A Patriotic Chinese From The Bottom Of His Heart 2001/6/15
Mr. Hu Zhiguang, an entrepreneur who whole-heartedly serves the interests of his motherland and overseas Chinese, an overseas Chinese community leader whose name is well known throughout the Netherlands and Europe. The secret to his success lies in his charming moral standings.
AS president of the Dutch Chinese Association and chairman of the Dutch China Chamber of commerce, Hu Zhiguang is almost known to all families in the overseas Chinese communities in the Netherlands and many other European countries. People have many good comments on him such as “Model of new generation of overseas Chinese”, “leader of overseas Chinese in the Netherlands ”, “a man who cares more for others than for himself”, “a man with virtues”, etc.
In the Netherlands and Europe, there are lots of overseas Chinese as well as numerous overseas Chinese communities. It’s not easy for a community leader to earn such high comments. Hu Zhiguang wins the trust and respect of overseas Chinese by his valuable integrities .
Hu Zhiguang was Born in Nov. 1941 in a poor family in Dongzi Village, Yuhu Town, Wencheng County in the province of Zhejiang , China. His father used to be a poor carpenter, who had left home to work in Singapore. He grew up under the care of his kind and industrious mother, from whom he learned how to behave a good man. After graduated from the primary school , he went to study in the junior middle school in Wen Chen County. But at that time, he was infected with tuberculosis, a then terrible disease, which forced him to leave school and changed his life thereafter.
In order to seek treatment abroad, Hu Zhiguang left his hometown on Feb. 13, 1962. He planned to go to the Netherlands, but due to difficulties in getting access to the country, he had to go to Hongkong via canton and Macau, like many other fellow countrymen. And it took him half a year’s time and hard efforts to get a visa to Italy.
When he arrived at Milan, he was only a poor sick young man. His fellow countrymen in Italy contributed money to buying clothes , food and medicine for him. They also sent him to a sanitarium run by ICRC, where he got his tuberculosis cured. At that time, overseas Chinese are not very rich, but even so , a previously unknown old countryman volunteered to invest on leatherware shop run by his son and Hu Zhiguang. From the kindness of these ordinary overseas Chinese, Hu Zhiguang felt the warmth of countrymen and became more and more proud of his motherland China. Ever since then, he is determined to make an outstanding Chinese.
In 1968, Hu Zhiguang settled in the Netherlands. From his father who had begun to run a restaurant, he quickly learned how to master the skills of cooking and running business. In 1972, he opened up Xiang Yang Restaurant in Utrecht, the 3rd largest city in the Netherlands.
Before he opened the restaurant, he had already joined the Dutch Chinese Association as an ordinary member. He was so keen on serving the interests of overseas Chinese that he was selected as a director of the Association and later promoted to be a permanent director .With a long history, the Dutch Chinese Association is the largest among all the Chinese communities in the country. It was the Association that published the first Chinese newspaper “Communications for Overseas Chinese”. After the 2nd issue of the newspaper , he was entrusted with the responsibility of supervising its operation. He had spent a lot of time and efforts on the paper. Under his management, the newspaper played an important role in promoting solidarity among local overseas Chinese communities.
In may, 1980, with overwhelming majority support, Hu Zhiguang was elected the 5th president of the Dutch Chinese Association. Ever since then , he has been reelected for several times. During his terms, he has contributed a lot to the development of the Association.
In order to help the 2nd and 3rd generation of Dutch Chinese to study Chinese, he joined other Chinese community leader in making efforts to set up a Chinese school in Utrecht in Sept. 1981. Later they set up Chinese schools in Hague and Haling. Under their support and encouragement, there appeared a enthusiasm of learning Chinese among young Chinese youth in the Netherlands. By 1998, only the Dutch Chinese Association has opened up 17 Chinese schools, with total number of students reaching more than 2400.
Apart from that , he also established the “ Overseas Chinese Friendship Center in Utrecht” and persuaded the local government to allocate an annual subsidy of 57,000 guilders to pay for its rent and fees for water and electricity. Hu Zhiguang asked overseas Chinese affairs office of various levels in China donated thousands of book to the Friendship Center and its facilities were bought by donations of Hu Zhiguang and other kind-hearted doners.
Hu Zhiguang has been making great efforts on eliminating gulfs between overseas Chinese communities and trying to enhancing their communications and friendship through sports activities. The year of 1984 saw “The First Dutch Chinese Sports Meeting ”in Utrecht, in which Chinese offspring speaking different accents such as Guangdong dialect, Wenzhou dialect, mandarin Chinese, Dutch , Indonesian, and Malay , had the opportunity to gather on the sports field for the first time. And under his initiative , the Dutch Chinese Sports Union (DCSU)was established in 1986. In 1994, the First World Sports Meeting for Overseas Chinese was held in Amsterdam , with more than 1000 participants. In honor of his contribution , DCSU awarded him “ Permanent Chairman”, the highest honorable title of the union.
In order to help those Chinese restaurants in difficulty out of trouble and improve their competitiveness , Hu Zhiguang made great efforts to rebuild the Stichting LFCON , which later became a branch of the Netherlands Royal Union of Catering industry. Stichting LFCON has invited many famous chefs from China to give lectures and has helped train nearly 2000 qualified cooks . Besides , it has been making unremitting efforts to persuade the Netherlands government to allow Chinese restaurants to hire chefs from China . And the Union has also contributed a lot to the protection of the rights of its members. In light of his contributions to the development of the Chinese restaurants in the Netherlands, the Netherlands Royal union of Catering Industry in 1992 awarded him the highest honorable title : Permanent Chairman of the Stichting LFCON.
Overseas Chinese businessmen used to develop their individual restaurants based on small capital. In order to lead them to better develop their business and improve their social status, both political and economic, in the Netherlands, Hu Zhiguang took the initiative to establish “Yu Hu International Trading Import & Export Co. ”and later , with joint capital from Bi Chuanyuo, Hu Zhiming and other overseas Chinese businessmen, he established the first overseas Chinese group company in the Netherlands, The Dutch Chinese Investment Holding Co. By investing on areas such as import & export ,real estate, etc. the group company has been trying in a fruitful way to find new path of development for overseas Chinese business.
After he was reelected the 7th president of the Dutch Chinese Association in 1988, Hu Zhiguang , with joint efforts of other overseas Chinese community leaders , established the “De Stichting Landelijke Federatie Van Chinese Organisaties in Nederland” (Stichting LFCON) in order to unite all the overseas Chinese communities in the Netherlands, Until now , he is still the honorable chairman of Stichting LFCON.
From the Netherlands to the whole Europe. In order to better protect the rights of overseas Chinese in Europe, Hu Zhiguang joined other overseas Chinese leaders in European countries in establishing the Union of Overseas Chinese in Europe. The establishment of the Union embodies his unremitting efforts and contributions .
As a patriotic overseas Chinese, Hu Zhiguang never forgets his motherland. He has been making unremitting efforts to promote exchanges between China and the Netherlands in the fields of trade, science & technology, and culture. In order to introduce advanced agricultural technology and equipment into China, he established the Dutch China Agriculture Equipment and Technology Co, Ltd.(HCU) in cooperation with 9 Dutch companies specialized in production of greenhouse , greenhouse automation system , vegetable seeds and corm seeds. HCU’s main aim is to introduce advanced Holland greenhouse technology to China. As president of HCU, Hu Zhiguang has contributed a lot to the agricultural exchange between China and the Netherlands. Many Chinese leaders including president Hu jingtao , former premier Li Peng, former CPPCC Chairman li Ruihuan , and other leaders such as Jian Qichen, Chen Muhua have visited the head office of HCU in Holland , which has also hosted the visit of dozens of Agricultural delegations from Shanghai, Zhejiang , Anhui , Beijing , Shangdong and other places in China .
With the development of sino-Netherlands trade ties , there were increasing demand on the establishment of an organization which would provide market information to entrepreneurs , help them seek business opportunities and facilitate their communications. On noticing the demands, Hu Zhiguang began to set up the Dutch China Chamber of Commerce (DCCC). With the help of Chinese Embassy to the Netherlands, the municipal government of Hague, the Chamber of Commerce in Hague, and entrepreneurs from both countries, DCCC came into being in Sep. 1999. And Hu Zhiguang himself became its president. The organization has established ties with overseas Chinese affairs offices, councils for the promotion of international trade, industrial and commercial associations and administrations of township enterprises from 24 Chinese provinces or cities. It has also become friendly partner of 23 chambers of commerce in China. Now, the number of its members or friendly partners has expanded to about 200 in the Netherlands, and more than 50 in China.
Even though having left homeland for near 40 years, he still holds the Chinese passport. He is always proud to be a Chinese. On commenting this , Hu Zhiguang always says, “I am a Chinese, and will always be a Chinese from the bottom of my heart. ”
(news from the 6th issue of WHO’S WHO OF CHINESE ORIGIN WORLDWIDE, published in May, 2001)
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