Chinese Philanthropic Response to COVID-19 in Malaysia

Chinese Philanthropic Response to COVID-19 in Malaysia

The novel human coronavirus disease COVID-19, first reported in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and subsequently spread worldwide, has evolved into a global health and socioeconomic crisis so serious it has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. As governments of the world are battling the pandemic and the rising number of COVID-19 cases, it is at this critical juncture that such a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented scale and impact has put charities and philanthropy under the spotlight. In Malaysia, the Chinese community has long been known for its philanthropic contributions. From the 19th century to the present day, the country has witnessed the active philanthropic roles played by a string of influential businessmen and leaders in the local Chinese community. Over the past years, several Chinese Malaysians from different business sectors have been listed by Forbes Magazine as the“Heroes of Philanthropy;”many of these figures own corporations and businesses that make financial contributions to charitable organizations as part of their corporate social responsibility initiatives. Meanwhile, since the outbreak of the first cases of COVID-19 in the country, many local Chinese individuals, businesses, and organizations have remained committed to philanthropic efforts to fight the coronavirus and help those affected by it, regardless of ethnicity and religion in multiracial Malaysia. It is within the aforementioned context that this paper aims to explore Chinese Malaysia philanthropy from the 19th century to the present time, by taking Chinese Malaysians’philanthropic response to the COVID-19 crisis as a point of departure. By using the content analysis technique, the researchers examined various news sources in the period between March and December 2020 for data on local philanthropic activities aimed at battling the coronavirus. The research outcome shows that although various philanthropic efforts rendered during the COVID-19 period cannot be directly comparable to those done in the past in terms of value, Chinese Malaysians’passion for and commitment to philanthropy remain evident.