College student donates one million RMB to alma mater

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A junior from a university in east China recently donated one million yuan (about 160,000 US dollars) to his alma mater.

People in China have praised the student from Southeast University in Nanjing city for the act. The money had come from public donations to cure his deadly disease.

Diagnosed with viral encephalitis, Yang Wenzhang stayed at the intensive care unit at the hospital last December.

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After the university found that his family was short on money from dealing with medical costs, the school launched a fundraising initiative to save Yang’s life.

A total of 1.31 million yuan was soon collected from university alumni and from the public.

In January of this year, Yang managed to recover from the disease, leaving the hospital without using all of the donated money.

Even though he will have to take medication for a long time, he is in a stable condition, so he decided to donate the rest of the money to an aid foundation at the university. “My parents are very supportive of me. They say I should give out the money to help those in need,” Yang said, according to China Youth Daily.

VCG Photo

In response, the foundation’s deputy secretary Song Yunyan said that “students who suffer from serious illness or need urgent money could apply with us immediately.”

On China’s top social media platform Weibo, netizens are heaping praise on Wang.

User @huiweixiaodenaicha said, “He returns the biggest kindness he has had in the world. Isn’t this warmth in society? Everyone pays a little bit and will receive more.”

User @weierkangertongjiankang commented, “He received love, and he gave out love.”

Screenshot of comments on Weibo

While user @island-one admitted that “I really respect him. To be honest, I may not return the money and do the same thing as him.”

The spirit of philanthropy has thrived in Chinese society in recent years. The Guardian reports that donations from the top 100 philanthropists in the Chinese mainland have more than tripled to 3.6 billion pounds (about 5 billion US dollars) between 2010 and 2016.

Meanwhile, many people turn to online crowdfunding sites for financial assistance with life-threatening conditions.