慈善工作者应该拿薪水吗?

Since 1994, 75-year-old Liu Yuzhen has volunteered to pick up cigarette butts, wash away traces of spittle and generally keep Tian'anmen Square clean. At an age at which she should be enjoying life after retirement, Liu has chosen to help keep Tian'anmen Square clean out of a deep love for her country.

"Tian'anmen Square, located in the capital city, Beijing, is our face. We'll feel ashamed if our face gets tarnished. So I consider it strictly necessary to maintain our clean and good image."

Liu also says the efforts of other people to keep Tian'anmen Square clean have been a source of encouragement for her to continue her volunteer work.

"Once, as I collected hulls of melon seeds in front of Chairman Mao Zedong's memorial hall on Tian'anmen Square, I met a woman in her 40s or 50s. She also bent down to gather hulls, and her action touched me greatly. I asked her why she had done that. She told me she thought she should do something contributive during her visit to Tian'anmen Square."

Wang Zhenyao, dean of Beijing Normal University's One Foundation Philanthropy Research Institute, believes Liu's story reflects the high moral standards that many Chinese citizens possess. Yet, he believes her volunteer endeavors cannot be duplicated by other retirees who only have a fixed pension to live on. He also says young people are unwilling to do volunteer work because they know they will earn nothing from it.

"Without any funds allocated for charity work, such volunteer social services could only be achieved within a very small scope or in the case that someone would like to offer a donation to cover the necessary expenses for a particular activity. Take Liu Yuzhen for example. She has a retirement pension that has supported her life and her charity contributions for more than a decade."

Wang says charity work in essence is a social service that demands a high level of professionalism among those who do it. But in today's society, people mistakenly believe charity work simply entails donating money to a cause and are indifferent about whether professionals in charge of charity work should be paid. Wang says charity organizations should pay their volunteer employees at least an average income to encourage them to do more and better work on behalf of society.

For CRI, I'm Xu Fei.