By Lauren Wong*

I had gone to the filming of a CCTV 9 talk show on Sunday expecting to hear Jet Li chat about his martial art prowess. What I got instead was a talk about social entrepreneurship in China. Jet Li focused the great majority of the hour-long filming on his pet project, the One Foundation.  Since the talk show was filmed for an English-speaking audience, the kung fu master was not as eloquent in his philosophy as he could be in his native tongue. Nevertheless, the passion towards his foundation and towards the work of social entrepreneurship was a great sign of what potential China holds.

My work with Ashoka Philippines over the summer, as an intern seemed so different from my semester of studying and speaking Chinese, getting lost in the Beijing sprawl, and trying to familiarize myself with a culture that was so different from mine back in Chicago. I had almost gotten out of touch with the goings-on in the citizen sector until Jet Li’s unexpected talk grounded me back to what I believe is truly important.

Jet’s philosophy on social entrepreneurship was, at times, a little contradictory and unclear, but his underlying theme was reasonable.  He began by explaining that there’s a scale of good people, with Bill Gates on one end of the spectrum and Mother Teresa on the other.  Gates represents business and Mother Teresa represents the heart.  Where did Jet Li stand?  In the middle with a combination of transparent business practices and passion for what he called the “global family”.
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