Again I would like to thank everyone for being here to honor the life of my father Cyrus Tang, Most of you have been touched by directly or indirectly - but most of you are unfamiliar with his story.
He was a man of few words, modest, understated and not one to brag or trumpet his successes. I’m here to tell you a little about his amazing story, his accomplishments
and about his journey from a small village outside of Shanghai to the United States, and his reconnection back to China in his later years.
在此，我想再一次感謝在場的每一位客人特地趕來參加我父親唐仲英的追思會。大家可能跟我父親有過直接或間接的接觸，但不一定熟悉他的生平。他是一個少言寡語的人，謙遜，低調，從不自吹自擂。我想用今天這個機會跟大家分享一下他不平凡的故事和成就，說說他是如何一個人從盛澤來到美國，以及他下半生與中國重續前緣的點滴。
China to US
-Dad was born in a village named Shenze near Shanghai in 1930.
-In 1937 the Japanese invaded China and took over Shanghai that year ( War from 1937-1945 war ended after atomic bombs) My Grandfather, my Dad’s father moved the family to Chungking and then to Hong Kong -In December, 1941, same morning Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, the Japanese invaded Hong Kong.Two weeks later Hong Kong, which was controlled by the British surrendered to the Japanese. My grandfather set up an escape route for Dad and family to Chungking. He and family members put on peasant clothes and traveled for weeks by foot, truck and boat to Chungking -After the war Dad ended up goingback to high school in Hong Kong -In 1950 When he was 20 years old he boarded a slow boat to San Francisco and then took a long train ride to the city of Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania to attend what was then Penn Military academy and what is now Widener University.
-He attended college a couple of years, funds got cut off, and he moved to Chicago Dad met my mother in Chicago. They did not know each other before. My mother came to the US also for college at Duquesne in Omaha, Nebraska. She came to Chicago after she finished. They met, married, had me in 1954, then my sister four years later.
我父親1930年出生在盛澤鎮。
1937年日本侵略中國佔據了上海。我祖父帶著全家人先移居重慶然後再搬到香港。1941年12月偷襲珍珠港事件發生的同一天早上，日本軍也佔領了香港。兩個星期後，英國政府投降，放棄了香港。我祖父設計了一條撤退線路，再次把我父親和家人帶回重慶。一家人換上農民裝，用了幾個禮拜時間，通過徒步，卡車和小船隻等各種方式輾轉到了重慶。戰爭結束後，父親回到了香港讀完高中。1950年他20歲，上了一艘前往舊金山的慢船，然後再轉火車才從美國西海岸到達了東海岸賓州的費城。他當時上的大學叫賓州軍事學院，也就是現在的Widener大學。
大學上了一兩年後，來自家裡的財源中斷。父親搬去了芝加哥，在那裡遇見了我母親。他倆以前不認識。母親剛來美國時在內布拉斯州的奧馬哈市讀大學，畢業後搬去了芝加哥。他倆相遇，相知，戀愛，結婚，在1954年生下了我，4年後生下了我妹妹。
A. Family
So Dad is in Chicago, he’s started a family and struggling to survive. But what has come of the rest of the Tang’s in China? A world war and a civil war in China has just ended. Most of the Tang family were able to leave mainland China and scattered to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Canada, Australia, and the United States. Dad was to bring together much of his family to the Chicago area working with him in the company. His brothers, sisters, and other relatives and friends came to Chicago to work for the company. Dad and Mom worked together to strengthen the family. Dad offered opportunity and tried to find a place for his family and friends, while Mom was the social glue that kept everyone together.
我父親在芝加哥為了自己的小家庭在奮鬥，唐家還在中國的其他成員呢？二戰和中國內戰剛剛結束。唐氏家族成員大多數都離開了大陸，分散到了香港，臺灣，加拿大，澳大利亞和美國各地。爸爸幫助了弟妹們和很多親戚朋友，讓他們來芝加哥工作。爸媽一起合作來鞏固大家庭。爸爸努力為大家提供工作機會為大家解決生計問題，媽媽是社交公關，確保大家族的團結。
Life in America:
Dad came to the US in 1950. He started his first 100% owned company in 1964. What was he doing for 14 years before he started his own business? For the first two years he was attending university. His funding got cut off and he never finished. By the way he did not set a good example here - don’t follow his footsteps - finish your schooling! He moved to Chicago for better work opportunities. Life was a struggle. He started a small dry cleaning business, he worked in a ship year, delivered newspapers, he was a waiter and later a restaurant owner. The restaurant failed, no one really knew how to cook. He tried the import-export business, he imported wigs and purses and exported keychains. My mother worked and I remember they dropped me off during the day with a babysitter who took care of me until work was finished. We lived in a small apartment and took buses for transportation. By chance Dad finally got a job as a clerk in a steel stamping company that made electric motor and transformer parts. Then he started getting ideas how to start his own business.
我父親1950年到美國，1964年創建了由他個人獨資的第一家公司。在這14年裡，爸都做了哪些工作呢？頭兩年他在大學念書，家裡財路斷了以後他輟學了。順便提醒大家，在這點上，我父親不是好榜樣，所以請大家別步他的後塵，還是要把學業完成！他為了謀生而移居芝加哥。生活並非一帆風順。相反，處處掙扎。他經營過洗衣店，做過修船工人，送過報紙，當過飯店服務員，後來還經營過自己的飯店。飯店失敗了，主要原因是沒人懂得如何烹飪。他也嘗試過進出口生意，從海外進口假頭套和皮包，出口鑰匙圈。我媽當時也需要工作。我還記得爸媽上班前把我送到託兒所，下班後再來接我。我們住在小公寓，外出都靠公共汽車。一個偶然的機會，我父親去了一家鋼鐵衝壓公司做職員。這家公司主要是做電動機和變壓器。從這份工作中，父親開始琢磨如何開創自己的公司。
B. Business
-When describing CT business accomplishments you think of Tang Industries and National Material and the steel businesses. Since the start of the company in 1964 there have been over 150 companies started or purchased which span not only steel relatedbusiness, but include businesses in aluminum, specialty metals, in office furniture, travel services, various trading businesses, renewable energy, pharmaceuticals, biomedicine, insurance, auto parts, airplane parts, and manymore.
-in 1964 he started his first wholly owned company, National Material which was a steel processing and distribution company. He bought companies that weren’t doing well and looked to turn them around. In 1971 he started Tang Industries. Dad was doing leveraged buy-outs before it became a common financial term. He was starting companies way before entrepreneurship became fashionable.
-I joined the company full time 36 years ago. All of a sudden Cyrus was not only my dad but my bosses boss. His idea of mentoring was to give me a responsibility, like a small company to run, and let me figure it out, sink or swim.
-What did I learn from him? Business was about people. How you built a business was just as important building the bottom line. Here are some of the values that havebeen passed on to me:
-Honoring a deal: 「A deals a deal」. He came from a time when a handshake was as good as a contract. He invested tens of millions based on a handshake.
-Past is past: you can’t change the past, look to changing the future.
-Sense of urgency, get things done now, don’t wait.
-He had a profound sense of fairness, great sense of right and wrong and how to treat employees, partners, suppliers and customers.
大家說起唐氏商業上的業績可能會馬上想到唐氏工業和國家物資公司以及鋼鐵業務。其實，從我父親1964年創業開始至今，唐氏創建或者收購了150多家公司。這些公司不只局限於鋼鐵行業，涉及到鋁以及其它特殊金屬，辦公家具，旅行服務，各種不同交易業務，再生能源，醫藥，生化，保險，汽車零配件，飛機零配件等各種領域。
1964年我父親開創了他第一家獨資公司，國家物資，加工處理並分銷鋼鐵產品。他會買一些頻臨困難的公司然後想辦法扭轉劣勢。1971年，唐氏工業正式成立。我父親在「槓桿收購」正式成為一個大眾化金融術語之前很久，就已經在做這些融資舉債收購了。他在創業成為一種時髦之前就已經創立了很多家公司。
36年前，我成為公司一名全職員工。唐仲英不再僅僅是我父親，突然間，他變成了我老闆的老闆。他培養我的方式是讓我去全權管理一家小公司，讓我自己去摸索，自己去闖，成敗全由我自己。
我從他身上學到了什麼呢？做生意必須尊重對方。如何創辦公司跟創造利潤一樣重要。他傳給了我很多價值觀，比如：
-說話算數。答應別人的事情就一定要做到。他年輕的時候，雙方握手就好比籤了合同。他很多大規模上億的投資都只依靠了一次握手。
-過去的就讓它過去。不能更改過去，那就面向改變未來。
-緊迫感。不要等，要做的事情現在馬上就做。
父親是個非常公平的人，他用良心對待員工，合作夥伴，供應商和客戶。
C. Philanthropy
Success in business gave him the ability to give to charity. But just writing checks was not enough. He looked for impact and value.
-Dad was always impressed by the generosity of Americans and the culture of philanthropy in the US. He started giving in US but got serious after he first returned fromChina in 1995. Very simply, he could do a lot more with the same amountof money in China compared to the US.
-since the start ofthe Cyrus Tang Foundation over 20 years ago the Foundation has been involved inover 65 major projects:
CTF has built over 250 grade schools in impoverished areas, It has funded a University Library, a medical center, a 1000 bed community hospital, a national level nano technology center, CTF has funded programs in archeology, cultural preservation, public health initiatives, rural economic development programs - and many more.
- Dad’s proudest philanthropic achievement are the scholarship programs developed for students. Currently CTF is helping to support students in 22 universities, students in 420 high schools, in 10 provinces. Since the start, there have been 100,000 scholarships granted for students from highschool, university and in graduate studies. There are over 10,000 university alumni, and along the way there have been marriages and children among the alumni. Dad was honored to officiate many marriages.
-in 2010 Bill Gates and Warren Buffet started something called the 『GivingPledge」, where wealthy people committed to give to charity half of their wealth during their lifetime. Dad had already planned to do that years before; once dad was ahead of the curve. But he did it in Dad fashion, quietly without a need to tell others or make a big deal about it.
商業上的成功給了我父親做慈善事業的物質基礎。但光光寫支票還遠遠不夠。他更注重實際效應和價值創造。
我父親對美國慈善體系和文化以及美國人的慷慨大方印象深刻。他開始在美國當地捐助一些項目，但是大規模系統化的慈善事業還是從他1995年第一次回中國歸來後開始。簡而言之，他覺得同一筆資金在中國可以做更多事情。
唐仲英基金會成立20多年迄今已經在中國捐助了65項重大項目：
基金會在貧困地區建立了250多所小學，捐助了一家大學圖書館，一個醫藥研究中心，一所擁有1000張床位的社區醫院，國家級的納米科技中心。
此外，基金會還捐助了考古學，文化保護，公共衛生，鄉村經濟發展等各方面的項目。
我父親最引以為豪的慈善項目是我們資助學生的獎學金。目前我們基金會在中國10個省市地區22所大學和420所中學設立了獎學金。從項目開始到現在，我們已經給中學，大學學生發放了10萬份獎學金。我們的大學本科畢業生超過10000人，畢業生中建立小家庭結婚生子的也不計其數。我父親非常榮幸地見證了很多對畢業生新婚夫婦的婚禮。
2010年比爾蓋茨和巴菲特開始一項叫做「捐贈承諾」的宣傳活動，鼓勵富裕人士把他們資產的一半用於支持慈善事業。我父親在這很久之前就已經計劃這樣做了。他再一次領先於潮流，但是他以他一貫的作風做事，默默無聞，並沒有感到有必要去告訴別人或者宣傳。
D. Who was dad?
-he was constantly Creating something from nothing
-he valued independence, self starters, those who could take advantage of opportunity -he operated by intuition, he had an incredibly strong will to succeed, but also recognized when to give up and turn another direction.
-oh by the way dad seemed to be a quiet man except when he got angry then he got loud and scary
-of course he wasn’t perfect:
He was not introspective until later years when he was hampered by declining mobility and energy. He first pondered what more could he have done.
I asked what was enough? Why are you unhappy with what you』ve done? No answer - it was his nature always to do more.
我父親到底是誰呢？
他不斷地重複著白手起家的過程，從無開創到有。
他自立，自律，主動抓住各種機會。
他靠自己直覺辦事做人，有著一種常人不一定能夠理解的堅強意志協助他做成功每件事。他也知道什麼時候該放手放棄。
哦，對了，我父親看起來比較平靜，但是他發脾氣時也很可怕！
當然他也並不完美：
直到他上了年紀，體力不如從前時才開始考慮一些自省問題。他開始思索他在過去哪些地方可以做得更好。
我問他什麼才算足夠了呢，為什麼你對自己所作的一切還不滿意呢。他沒有回答。我理解他的天性就是要做更多，要做得更好。
-A few years ago whenhe was relatively healthy he said
「Michael, let’s take a walk」 we got into the car,
「where are we going?」
「Don’t worry just follow my directions」 a few minutes later we pulled up into the parking lot of a Target. Well we were in Las Vegas during the summer,so we weren’t walking outside. Inside I pulled out a shopping cart for him, which was the the perfect height for him to hold. He put his cane in the cart and we started walking up and down the aisles. He liked it there - it was air conditioned, clean, and there was a bit of people watching. We walked for a while and he said to me 「Michael, I like it here, I want to buy one of these...」 My mind was racing no please don’t do this. I don’t want to own a Target. It wasn’t the purchase that bothered me - I was trying tofigure out who was going to manage a Target. Fortunately he forgot about it.... But Dad was still thinking about doing a deal!
幾年前爸身體還比較好的時候，他對我說，Michael，我們去外面走走。我說去哪兒啊？他說，別擔心，你就聽我的導航。不一會兒，我們到了一家美國大型連鎖商場Target的停車場。那時是拉斯維加斯的夏天，在室外長時間走路是不太可能的事情。在商場裡面，我拿了一輛購物推車，給爸爸推，與他身高相配剛剛好。他把他的拐杖放在了推車裡，我們開始在店裡散步。他喜歡在這個店裡散步，有空調，乾淨，還可以看看來往的人流。我們走了一會兒，他說，Michael，我喜歡在這裡，我們來買一家吧。我心裡一下著急起來，求求你千萬別買，我不想要Target商場。我並不擔心購買的問題，而是在考慮請誰來管理一家商場。幸虧後來我父親忘記了這件事情。這個例子可以看出我父親在任何時間任何地方都會考慮到做生意的事情！
-Toward the end he pondered family and friends, as family and friends started dying before him. Toward the end he realized the importance of family and friends and of emotional connections. He was able to say 「I love you」.
爸爸的一些家人和朋友漸漸開始離開這個世界，我父親也開始思索一些關於家庭和朋友的問題。最終，他也意識到情感和家人朋友的重要性，能夠大聲說出「我愛你」。
Conclusion:
It’s still hard to think of dad in the past tense, but what has he left for the future?
What is Cyrus Tang’s legacy?
He’s left family, two children and 5 grand children, he’s left a living growing business, and he’s left a thriving philanthropy. His actions and deeds have influenced hundreds of thousands of people. Everyone here has been touched by him. Everyone here has been part of his story. I am proud, and grateful, and humbled to have him as my father, and to continue his legacy.
Thank you
現在還很難接受這種要用過去時來描述我父親的方式。他為未來留下了什麼呢？他的遺產是什麼呢？
他留下了家庭，兩個孩子和五個孫子孫女；他留下了一個還在日益增長的公司產業；他留下了一個正在蓬勃發展的慈善事業。他的一生影響到了無以計數的人。在座的每一位都跟他有著一段屬於你們自己的緣份，都是他生命中的一部分。我為有這樣的父親並能夠繼承他的遺志感到很驕傲，很感恩。
謝謝大家。