陈光标逆天名片震动美利坚

    “中国最有影响力的人”、“中国道德领袖”、以及“中国十大杰出志愿者”……带着印有这样一堆头衔的名片来到纽约媒体面前自然有希望获得一些关注。果不其然，一位来自中国东部地区的企业家陈光标在本周就如愿以偿——他经营的业务是拆除建筑物（他自己的名片上写的是“拆迁专家”）。

    美国记者们勉为其难地报道这位自称前往美国收购《纽约时报》【the New York Times，或《华尔街日报》（the Wall Street Journal）】部分或全部股份的人（这两件事情陈光标都没有做）。他们惊叹于他自我推销的天赋，但值得注意的是，当陈光标造访《财富》杂志时坚称：“不管我做什么，我从来没有想过出名这回事”。

    对陈光标摸不着头脑的并不只有美国人，过去4年里，中国的记者们也一直在试图搞清楚他到底是怎么一回事。

    陈光标2008年还是一位名不见经传的企业家，直到四川地震发生后，他将60台拆卸机器和120名员工派往灾区协助救援队拯救幸存者。按照典型的中国方式，陈光标的贡献通过数字呈现在人们眼前：他从废墟中救出130条人命，还向灾区捐赠了1亿多元的善款。中国国营小报《环球时报》（Global Times）报道称，中国当时的总理温家宝称赞他是“一个有良知、有感情、心系灾区的企业家”。

    从那时起，陈光标就开始转型走上了 “表演”之路。他把自己的中文名字改成“低碳”，以唤起人们对环保问题的关注，甚至还玩起了售卖罐装空气的噱头。陈光标飞到台湾，向那里的穷人捐赠了25万美元。2011年，他又向日本海啸灾民捐赠了善款。

    《福布斯》（Forbes）估计陈光标的个人净资产为7.4亿美元，他是否有这么多钱也是中国记者津津乐道的话题。陈光标在12月24日发布了一张自己被现金墙包围的图片（他自称图片中的现金总额为2.3亿美元），引起了中国流行门户网站搜狐记者的兴趣。 他们在12月27日刊文称，陈光标的公司2008年、2009年连续两年亏损，并得出结论称，他的生意无法支撑他自己所宣称的利润。他们还援引了陈光标先前说过的话，即在他这个行业获得成功“甚至比吃屎还难”。

    北京一位人脉广泛的商务顾问告诉我，陈光标游走在主流之外。他说，一些商人厌恶他的虚荣，其他人则不以为然。甚至连陈光标的慈善捐赠也受到了批评。徐永光是中国慈善事业最知名的专家之一，他在2011年写了一篇文章，批评陈光标随意捐赠现金，还从其他企业家那里募集善款、借花献佛的行为。

    陈光标在造访《财富》时声称自己的实际身家为15亿美元。他表示，自己到纽约的目的是收购《纽约时报》部分或全部的股份，同时，他誓言要利用这份报纸来传播自己关于世界和平、慈善和环保的价值观，展现出一种如同选美参赛者一般发自内心的乐观。他坦承：“由于我的形象——或者像我们所说的那样，在中国的‘炫耀式慈善’——我得罪了不少权贵人士。”

    徐永光在2011年的那篇文章中呼吁陈光标提升自己的专业精神。徐光远可能比他同时代的人更有远见。（财富中文网）

    译者：王灿均

    When you hit the New York media circuit with "Most Influential Person of China" … and "China Moral Leader" … and "China Top Ten Most Honorable Volunteer" among the distinctions listed on your ming pian ("business card" to you and me), you can expect to take a few hits. Sure enough, Guangbiao Chen, an entrepreneur from China's eastern region whose business is tearing down buildings ("demolition expert," on the business card), got plenty of them this week.

    Writers in the U.S. stretched to describe the man who traveled to America, he says, to purchase part or all of the New York Times or possibly the Wall Street Journal. (Nothing doing on both counts.) They marveled at his gift for self-promotion, though it should be noted that during his publicity stop at Fortune, Chen averred that "Whatever I do, I never think about the publicity."

    The head-scratching is not confined to the United States. Journalists in China have been trying to figure him out for the past four years.

    Chen was a little-known entrepreneur in 2008 until he sent 60 of his demolition machines and 120 workers to help rescue teams pull out survivors of the earthquake in Sichuan Province. In typical Chinese fashion, his contributions were summarized in numbers: 130 people dug out from the rubble, more than 100 million RMB donated to the area. The state-run tabloid Global Times says then-Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called him "an entrepreneur with a good conscience, morals, compassion."

    Ever since, Chen has employed a showman's tactics. He has talked about changing his Chinese name to "low carbon" to raise awareness of green issues, and he sold canned air as a stunt. Chen flew to Taiwan to give $250,000 to poor people. He donated money to Japan's tsunami victims in 2011.

    Whether he's got what Forbes estimates to be a net worth of $740 million is fodder for Chinese journalists, too. A Dec. 24 picture of Chen surrounded by what he said was $230 million in cash got reporters at the popular Chinese web portal Sohu working. They reported on Dec. 27 that his company suffered losses in 2008 and 2009, and concluded there's no way Chen's business revenues could post profits as high as he's stated. They also quoted him previously saying that having success in his industry was "even more difficult than eating shit."

    A well-connected business consultant in Beijing told me that Chen is far outside the mainstream. He said some businessmen detest his vainglory; others brush it aside. Even Chen's charitable giving has been criticized. One of China's most well-known experts in philanthropy, Yongguang Xu, wrote a critical piece in 2011 about Chen haphazardly giving cash away and collecting donations from other entrepreneurs to distribute.

    In his visit to Fortune, Chen asserted that he is actually worth $1.5 billion. He stated that he was visiting New York with the goal of acquiring part or all of the New York Times and, displaying the earnest optimism of a beauty-pageant contestant, he vowed to use the newspaper to spread his values of world peace, charity, and environmental protection. He did allow that "Because of my profile -- or as we put it, 'flashy philanthropy,' in China -- I offended many officials and wealthy people."

    In that 2011 article, Xu called on Chen to improve his professionalism. He may have been ahead of his time.