Famous Chinese philanthropist goes viral by giving an iPhone 6 to his entire high school class

The iPhone 6 won’t be officially available in China until October 17. But some lucky individuals in the Middle Kingdom are already showing off their gold, custom-engraved iPhone 6s online. Needless to say, the images of the still-rare phones caught people’s attention, and quickly the story became clear: they had been given the phones by billionaire philanthropist Qian Fenglei because they were members of the same high school class as him.

Qian has a reputation in China for giving. He first caught the attention of the public by making massive donations after the 2008 Sichuan and 2010 Yushu earthquakes. But he’s also known for making smaller donations; he reportedly gave out more than US$250,000 in red envelopes at a cousin’s wedding in 2012, and he’s also known for giving money to the elderly in his hometown during Chinese New Year.

In the wake of the golden iPhones catching people’s attention, reporters at CNR discovered that iPhone giving has also become a bit of a tradition for Qian. Last year, his graduating class for middle/high school held a reunion in July, and he gave an iPhone 5 to everyone. This year he decided to continue the tradition, and gave everyone from his class an engraved iPhone 6. (The engraving reads “Maoshan Middle School Class of ’92”).

How exactly Qian got that many of the new iPhones so rapidly isn’t clear. But it’s not too surprising that a man with his resources and connections was able to acquire a bunch of pre-release iPhones.

The irony is that, according to Qian himself, he did quite poorly in high school, and was once advised to drop out. In the wake of these photos being posted, his story is being shared online both as an inspiration for students to persevere and as a reason to treat your classmates well when you’re in school. After all, you never know which of them could end up in a position to hand out free iPhones a couple of decades later!

(Source: CNR via Sina Tech)