Page 102 - How We Lead Matters

Master Carver

Madame Chan and I communicate through a translator, but our conversa-
tions are always warmly animated with smiles, laughter, and twinkles in the
eye as we talk about business, world issues, and grandchildren.
Chan Lai Wa (Madame Chan) is one of the most influential women in
China and chairperson of Fu Wah International, a development partner of
Carlson’s. Together, we have brought Regent and Park Plaza hotels to Beijing.
But tourism and real estate aren’t her family’s only business successes.
Madame Chan’s lineage also includes skilled sandalwood artisans. Her col-
lection of ornately carved dynastic furniture and sculpture exhibited at the
Red Sandalwood Museum she founded in Beijing is considered one of the
most significant collections of its kind. She was intrigued to learn that the
Minneapolis Institute of Art in my hometown houses one of the world’s
finest collections of Asian art.
About a year after my invitation, Madame Chan came to visit. The insti-
tute’s Asian art curator, Robert Jacobsen, was kind enough to take Madame Chan
and her entourage personally through the galleries. He later recounted to me a
moment of surprise that occurred as they were standing in front of a beautiful
wooden statue of the Bodhisattva, the Buddhist deity of mercy and compassion.
Madame Chan suddenly knelt down before the image and began a
Buddhist chant. Robert told me this would be somewhat unusual for a
woman of her position in China who had lived through the Cultural
Revolution. During that time, the government had attempted to eradicate
the ancient philosophies of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. The pub-
lic expression of any of those teachings has come back very slowly in China.
I don’t pretend to know Madame Chan or the Buddhist philosophy
well enough to fully interpret the obviously deep connection she felt in the
museum. But I feel honored and comforted to know that a powerful woman
from Beijing visited a museum in Minnesota and found a spiritual connec-
tion strong enough to bring her to her knees.
I am reminded that like the beautiful red sandalwood pieces exhibited
in her museum, we are all shaped by a master carver.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson 85