Tan Tinghui might be one of the most energetic elderly men in
the world.
At the age of 82, he is not only the boss of three electronics
product factories with more than 100 employees, he also devotes
much of his time to helping former drug addicts get through the
many difficult challenges they face daily.
As a reward for community service, Tan has recently been
selected as one of 20 short-listed candidates for "the top 10 folk
warriors against drug addiction", the only honor of its kind in
Shanghai.
Tan has a hatred of drugs due to the tragic experiences of his
childhood. When Tan was a 10-year-old, his father died of an opium
overdose. It was his mother who worked hard as a weaver, supporting
the whole family. Since then, the seed of disgust against the drug
has been deeply sown in his heart.
Even now, Tan can still vividly recall the tragic scene he
witnessed when he was 12 years old: that of the corpse of a man who
had died of a drug overdose being torn to pieces by wild dogs.
After China's liberation, Tan Tinghui entered a State-owned
factory as a technician. He was soon promoted to a senior engineer,
as he was good at technology and had created multiple
inventions.
After his retirement, Tan set up three privately-owned companies
manufacturing electronic products, which export to over 26
countries and regions across the world.
Tan is very satisfied with the life he is living and wants to
give something back to society. In 2004, he heard that the Tianlin
Neighborhood Committee in Xuhui District was organizing an
anti-drug volunteers' team. He became the first one to apply for
membership.
In early 2005, Tan withdrew some of his personal savings in
order to produce a dozen anti-drug advertisement billboards, along
with four banners. Every day during the following two months he
brought company employees to the most crowded areas and schools in
the neighborhood and warned them about the dangers of taking
drugs.
June 26 is the International Anti-Drug Day. On that special day,
Tan and his people have already made some plans in advance. They
will distribute 10,000 pens, 6,000 pencil boxes and 10,000
bookmarks carrying anti-drug information to local white-collared
workers and school students.
Tan widely opens his arms to former drug addicts looking for
work, and even helps them get their personal lives on track.
So far, Tan has arranged for about 20 former drug addicts to
work in his companies and, to his credit, some of them have
successfully overcome their addiction and remained clean for
several years.
Xu Xin, a former drug addict who has worked in Tan's factory for
more than eight years, is now completely rehabilitated.
He said he would not disappoint Tan, as the boss had never
looked down upon him but always applauded him for any slight
improvement he had achieved.
Thanks to Tan's help, the 40-something man married a colleague
from the factory three years ago.
(China Daily June 5, 2007)