In Search of the Secret to Happiness

Eli Marias

Our brains are responsible for cognition, emotion, movement, memory, and all else that we do and feel. Yet scientists still don’t know much about the fundamentals of how the brain works and what causes mental disorders. The Chinese philanthropists Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo hope to change that.

The couple have pledged to give away $1 billion through their Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute, which they created in 2016 to support fundamental brain research and foster collaboration among researchers worldwide. They hope that over time the research they back will lead to new discoveries and treatments that will improve human life and give scientists a deeper understanding of how brain function affects human perception, learning, and interaction.

They’ve given out more than $190 million so far, including $115 million to Caltech to create a neuroscience institute and about $75.7 million to Fudan University’s Huashan Hospital and the Zhou Liangfu Foundation to launch a brain-disease institute in Shanghai.

They plan to make a large donation through TCCI each year and are currently designing a new postdoctoral fellowship program in partnership with about 10 universities, primarily in the United States.

Much of the research they support involves efforts to understand the sensation and perception mechanisms of the brain and related systems of memory, attention, learning, and expectations. They’re also directing significant portions of their giving to help those researchers they believe are the most likely to make new discoveries: scientists who are in the early stages of their careers and far less likely to receive government grants than their older, more established colleagues.

The goal of their giving is not to develop new drugs but to find other types of treatments that minimize negative thoughts and feelings and enhance “the positive impact of perceptions.”

Personal Struggles

The couple’s interest in all of this is rooted in personal experience.

In 1999, the pair, along with Chen’s brother Danian, founded Shanda Interactive Entertainment (later renamed Shanda Group), a gaming company that quickly became the largest internet company at that time in China.

Four years later, at age 30 and one of China’s richest men, Tianqiao Chen had his first panic attack.

While the attack kept him from going on the road to promote his company’s IPO, the business was successful enough that Shanda became the first Chinese internet gaming company to be listed on Nasdaq in 2004.

Chen would eventually own four public companies, and Shanda grew into a global investment firm. Chen, a Buddhist, says he had been generally a happy person and satisfied with life, but the panic attacks brought bewildering depression and anxiety. He couldn’t understand what was happening to him or why.

“It had a huge impact on my personal life and career, but the most important thing is that it raised my curiosity about my brain,” he says.

When another attack struck Chen in 2009, he and Luo knew it was time to make a life change. The couple moved to Singapore to seek a calmer atmosphere. In 2012, Chen took the company private and stepped down as chairman to take a less active role in management. That’s when they started thinking about the next chapter of their lives, which they knew would focus on philanthropy.

Photo by C.S. Flynn

Finding a Calling

At first they gave to any charity that asked for a donation. They then pulled back and focused on a handful of causes including disaster relief in China and Taiwan, education, children’s hospitals, and efforts to promote Buddhism globally.

Chen, however, couldn’t shake his curiosity about what caused his attacks and anxiety and why his brain reacted as it did, and that led the couple to decide that funding fundamental brain research was their natural calling. They moved to the Bay Area to carry out their philanthropy after learning that some of the most experienced scientists in the field were in the United States.

TCCI, an arm of their family office, has also become a full-time job for the couple, who are still developing its operations. They figure they’ve met with about 200 scientists since launching the organization and plan to continue to seek out those in fundamental brain research and others who can advise them.

“We understand we are newcomers, especially here in the U.S., and laypeople,” says Chen. The couple say they want to provide the funding and take a hands-off approach. “We will not tell them what they should do and what they should not do.”

The couple is putting together a scientific advisory board that will include experts not only in fundamental brain research but also in biology, chemistry, engineering, mathematics, physics, the humanities, and the social sciences.

“Brain research is such a profound area; it covers all aspects from neuroscience to even philosophy,” says Luo. “I don’t think any one single person can be the expert for all the fields, so it has to be a team, a joint effort of different scientists from different fields.”

To help them evaluate which scientists and efforts to support, the couple often meet with up to 20 scientists at a time for intensive discussions about the latest findings, absorbing as much as they can. Then they incorporate what they learned into their joint decision making about where and how to give.

“There’s always debates and discussions, but we think this is a good way that both of us can understand each other’s preferences and philosophy, so we can make a good decision we can both agree on,” says Luo.

Advice in Lieu of Money

The couple’s wealth — they are currently worth about $1.3 billion, according to Forbes — and philanthropic efforts have caught the attention of nonprofits eager to tap them for donations. However, they have narrowed their focus to funding almost exclusively brain science.

Chen acknowledges that saying no to other worthy causes is difficult. What is more challenging, he says, is when another philanthropist or a friend with a favorite cause asks for a gift.

“From our hearts, we will be very happy to sit down and listen to them and contribute our advice,” says Chen, who adds that Chinese entrepreneurs who are starting to give large sums to charity often approach him and his wife for guidance.

“We are very happy to tell them our story, the mistakes we made, and why we chose this,” says Chen. “After that, everybody feels that they got something from us, but not money. We share with them very frankly our lessons.”

Those lessons include taking the time to develop a clear idea about where to devote their philanthropy, just as an entrepreneur would take the time to develop a business. Chen says he tells other donors that the couple’s early, slapdash days of simply writing checks to whichever charity asked and then walking away runs counter to effective philanthropy.

“It’s just like entrepreneurs who don’t focus on their business and just go after PR,” says Chen. “The first lesson we learned is you have to devote your time. The second is you have to have a big vision, and the third is we should be very focused and disciplined just like a business entrepreneur.”

Next Generation

The couple are imparting lessons about giving to their three children. They say they make a point to talk to their children as much as possible about the work they are doing through TCCI, the responsibilities that come with having great wealth, and how to use money wisely to benefit society. And they hope one day to get their children involved in TCCI, which they expect to exist in perpetuity.

Chen jokes that he’s trying to brainwash his kids into getting interested in fundamental brain research. Luo takes a softer approach.

“We don’t know whether they will seriously join us to run TCCI or inherit our interest, but we do believe they can be involved for sure in a very positive way,” says Luo. “This is a family dream, and I hope it can be a legacy we can pass down to them.”