Under normal circumstances, we wouldn’t write an article based off the headline ‘Chinese Singer Sends 160K Masks from Singapore to China’. After all, international baggage’s not an exact rarity in today’s society, 160K masks or not.
But it’s a whole different ball game right now. The world’s facing arguably its greatest threat since a big purple guy with ball sacks for a chin snapped his fingers: a coronovirus that has killed over 300 people in China, and infected over 14K people. And the worst part here? The only Chinese superhero we have right now is Shang-Chi and he’s still busy filming his movie.
And so you get the situation here. China’s in a real state of panic right now, and masks are vanishing in rapid succession as the entire city of Wuhan gradually wastes away. And yet that’s precisely why the headline makes so much impact in such a situation:
At this time of need, 160K masks could potentially save hundreds of lives over in China.
And this man’s the hero making that possibility a reality.
Chinese Singer Sends 160K Masks from Singapore to China
Despite being part of the soft-rock duo, Yu Quan, Chinese musician Hu Haiquan has proven that he’s no softie when it comes to difficult financial ventures. Having set up a venture capital fund titled “Haiquan Fund” in 2003, he has since gone on to assist in the provision of financial support for numerous start-ups, in the process lighting the dreams of dozens of budding entrepreneurs.
And it seems that he’s at it again, though this time it’s not so much of a start-up as he probably would’ve liked. According to a Weibo post by Haiquan Fund on 2 Feb, Hu was spotted at Changi Airport supplying the last 40 boxes (around 80,000 pieces of masks) back to those in need at China.
He’d sent 80,000 masks to China in an earlier batch.
Around 10 families who were also taking the same flight allegedly helped Hu check in the some of the masks. It was supposedly the last flight from an unidentified airline to China before flight suspension between the two countries.
In the post, Haiquan Fund also expressed its gratitude towards these volunteers, and expressed that sending masks this way can be more “efficient than a proper channel”.
A Time Of Need
While it wasn’t specified how Hu had acquired such a large quantity of masks (and whether it was even from Singapore), the notion that Hu had endeavoured on such a meaningful venture really speaks volumes about his character, as well as the plight China’s in.
According to reports, China citizens are finding masks an increasing rarity as the country combats the novel coronavirus which broke out in Hubei. The 160K masks, I’m sure, would go a long way in relieving some of their struggles.
Incidentally, Hu isn’t the only celebrity who has contributed towards relief efforts in China. Power couple Huang Xiaoming and Angelababy reportedly donated SGD$39K to buy masks for healthcare workers in Wuhan, while Hong Kong actor Louis Koo donated SGD$2 million to the Wuhan Benevolent General Association for the purchase of medical resources.
