Chi Mei Corp founder Shi Wen-long (許文龍), who died in hospital on Saturday at the age of 95, was one of Taiwan’s most special entrepreneurs. While Formosa Plastics Group cofounder Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), known as the “god of management,” established the Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in northern Taiwan, Shi established the Chi Mei Medical Center in Tainan. He was especially well-known for sharing the benefits of business, saying that for everyone to be happy on a fishing trip, everyone should be able to catch some fish.
Shi once said that the Chi Mei Medical Center and Chimei Museum were the two most important organizations that he wanted to leave to Taiwan. The tributes that have poured in from across Taiwan since he passed away show that his contributions are indeed greatly appreciated.
As a member of the Chi Mei system, I met Shi on several occasions, two of which left a deep impression on me.
The first of these two meetings took place not long after I started working at the Chi Mei Medical Center, when Shi visited the hospital to give a speech to the staff. To be honest, I have forgotten what he spoke on. I only remember that at the end he took out his violin to play the 1930s songs Longing for the Spring Breeze (望春風) and Moon Night Sorrow (月夜愁). He handed out photocopied lyrics of Longing for the Spring Breeze so that everyone could sing it together. As another fan of old Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) songs, I felt that I had something in common with this elderly Taiwanese gentleman.
Many years later, when I had become a department head, I visited Shi at his home several times in the company of the hospital’s deputy superintendent. This gave me the good fortune to interact with Shi. Although he was nearly 90 years old, he was still focused on the hospital’s operations. He kept asking about things like how much doctors were paid, whether it was easy to hire nurses and what their pay and conditions were like.
“We run a hospital not to make money, but to serve the patients,” he said. “To take good care of patients, we must provide good pay and conditions for our doctors and nurses.”
It is really admirable that, at a time when Shi’s health was gradually declining, he still kept asking about the hospital staff’s pay and conditions and urging us to take good care of our patients.
Lin Jin-jia is an attending psychiatrist at the Chi Mei Medical Center in Tainan.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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