might be the support and encouragement from my fans and friends, and also a feeling of responsibility that I have towards society. Even though I am Chinese, I still belong to the whole world. Apart from doing charity work within China, I also go to many other places around the world to do charity work as well. This year, I will go to Africa and I might even go to Afghanistan too.

So far the Dragon’s Heart Foundation has established 22 schools and that’s not including the eye care centers, cleft lip centers and the special needs schools set up by the Foundation. The number would be greater if I included all these centers as well but just counting the schools established for educational purposes, at the moment there are only 22 schools. Initially on this trip, I was supposed to visit Shangdong as well and establish another three schools but unfortunately, crew members wouldn’t allow me to go because they said that there was some sort of hand, foot, and mouth disease in the area so my trip was cancelled.

I traveled a long journey from Beijing to Erdos, stayed for two days and one night before rushing back to Beijing. I felt tired and it felt like a lot of hard work but I was happy to be tired and the hard work was worth it. When I’m not making films, I allocate most of my time to do charity work. In the past, I didn’t used to feel that there was so much hard work involved. Ever since Hong Kong was handed over back to China, I realized that unlike Hong Kong, China is so big. If I wanted to do charity work in China, the workload would be a lot heavier compared to the charity work I used to do in Hong Kong. So the process of doing charity at the moment has been a little slower that what I expected. If I concentrated on just doing charity work, I’m pretty certain that the Foundation would have established more than 22 schools. The figure might even be double. But on the other hand, doing this would cause a delay in my other work. At least over the past four years, I’ve made about four movies and I’ve taken on quite a few responsibilities; for example, the Olympic Games Ambassador, the Goodwill Ambassador, and the ambassador for many other things. Apart from doing charity work, I also make films, carry out my responsibilities as an ambassador, and attend various events. Doing all these things has already occupied all of my time. I’m also human and I get tired as well. But whenever I start doing these things, I actually don’t feel tired anymore. When I see that young children, elderly people, disabled people and other people need help, there is a powerful force that burns inside me, pushing me to try my best and work, work, work. But when I go back to the hotel room, I feel so tired that I can just lie down and fall asleep.

A reporter once asked me that out of all the ambassador roles that I hold at the moment, which ambassadorship makes me feel the happiest. Honestly, it’s very hard to say. For instance, even if I weren’t the Tourism Ambassador for the Asia-Pacific region, I would still suggest to people from overseas that they should come to the Asia-Pacific region for a vacation. The first place I will suggest people to visit is Hong Kong, followed by China. But at the moment, I’m the Tourism Ambassador for the Asia-Pacific region so I need to be fair and unbiased. If someone asked me which place in the Asia-Pacific region they should go to for a vacation, as the Asia-Pacific Tourism Ambassador I really don’t know which place I should suggest. It really gives me a headache sometimes! What I’d suggest is that if you come to Hong Kong for a holiday, you can go to Macau as well because Macau is really close to Hong Kong; it only takes one hour to get there by boat. So after spending some time in Hong Kong, you can go to Macau. And then afterwards from Macau you can go to Zhuhai, China. When you arrive in China, transport will be even more convenient. You can travel by car, bus, train, or plane and go to many other cities in China that are very close by. After spending a few days exploring China, you can then catch a flight to Japan or Korea because traveling to these two places from Beijing is very easy; flying there only takes about an hour or two. Since I’m the Asia-Pacific Tourism Ambassador, I try my best to recommend places in the Asia-Pacific region to many different people from overseas. I guess you can say that this kind of work is considered relatively relaxing for me.

As for being the Bid for the Olympic Games Ambassador; our first bid for the games was unsuccessful and I blamed myself for it. Were we unsuccessful because I was the ambassador? The second time we bid, I was appointed the Bid for the Olympic Games Ambassador again and the amount of pressure I felt on me was huge. When our bid for the Olympics was successful, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “We’ve still got eight years before the Beijing Olympic Games, when will that day come? There’s still a very long time to go.” But time has shot past like a speedy arrow and the Beijing Olympic Games was held last year. I remember when I stood inside the Bird’s Nest Stadium last year, the feeling I had at the time was inexpressible; words simply cannot describe how I felt. I think that everyone who was there that day will understand what I mean. The moment when the anthem started playing, 200,000 people inside and outside the stadium stood up, and I stood up inside the corporate box. I looked at the people around me and I noticed that everybody; no matter if they were male or female, old or young, Chinese or foreign; everyone was moved to tears. At that moment in time, I was in the same situation as everybody else and my eyes started shedding tears as well. They were tears of happiness. So I can definitely say to everyone that I am very happy, proud, and emotionally touched to be the Olympic Games Ambassador.

Actually, I’m also very happy to be the Goodwill Ambassador for the World Expo. The World Expo is a grand international event, and the appointment to be the ambassador followed after I was the Olympic Games Ambassador. The Olympic Games is an event related to sports and the World Expo is an event related to trade and business. Furthermore, this particular World Expo event is going to be particularly good because not only will everybody be competing with technology, the main thing they’ll be competing about is being environmentally friendly. I think that this trade fair is going to be an unprecedented event like no other in history.

Everybody has been asking me exactly how much charity work do I need to do and how long do I need to do it for. I honestly think that there is no end to doing charity work; it’s ongoing. For example, I went to visit the completed construction of a Dragon’s Heart School today. The construction was successful but I’m still concerned about some other things for the school as well. Are the children okay? Are the facilities in the school okay? Are there enough text books? I left after looking around at the school but it doesn’t mean that everything is finished and it’s over. I continue to pay close attention to these things every year; this is a long term job. Seeing something bad makes me upset and seeing something good makes me very happy, so I will continue to do charity work. Today I’m in Erdos, tomorrow I’ll be Awati. There are many areas that need our attention. Doing charity work will bring you a lot of worries and concerns but it will also bring you a lot of happiness and many emotional feelings. Charity work is never ending. We need to do it slowly and enjoy the process. This is very different compared to the Olympics. The Olympic Games was an explosive event highly charged with energy, and everything was done in a split moment of time. I know for sure that I will continue to do Dragon’s Heart Foundation charity work for the rest of my life. Hopefully I’ll be able to persevere to the end and I hope that fans from all over the world, my friends and all the kind donors will continue to support my Dragon’s Heart Foundation.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m just the locomotive of a train. In the past, it was just me driving the train alone and I could stop wherever I went. But now, I’ve taken up some more responsibilities and the cars behind my locomotive are increasing one by one. There are already over 200 cars behind me now and I don’t think I could stop even if I wanted to. If I needed to step on the brakes, it would also take time because I can’t just stop everything right away. If, right now, I decided that I didn’t want to do it anymore, I would still need at least 10 years to make sure that everything is arranged and placed in good hands. I want my Dragon’s Heart Foundation to continue on so then I can slowly retreat from the scene. It’s not like making a movie where if I said that I didn’t want to film today, the production would stop the following day.

At the moment, I’m in the process of selecting many more volunteers to participate in my charity work and related activities. We have an organization called “Join Us to Help Others”, and what we need is volunteers from many different places in Asia to join us so that through these volunteers, we can better understand the current situations of various schools, the young children from different places, and the needs of the elderly and disabled people. Hopefully the process of joining our organization is very simple. All you’ll need to do is write a letter to us, tell us where you’re from, where you live, and write down your contact details. For example, if you’re from Hong Kong or Taiwan, when we decided to do charity work in either of these two places, we can contact you and the local volunteers to see if you have time to help us with doing some charity work in the area. [Note: Volunteers are needed ONLY IN ASIA.]

The Dragon’s Heart Foundation has been going for four years and the Foundation has established quite a few schools as well. Many people have asked me that in four years time, if I went back to the first Dragon’s Heart school that was established, what would I hope to see? Of course I hope to see the children achieving good results. Additionally, I hope that they will be able to help others as well because China is just so big and there are a lot of people who need help. Depending on the government alone for assistance is not enough. I mean, how can the government look after 1.3 billion people and ensure that every single person is satisfied and living in peace and happiness?! It already wasn’t easy for the Chinese Government to achieve the things that they’ve done so far today. They still need to rely on the people, the large businesses, and all the government officials to fully cooperate with each other and work together with one heart. If everyone had this kind of attitude, I believe that many families in China will become families that are comfortably well-off and then China would be a harmonious country.

With regards to the development of the Dragon’s Heart Foundation, this world is continuously changing and the cause for doing charity work is also changing as well. In the future, my Dragon’s Heart Foundation might be reduced because my strengths and abilities are small. But it might also expand, which will mean that my strengths and abilities will increase as well. I think that a person should always do things according to their own abilities. And since I don’t plan on stopping with charity work, I will do whatever I am capable of doing. If someone asked me what should be done, I’d say that we’d just continue doing what we’ve been doing because there are just so many things that need to be prepared each year. For this trip, we had to arrange a shipment of over 1,000 schoolbags to be delivered to Erdos. Also, we’ve prepared 5,000 computer text books for Wenchuan and Deyang, and 50,000 schoolbags have been prepared in Guangzhou. All these things need to be allocated and delivered to various schools and doing this is not going to be an easy job. It actually feels like when you first have your own child, you think it’s very simple but after the child is born, can you just put the baby to one side? No way! You have a very big responsibility to teach, guide, discipline, and nurture him. It’s a long-term and ongoing process. Furthermore, doing charity work alone is honestly very limited. We have to do it together; everyone who can help should do it together.

The Dragon’s Heart Schools have only been operating for four years so far. Maybe after 8-10 years when these students grow up to be mature young adults, several tens of thousands of these students will become my volunteer workers. Well realistically, I think the figure might be half of that but there will still be 5,000 people. If the figure was halved again, there would still be 2,500. Halving that number again, I’ll still have over 1,200 volunteers. As long as my Dragon’s Heart Foundation has over 1,000 volunteers or even 5,000 volunteers, I think that it’s enough to keep it going. I actually think that it’ll be great. The Dragon’s Heart Foundation is not like other large charitable organizations, for example UNICEF. The Dragon’s Heart Foundation is still just a very small organization so there are a lot of things where I still have to do it myself and people will see me in many different places. Because I’m always trying hard with putting in my efforts for the cause, it really makes me very tired but it’s a happy kind of tired. I’m very happy to be tired.

In the evening, I attended the Charitable Thank You Dinner and the Charity Auction. Honestly, I was so happy. They were very warmhearted and hosted me with great enthusiasm. Not only did they propose a toast for me, they also presented me with a khata and they treated me with an entire lamb banquet, the highest honor in Mongolian tradition. Do you know what khata is? Some local people later explained to me that a khata is a traditional ceremonial scarf and presenting someone with a khata is a very common Mongolian tradition of courtesy. It symbolizes purity, sincerity, loyalty, and respect for the recipient. Khata is made of silk and is used as a ceremonial gift and it’s an essential item used in social events. Khata is similar to the traditional silk gifts that the historic Han nationality used to use.


We received great support from everyone during the charity auction, and combining all the donations from local businesses, we managed to raise several million dollars for charity. I was absolutely overjoyed. Again, I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the kind donors for your support. Every dollar and every cent of your donation will be used towards helping the local children and the people in need. Thank you!

April 25 （星期六）

 

龙子心工程：鄂尔多斯的第一天

 

          在北京忙了好一阵子，今天飞到内蒙的鄂尔多斯，我是第二次来到这个地方，目的就是参与‘龙子心工程’的活动。

          我刚到达鄂尔多斯，当地市长和人民热烈欢迎我，真的非常感谢他们对我的爱戴和支持。

          安顿行李后，我们马上启程到鄂尔多斯恰特剧院出席“爱心人士见面会”。

          很高兴再次来到鄂尔多斯，上一次来的时候是2007年，时间过得非常快，转眼已经过了两年了。最近我特别想念鄂尔多斯，因为我刚刚跟王力宏拍完新戏《大兵小将》，戏里面就有四位内蒙的演员跟我们拍戏，跟他们一起吃饭的时候，他们每天都唱歌给我听，一唱歌就灌我喝酒，哈哈哈，他们真的很热情，这令我更加想念内蒙这个地方。

          两年前得到很多商家的支持，学校能够顺利的建成了，这一次又得到政府各部门和企业家的帮助，我在见面会上衷心的代表当地的小孩子和有需要的人谢谢曾经出过钱和出过力的人。我相信所有善长人翁的主动参与慈善行动会影响他们的下一代，因为我认为每一个人都付出一点爱心的话，全世界都会充满爱心，那我们就不会有一个动荡的地球，就会有一个很和谐的家、和谐的国家以及和谐的地球，那就不会有战争了。

          龙子心工程从开始到现在已经四年了，得到各地政府、大企业家、商家和媒体的支持，龙子心工程才得到今天的成绩。对一些人来说，四年可能也不是一段短的日子，可是对我来说，时间太少了，因为我做慈善工作已经超过三十年，每一个项目对我来说都是差不多，只是名称不同，对象有些不同而已。坦白说，我没有义务去做慈善，可是内心，总是说不出一些什么动力推动我去做，我想是影迷、朋友的鼓励和支持，还有自己感到对社会的一种责任感吧。虽然我是中国人，可是我也是属于全世界的，我除了在中国做慈善之外，我也出去到处乱走做一些慈善工作。今年，我要去非洲，可能还要去阿富汗。

          截至今年，龙子心工程已经建了22所学校了，不包括眼科中心、兔唇中心，还有特殊学校，如果这些都包括在内就不止这个数目了，真真正正是上课教书的学校暂时就只有22间。本来这一次行程还要去山东，多盖三所学校，可是工作人员不给我去，因为听说那里有什么手足口病，所以行程被取消了。

          虽然我风尘朴朴从北京赶到鄂尔多斯，停留二日一夜就要赶回上海工作，我也觉得累，也觉得辛苦，可是我是累得开心，辛苦得有价值的。我不拍戏的时候，都抽出大部份时间做慈善工作。以前没现在那么辛苦，自从回归以后，中国那么大，不像香港，如果要做慈善的话，工作量比在香港的时候重很多，所以我觉得现在做慈善的步伐比我相像中慢了一点儿。我想如果我能够全心全意只做慈善工作的话，相信现在不止是22所学校，可能是双倍的数目了。另一方面，我的工作可能被耽误了，起码这四年间我大概拍了四部电影，还要肩负了一些责任在身上，如做了奥运大使、亲善大使，还有很多很多其它的大使。除了做慈善工作之外，就是拍戏，履行做大使的责任，出席一些活动，这已经占去了我所有的时间。我也是人，我也会累，可是一做起来我就不累，看到那些需要帮助的小孩子、老人家、伤残人士等等，我就一股动力在燃烧着，努力的做做做，可是我回到酒店的房间就累得倒头大睡。

          记者问我，我身兼那么多大使，当那一个大使我觉得最开心？真的很难讲，比方说亚太区旅游大使，就算我不是当这个大使，我也会介绍外国人来亚太区旅游，我会先介绍香港，跟着是中国。现在是亚太区旅游大使，我要很公平、公正。如果别人问我去亚太区应该去那里玩？我是亚太区旅游大使，那我应该自介绍那里呢？真的有点儿头痛呢！我会说如果你到香港旅游，澳门跟香港很近，一个小时的船就到了，可以在香港玩过以后再去澳门，然后从澳门可以到珠海。到了中国以后，更方便，坐车、坐火车、坐飞机去很多中国城市都很近。在中国玩几天以后，又可以坐飞机去日本和韩国，因为从北京去这两个地方都很近，一至两个小时的飞机就到了。反正做亚太区旅游大使我尽量把亚太区的国家介绍给不同的外国朋友知道，这算是比较轻松的工作。

          至于申奥大使，第一次申办的时候没有成功，我就怪自己，是不是我做了大使而不成功呢？可是，第二次也是我做申奥大使，我的压力很大。直至申奥成功了，我一直在想八年才到北京奥运，什么时才到呢？时间还长呢。但是，光阴似箭，去年就是北京奥运，而且已经是去年的事情了。去年站在鸟巢的时候，我在现场的感受非笔墨所能形容，相信在场的人都会明白我的意思。当国歌奏起的时候，二十万场内场外的人站着，我站在包厢里，我看到我四周的人不管是男是女，是老是幼，是中国人或是外国人，他们都感动得流泪，此情此景，我身处其中，我的眼泪也下来了，这是开心的眼泪。所以，我肯定告诉大家，我做申奥大使做得很开心很感动很自豪。

          其实，我做世博的大使也很开心，这是继申奥大使后才做的，这是一个国际盛事，奥林匹克是关于运动的，世博是关于商业的，而且这一次世博很好，除了大家在比科技，最主要是要比环保，相信这一次博览会也是史无前例的。

          大家都问我，我做慈善工作，到底需要做多少，要做多久？我觉得慈善是做不完的，譬如说我今天去看龙子心学校建好了，成功了我还要担心其它事情，孩子好不好？学校的设备好不好？本子够不够？看完以后我走了，可是不是这样就完结了整件事，每年我都要去关注这些事情，这是一个长期的工作。看见不好的你会不开心，好的你会很开心，你会继续继续的做下去。今天是鄂尔多斯，明天是阿瓦堤，有很多地方都要去关注。所以，慈善工作是令你有很多的担心和很多的开心，令你有很多的感受，是做不完的工作，你要慢慢的去做去感受。这跟奥运很不一样，奥运的是很有爆炸性的，做的一剎那并发出来。在我有生之年，我会继续做龙子心工程，希望我能坚持下去，世界各地的影迷们、朋友们，所有善长人翁继续支持龙子心工程。

          我已经讲过了，我只是一个火车头，以前只是我自己在开，去到那里就停在那里，现在又多了一些责任在身上，火车头后面多了一辆又一辆的车卡，已经有两百多辆车卡，就是我想停也停不住，我要剎车也需要时间，不能一下子就完全停下来。假如我现在说不做了，也起码需要十年时间来安顿一切，让龙子心工程延续下去，自己慢慢的退下来，不像拍戏，我今天说不拍，明天就不拍了。现在我在选择更多更多的志愿者加入我们的慈善工作行列，我们有一个叫“加入我们，帮助他人”的机构，我们需要不同地方的志愿者加入我们，那我们就可以通过他们去了解不同学校的情况，不同地方的小孩子、老人和伤残人士的需要。希望加入我们这个机构很简单，只要你写信给我们，告诉我们你是那里的人，住在那里，留下联系资料，例如你是香港人或是台湾人，当我们到香港或台湾做慈善工作的时候，就会联络当地的志愿者，问问他们有没有空帮助做义工。

          有很多人问我，龙子心工程推行了四年，也建了好些学校，如果四年后回到第一所学校，我希望看到什么？啊．．．我当然希望看到孩子们拿到好的成绩，除此之外，也希望他们可以帮助别人。因为中国实在是太大了，需要帮助的人也有很多，单靠政府的帮助是不够的，政府怎能照顾到十三亿人口，令到每一个人都安居乐业呢？！中国政府能做到今天的成绩已经不容易，还要靠民众、大企业和所有政府官员上上下下同心协力。每一个人都抱着这种心态，我相信很多中国的家庭很快就变成小康之家，就会有一个和谐的中国。

          关于龙子心的发展，这个世界不断在变，慈善事业也在变，以后龙子心可能会变小，因为我的能力小，可能会变大，我的能力就会变大，一个人能力做多少就做多少。我会根据自己的能力去做，反正都会一直做下去。如果问我应该怎样去做，反正就是继续做下去，因为每年需要准备的事情实在太多了，这一次就要安排运送一千多个书包到鄂尔多斯。另外，汶川和德阳那边就准备了五千个教学的计算机本，还有五万个书包在广州准备好了。这一切一切都要运过来，还要分派到每一所学校去，这也不是一个小工程。感觉就是生一个孩子很简单，生完以后摆在一边行吗？不行！以后才是有很大的责任去教导他、管教他、养育他，是一件长远的事情。而且，做慈善真的是一个人的能力很有限，一定要大家一起做，有能力的去帮忙一起做。

          现在龙子心学校只经营了四年，再等十年八年，等那些学生长大了，这几万个学生都是我的义工。我相信减半吧，也有五千人，再减半也有两千五百人，再减半也有一千二百多人，只要龙子心工程里面有一千多个义工，或者是五千个义工，那已经够了，那已经很不得了。龙子心工程不像其它大的慈善机构，如：联合国儿童基金会，龙子心工程仍是一个小小的工程，很多事情我还是要亲力亲为，很多地方大家都见到我。由于事事亲力亲为，我做得挺累，可是这是开心的累，我累得很开心。

          晚上，我去了慈善答谢宴会暨慈善拍卖会。我真的很开心，他们热情招待我，除了敬酒外，献‘哈达’，更以蒙古族最高的全羊宴款待我。大家知不知道什么是‘哈达’呢？当地人解释给我听，他们说献‘哈达’是蒙古民族最普遍的一种礼节，这是对对方表示纯洁、诚心、忠诚、尊敬的意思。哈达是作为礼仪用的丝织品，是社交活动中的必备品，哈达类似于古代汉族的礼帛。

          拍卖会上，得到大家鼎力支持，再加上当地企业的捐赠，筹得数百万元，令人非常鼓舞。我再次在这里谢谢所有善长人翁，你们的每一分每一毛都会用在当地的孩子们和有需要的人身上，谢谢你们！

 

 

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