Hong Kong is well-known as a hard-nosed business town. Some economists have labeled it, in a complimentary way, the last bastion of capitalism. This, argued these learned men and women, is the foundation of our success.

Indeed, self-reliance has always been a source of pride for many Hong Kong people. The government is happy to oblige by religiously adhering to its hands-off policy which has been dignified by its euphemistic title of positive non-interventionism.

But we must always bear in mind that hard-heartedness is never part of our fine tradition. Most of the well-established charity institutions were built from scratch by the generous donations from hard-nosed business people in the early 20th century when Hong Kong was nothing more than a tiny outpost of China trade.

At that time, the flood of refugees from famines and civil wars on the mainland had greatly strained the available medical and social services in Hong Kong. Most of the Chinese people at that time were living in utterly wretched conditions in the old town on the western part of Hong Kong Island.

The outbreak of the bubonic plague in 1911 that killed many thousands of people in the then Chinese ghetto prompted leaders of the numerous trade associations, or tong in Cantonese, to take the lead in setting up charity funds to finance the building of hospitals, schools, orphanages and other facilities for the care of the poor.

Donations to these funds came mainly from members of the tong who were mostly small business owners and shopkeepers plying their trade in the narrow streets of Chinatown. Most of them were hardly rich even by the standards of those early days. But they gave enough to fund an ambitious project, which evolved into the Kwong Wah Group, which sought to provide basic welfare services to the less-well-to-do in almost all age groups.

Thanks to the continuous support of these Chinese merchants, Kwong Wah expanded to be a major welfare service provider to many millions of Chinese in Hong Kong. It is a large organization that operates three general hospitals, several schools, numerous clinics, old-age homes and a funeral home.

Hong Kong's largest and highly acclaimed orphanage was established by donations from those same merchants who were shrewd in business but generous in person. Of course, there were quite a few scrooges among them. But by and large they were a marvelous lot.

Other than donating money, many business leaders in those days also donated their own time to oversee the proper management of their charities. It was considered a great honor to be elected onto the board of directors of Kwong Wah. The directorships of lesser charities were also hotly contested. Although the positions usually went to the biggest donors, it nevertheless succeeded in fostering a sense of participation and involvement. Charity in those days was a personal thing rather than a mere tax write-off.

Now, Hong Kong has many more rich people with net worth thousands of times higher than those Chinatown merchants. To be sure, the property moguls and financial barons are known to have donated large sums of money every year to universities, hospitals and other charities. But their contributions to good deeds have largely been overshadowed by lurid accounts of excesses in their exploits that were of less uplifting themes.

As long as the rich business people remain detached and uninvolved, their donations to charity are not going to mean much to the man on the street. As such, capitalism in Hong Kong has turned heartless and that's the source of social discontent bred by the widening wealth gap.

The author is a veteran current affairs commentator.

(HK Edition 06/26/2013 page9)