Home
» City specials
» Hangzhou
The club everyone's talking about
By Min-G |
November 5, 2009, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
SINCE it opened in 2007, Jiang Nan Hui has acquired a reputation as a mysterious, luxurious, members-only club for the extremely rich and powerful, like its founder Ma Yun, chairman and CEO of the Alibaba Group.
The club is even more talked about because of a few spectacular interior scenes that appeared in a Chinese blockbuster, "If You Are the One."
Add to that its frequently closed gate near the West Lake, its rumored extravagant renovations and unimaginable prices and its links to celebrities.
It has unimaginable cachet because of its exclusivity. It has a little over 100 members, including quite a few notable businesswomen. Members must come from Zhejiang Province and they cannot buy their way in.
Its first foreign guest and honorary member was legendary investor George Soros, who delivered a lecture, along with Ma.
The club's designer is famed contemporary artist Ai Weiwei.
The calligraphy of the name "Jiang Nan Hui," meaning the club of southern China, was written by famed martial arts writer Louis Cha.
Jiang Nan refers to the area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially the lush and rich areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. It's famous as the "land of fish and rice," known for silk, beautiful scenery and beautiful women.
And the eight heavyweight founders, including Ma, hope to develop the club of Zhejiang Province merchants into a unique and well-established network. They want to create a space to appreciate luxuries and to network and establish partnerships.
Hence, the club, with seven renovated Chinese-style wood buildings, explores five traditional Chinese elements - the culture of tea, music, fragrance, calligraphy and business.
To explore these fields, the club holds regular lectures for members. Ma was the first lecturer in the project, but it is not intended to be limited to business people or investors. The most recent speaker was celebrity scholar Yu Dan last Friday night.
The expert on Confucianism and defender of traditional Chinese culture chatted with around 50 influential merchants, including Ma and NetEase founder Ding Lei, on how to appreciate nature and maintain dreams even when occupied by all kinds of tedious business.
From the beginning, Yu, who is a TV celebrity and author, drew herself closer to the business men and women by expressing her warmth toward Hangzhou.
In her earlier lives, she says, she must have been a highly educated nobleman who loved being with friends and writing poems about the West Lake.
Yu spoke for over an hour, liberally sprinkling her speech with references to famous lines from ancient poems or essays. She captivated the audience with her vast knowledge of traditional Chinese culture.
"We can find all useful information or knowledge through search engines like Baidu or Google so easily today. But we lack a search engine for our souls," Yu says.
"We lack a reason to take it easy. If we go too fast, we miss the spectacular mountains and rivers, we miss out on the gorgeous flowers and moon, and leave regrets in our lives."
Yu suggested business people learn to take it easy and to appreciate the beauty of nature, as did ancient Chinese.
Awed by her knowledge and presence, they were enthusiastic in their response, but expressed the difficulty of enjoying life when they bear heavy responsibilities as entrepreneurs.
The club is even more talked about because of a few spectacular interior scenes that appeared in a Chinese blockbuster, "If You Are the One."
Add to that its frequently closed gate near the West Lake, its rumored extravagant renovations and unimaginable prices and its links to celebrities.
It has unimaginable cachet because of its exclusivity. It has a little over 100 members, including quite a few notable businesswomen. Members must come from Zhejiang Province and they cannot buy their way in.
Its first foreign guest and honorary member was legendary investor George Soros, who delivered a lecture, along with Ma.
The club's designer is famed contemporary artist Ai Weiwei.
The calligraphy of the name "Jiang Nan Hui," meaning the club of southern China, was written by famed martial arts writer Louis Cha.
Jiang Nan refers to the area south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, especially the lush and rich areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. It's famous as the "land of fish and rice," known for silk, beautiful scenery and beautiful women.
And the eight heavyweight founders, including Ma, hope to develop the club of Zhejiang Province merchants into a unique and well-established network. They want to create a space to appreciate luxuries and to network and establish partnerships.
Hence, the club, with seven renovated Chinese-style wood buildings, explores five traditional Chinese elements - the culture of tea, music, fragrance, calligraphy and business.
To explore these fields, the club holds regular lectures for members. Ma was the first lecturer in the project, but it is not intended to be limited to business people or investors. The most recent speaker was celebrity scholar Yu Dan last Friday night.
The expert on Confucianism and defender of traditional Chinese culture chatted with around 50 influential merchants, including Ma and NetEase founder Ding Lei, on how to appreciate nature and maintain dreams even when occupied by all kinds of tedious business.
From the beginning, Yu, who is a TV celebrity and author, drew herself closer to the business men and women by expressing her warmth toward Hangzhou.
In her earlier lives, she says, she must have been a highly educated nobleman who loved being with friends and writing poems about the West Lake.
Yu spoke for over an hour, liberally sprinkling her speech with references to famous lines from ancient poems or essays. She captivated the audience with her vast knowledge of traditional Chinese culture.
"We can find all useful information or knowledge through search engines like Baidu or Google so easily today. But we lack a search engine for our souls," Yu says.
"We lack a reason to take it easy. If we go too fast, we miss the spectacular mountains and rivers, we miss out on the gorgeous flowers and moon, and leave regrets in our lives."
Yu suggested business people learn to take it easy and to appreciate the beauty of nature, as did ancient Chinese.
Awed by her knowledge and presence, they were enthusiastic in their response, but expressed the difficulty of enjoying life when they bear heavy responsibilities as entrepreneurs.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
