His trademark move, building a wall out of money, is often criticised. He has used money as a backdrop various times since He has also given out money in the streets of New York, and handed out fat red packets to the poor. Buying Times Despite having no experience in journalism or running a media company, he reportedly attempted to buy over the New York Times. The Times chairman responded firmly that the paper was not for sale.
Canned air, seriously Chen isn't just eccentric when it comes to spending money. He makes money too. His company was responsible for selling canned air to the people of China.
Taking advantage of the pollution levels, he canned air, purportedly from the less polluted regions of China, and sold them for 5 yuan each. He sold 8 million cans of air in 10 days. According to Mr Chen, "I want to tell mayors, county chiefs and heads of big companies: don't just chase GDP growth, don't chase the biggest profits at the expense of our children and grandchildren and at the cost of sacrificing our ecological environment.
More than just a name The things the businessman would do to prove his point are outrageous. To prove his commitment to being eco-friendly, Chen said that his entire family had changed their names, portal danwei. New York's destitute queued up to vent their fury in front of the assembled TV cameras. It started as a brash stunt, which some saw as making a cheap point about China's rising economic power, and having exploited the very people it purported to help, it ended in a public relations disaster.
Despite the serious questions about his motives though, there is something very believable about Mr Chen. Some of his charitable endeavours may well be a little odd, misguided even, but he appears to be genuinely convinced by his own message of philanthropy and he is disarmingly unguarded. How many other multi-millionaires are prepared to serenade reporters with renditions of We Are the World, the rock anthem of charitable giving, or talk openly about their anus?
His is a genuine rags-to-riches story and he seems to have real contempt for those who take their wealth too seriously.
So is he a phony philanthropist, a closet communist in clown's clothing or, as his business card claims, a real China Earthquake Rescue Hero? After spending the morning with him the only thing that appears certain to me is that he believes his own hype.
The answers, the ideas, the inspiration for the New York lunch, they're almost certainly all his and his alone. Throughout our interview and for the whole morning that I'm with him in his office, there is no sign of any sophisticated PR consultant standing behind him feeding him lines. Europe's landed gentry have taken generations to perfect the sneering attitude that to spend money ostentatiously is somehow vulgar. China's rich have few such scruples and Mr Chen's logic is simple: he was once very poor and he now has lots of money.
Why shouldn't he give it away as he chooses and who are we to criticise or mock? And if nothing else, he has helped to shine a spotlight upon the lack of charitable giving in a society with one of the fastest growing gaps between rich and poor on the planet.
But watching him break into song at that New York homeless luncheon, belting out yet another rendition of We Are the World, you can't help wondering. Perhaps just a few dollars spent on a little bit of basic PR advice, every now and again, wouldn't go amiss? This video can not be played To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser. His motivation, he tells me, is simple.
Image source, AFP. Mr Chen bought 43 new cars for people whose vehicles were damaged during protests in Charitable giving in China is beginning to mature, analysts say - and Chen, with his attention-seeking stunts, has been left out of the emerging order.
Chen has "driven the subject [of philanthropy in China] forward," said Rupert Hoogewerf, publisher of the Hurun Report, a respected index that tracks China's high-net-worth individuals. People felt his way of making donations was too spectacular to be true, that he was too much of a show off, kind of cringe-worthy in some ways. Now, "there's a lot of creativity going on in philanthropy" in China, he continued.
But Caixin, citing an anonymous source, claimed that he donated as little as 10 per cent of that. Chen has boasted of establishing 52 schools through donations to the China Youth Development Foundation, a Chinese non-governmental organisation. Caixin, citing the organisation, found that he funded none. Chen also falsified official seals, a major crime in China, to create proof of his donations, the magazine reported. Chen has "morally hijacked society," he continued.
Chen rejected the allegations at a news conference on Friday. A court in Nanjing has accepted the lawsuit. He then refused to take any questions from journalists in the crowd. Chen could not be reached during business hours on Monday; calls to a number on his company's website led to a disconnected line.
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