Wen ┃ Historian
Edit ┃Q
In 2004, a newly born girl in Hunan was abandoned by her parents on a park bench, but fortunately, someone with a kind heart called the police and sent her to an orphanage.
And just when everyone felt compassion for the girl's life, her life did not take long to change dramatically - adopted by the world's richest man.
And the richest man is jeff Bezos, the founder of Internet giant Amazon.
Bezos
Although not a biological daughter, Bezos is completely better than her own daughter for this Chinese daughter. And Bezos also perfectly interpreted the phrase "poor sons and rich daughters".
Unlike poor children, who set the maximum amount of money a month, Bezos gives his Chinese daughter $50,000 a week and stresses that he must spend it all in a week.
And for the sake of this Chinese daughter, Bezos even bought a small island for her daughter to vacation.
So why did the world's richest man suddenly run to China to adopt a daughter? More than ten years later, how is this girl doing now? Is she eligible to inherit Bezos' fortune?
The Bezos family
Abandoned baby girl in the park
In 2004, in a park in Hunan, the aunts and uncles were playing tai chi when suddenly a harsh cry broke the silence.
After a while, the crying continued, and there was no intention of stopping, and everyone felt that it was not normal, so they followed the sound to find the source of the cry.
What they did not expect was that the cry was actually from a baby lying on a park seat, and there were no adults around, it was obvious that it was an abandoned baby.
When the police arrived, they found a letter in the swaddling with the date of the child's birth and the words of the adoption of the well-wishers.
This little girl is unfortunate, and when she first came into this world, she has lost the qualification to experience warmth, but the phrase "blessings and misfortunes depend on each other" seems to be confirmed again in this little girl.
Little did this little girl know at this point that she would soon become the daughter of the world's richest man.
Bezos's "Daughter Dream"
For Bezos, everyone should be familiar with him, he is a famous entrepreneur in the United States, is the founder of the Internet giant Amazon.
There are many labels around him, but the most eye-catching is the label of "the world's richest man".
With Amazon founded in 1995, Bezos was already the richest man in 2018, and in 2019, with assets of $131 billion, he once again became the first place in The Forbes Global Billionaires List.
In the real-time ranking of the Forbes 2022 Global Rich List, Bezos is still firmly at the top of the list, and its value has reached $191.4 billion.
Some people have calculated that even if Bezos sits there and does nothing, in the blink of an eye, he can "get 1.3 million".
And on his road to success has always been inseparable from one person, that is, his wife MacKenzie Scott, it can be said that without Mackenzie there would be no Amazon today.
Mackenzie and Bezos
The two were classmates who graduated from Princeton University together and co-founded the Amazon business empire.
After the two got married, they became a fairy couple in the eyes of almost everyone, not only had countless wealth, but also gave birth to three lovely sons.
But in the eyes of the couple, there is one of the biggest regrets - the three children are boys, and they have not been able to have a daughter.
To this end, the Bezos have always wanted to adopt a daughter, but after searching for some time in the United States, they have not found the "daughter" they think.
At that time, Amazon was entering the Chinese market, so it stayed in China for a long time, so Bezos negotiated with his wife to adopt a child in China.
So the two came to Hunan for the first time, hoping to adopt a daughter at the local orphanage.
In order to avoid unnecessary trouble, they did not reveal their true identities at first, and their clothes were very plain, and from the appearance, it was not at all obvious that this was a pair of billionaires.
However, in Hunan, I found many orphanages, and I did not find any eye-catching ones, and just when I was preparing to return home after a few days of searching, Bezos saw a little girl in the corner of an orphanage in Changsha.
A pair of large eyes were very spirited, and a smile was very cute, and the laughter that was like a spring breeze bathing seemed to instantly heal Bezos's tired soul.
So Bezos asked the staff about the girl's identity.
Yes, this girl is the girl mentioned at the beginning of the article, the girl who was abandoned in the park, and now she is two years old.
After hearing about the child's life, both husband and wife expressed great sympathy and made up their minds to take the girl home.
Bezos's Chinese daughter (middle)
"You have to spend fifty thousand dollars a month"
As soon as the news that the world's richest man adopted a child in Changsha was exposed, it immediately caused a hot discussion, and for the adopted girl, all this was undoubtedly lucky, but fortunate at the same time, it also involved her in the whirlpool of public opinion.
The outside world has said that the reason why business tycoons like Bezos are so determined to choose a child in China is nothing more than to let their Amazon win a good impression in the Chinese market.
So the outside world speculates that this poor child is just a gimmick, and the American family she will be going to will certainly not feel the warmth of home.
Amazon Corporation
But Bezos seems to have responded to these rumors with practical actions.
Bezos not only did not have the coldness of this girl as the outside world rumored, but also cared for her like a pearl in the palm of his hand, holding her in the palm of his hand.
When she first arrived in the United States, Bezos hired the best local teacher, taught her spoken language, and took her to the kindergarten to learn to draw.
Whether it is education or hobbies, Bezos has invited the best teacher for this Chinese daughter, and in Bezos's view, this is his own daughter.
She can get what she wants and must enjoy life like the children of other wealthy families.
And MacKenzie also insisted that her Chinese daughter learn Chinese, and did not shy away from telling her that she was born in China and that Chinese was her mother tongue.
Although we walk together because of fate, we must not forget our mother tongue and forget our motherland.
The most controversial thing about Bezos's Chinese daughter is the pocket money Bezos gives her daughter , five thousand dollars a week.
You know, even according to today's exchange rate, 50,000 US dollars are converted into yuan, and there are about 300,000. Spending 300,000 a week can be said to be extremely "luxurious".
Bezos's Chinese daughter (bottom left)
Unlike other rich wives, MacKenzie lived a completely thrifty woman's image, not only dressed very ordinary, rarely bought luxury goods, and drove a car that ordinary families could afford.
In short, perhaps it is engraved in the bones of Chinese thrift, or perhaps it is the adoptive mother MacKenzie's ears, Bezos's "request" makes the little girl really feel embarrassed.
Because the little girl has been very frugal since she was a child, she is meticulous everywhere, she will buy discounts when buying vegetables and clothes, she is never willing to spend more money on the family, and she can't see that she is the daughter of the richest man in the world.
Bezos with his wife
But such a sensible and frugal daughter made Bezos feel difficult and even anxious, so she found her daughter and taught her as a father:
"Our wealth is growing exponentially all the time, with your current consumption level, you can't spend it in a lifetime, I hope you can spend the pocket money I gave you, live in bezos family, no need to be frugal, you should consider, how to turn money into resources, into real wealth." 」
But this statement was indeed a little obscure to a teenager, so the daughter then did something that made Bezos very angry.
At that time, the school was preparing to hold a sports festival, and the little girl also participated in the running competition, so she planned to buy a pair of sneakers that fit her feet, but she was frugal since she was a child, and chose to stay up late to grab discount shoes.
After bezos knew about this matter, he did not praise his daughter, but was a little angry, Bezos said:
"I give you so much pocket money and you waste your time on discounted shoes?" The assets in our family are growing every minute and every second, and you should stop buying these useless assets."
Later, Bezos gave an example to his daughter. He told his daughter, "You like to watch Star Wars so much that you haven't considered buying his copyright or peripheral copyrights?" ”
Later, Bezos also set a rule for his daughter that she had to spend fifty thousand dollars a week.
Maybe this pocket money is unimaginable for us ordinary people, but it is really difficult for a little girl, and Bezos also asked that the fifty thousand dollars could not be spent casually.
After meeting the daily expenses, the remaining pocket money must be fully invested in investment behavior, such as the purchase of copyrights and other potential investment operations.
Therefore, rather than saying that Bezos gave his daughter fifty thousand pocket money, it is better to say that he gave her an investment fund, so that his daughter can cultivate financial businessmen and be able to make money.
So we can see that as a successful businessman, Bezos also very much hopes that his daughter can also learn his own values.
In Bezos's view, a successful entrepreneur must not only know how to save money, but also learn how to spend money, only by spending the right money can he make more money.
Is it affection or the operation of capital
With the continuous fermentation of events, the story of the world's richest man and Chinese girl has almost become a story reported by major newspapers and periodicals in the United States.
While everyone envied the little girl, they also raised a series of questions about Bezos, and a considerable number of people thought that Bezos had no affection for this little girl at all, and everything was just a game of capital.
Of course, these people are not out of thin air.
In order to enter the Chinese market, Bezos's Amazon spent $75 million to acquire Excellence.com, but due to the collision of cultures, it was difficult to successfully open the Chinese market.
It was also during this time that Bezos adopted the Chinese girl.
Therefore, many people think that Bezos only played an emotional card in China for the development of Amazon, hoping to win the favor of the Chinese market to the greatest extent.
Judging from the later results, after Bezos adopted a Chinese girl, amazon has indeed increased rapidly in the case of unchanged marketing expenses.
Therefore, it is not difficult to see that when adopting a Chinese daughter, Bezos must have considered the commercial level, but it is undeniable that Bezos is more sincere.
Bezos once wrote in his autobiography: "The daughter is the only little princess in the family, and she must have what others have."
And judging from the careful care in the back, this is indeed the case. In fact, the reason why Bezos is sincere to his Chinese daughter, in addition to his "yearning" for his daughter, has a lot to do with his childhood experience.
Bezos's childhood can be said to be unfortunate, his biological father spent his days drinking heavily, beating and cursing his mother and himself, and later simply abandoning his family and son. So Bezos began to bear the burden of his family from a very young age.
But then Bezos met his stepfather Miguel, who changed his life.
Miguel (right)
Miguel is as good to Bezos as his own son, whether it is spiritual or material, he will do his best to pay for him, and the 300,000 start-up funds of Bezos's entrepreneurship that year were also given by Miguel.
This also makes up for bezos's lack of paternal love to some extent, and it is precisely because of this that Bezos wants to give it to others when he grows up.
Therefore, the reason why Bezos cares so much for his Chinese daughter has a lot to do with the influence of his stepfather on himself.
Of course, to this day, there is no point in discussing why Bezos adopted this Chinese girl.
But it is undeniable that the girl who was abandoned on the park bench has now grown into a big girl with a happy family and a bright future.
But as an adopted Chinese girl, can she qualify to inherit Bezos's property at the same time as her three brothers?
Are you eligible for a share of Bezos' hundreds of billions of dollars?
Now that the little girl has grown up, she will often follow her parents to participate in various activities, and from the photos, we can see that every time she takes a photo, Bezos will put the Chinese daughter in the middle position. And the little girl also snuggled with her parents with a satisfied smile.
Bezos's Chinese daughter (circled in the picture)
The rumors that Bezos only used her as a tool and would not give her father's love seem to be self-defeating now. However, all this seems to have changed a little bit in 2019.
This year, Bezos and Mackenzie, who have a net worth of 100 billion, ended their 25-year marriage and announced their divorce.
Under the laws of their state of Washington, MacKenzie, the wife, can get half of her worth.
After asset accounting, after the divorce, MacKenzie received $35.8 billion in property, and became the third richest woman in the world at that time.
After this storm, some people suddenly thought of Bezos's Chinese daughter, and everyone speculated about what kind of impact Bezos would have on her after her divorce.
While worrying about her future life, everyone has also raised a question: as an adopted daughter, can she inherit Bezos's wealth according to American law?
Fortunately, under local U.S. law, children who are adopted through formal official adoption procedures have the same right to inherit property.
This means that this Chinese girl is indeed entitled to share bezos's wealth.
Bezos's Chinese daughter
epilogue
In fact, since China officially implemented the Adoption Law in 1992, it has also opened the policy door for foreigners, and for a while, many foreigners will come to China to adopt children.
According to statistics, among these expatriates, Americans account for the largest proportion.
Like former ambassador to China, Huntsman Bop, who adopted a Chinese daughter in 1999; Hollywood actress Meg Ryan, who also adopted a Chinese girl in 2006...
Meg Ryan holds her Chinese daughter
From official U.S. data, from 1999 to 2017, in 18 years, a total of 80,162 orphans in China were adopted by American families, and more than 80% were girls.
In fact, for those children who have lost their parents for various reasons, it is of great help to have a family to help make up for the lack of family affection, whether it is for the body and mind or the future of life.
And for families who want to have a child, but for various reasons can not have their own child, adopting a child is undoubtedly the best choice.
The so-called "Sai weng lost her horse, and it is not a blessing to know", this girl abandoned in the park can be said to be the beginning of a hellish life, if there is no Adoption of Bezos, then the future life is destined to be accompanied by misfortune.
And what Bezos gave to this Chinese girl was not only a sound family and superior family conditions, but most importantly, the family affection that was left behind from birth!