A billionaire couple who pioneered internet games in China are donating $115m to the California Institute of Technology for brain research in an effort to help humans accept mortality.

身为中国互联网游戏先驱的一对亿万富豪夫妇向加州理工学院(Caltech)捐赠1.15亿美元用于大脑研究，目的是帮助人类接受死亡。

The gift by Tianqiao Chen and Chrissy Luo, founders of Shanda — which began life as an online games developer before transforming into an investment group with stakes in Lending Club and Legg Mason — underlines the increasingly prominent role played by mainland Chinese entrepreneurs in global philanthropy.

盛大(Shanda)创始人陈天桥和雒芊芊(Chrissy Luo)的这笔捐赠突显中国大陆企业家在全球慈善事业中扮演越来越重要的角色。盛大最初是一家网络游戏开发商，后来转型为一家投资集团，持有Lending Club和美盛(Legg Mason)股份。

“How can we cure death? That is the key of our philanthropy vision,” Mr Chen told the Financial Times. Understanding how the brain and mind worked would enable people to master emotions such as pain and fear.

“我们如何治愈死亡？这是我们慈善愿景的关键，”陈天桥对英国《金融时报》表示。了解大脑和思维如何工作，将使人们能够驾驭疼痛和恐惧等情绪。

“Why can’t we accept death?” he said. “Because of fear, because of pain — all the negative perception.”

“为什么我们不能接受死亡？”他说。“因为恐惧，因为疼痛——所有这些负面的观感。”

The gift, which includes endowed funds, will create a neuroscience institute at Caltech named after the couple. They say it is intended for pure research, the direction of which will be decided by the university.

包括捐赠资金的这份礼物将在加州理工学院创建一个以这对夫妇命名的神经科学研究所。他们表示，该所将开展纯研究，具体方向将由校方决定。

This will include building a $200m biosciences facility at the university in Pasadena, California. Caltech is contributing resources to the project.

这将包括在位于加州帕萨迪纳(Pasadena)的这所大学建造一座2亿美元的生物科学设施。加州理工学院将为该项目贡献资源。

Thomas Rosenbaum, Caltech president, said the university and the couple shared a vision of translating scientific insights into the brain into a “deeper understanding of how human beings perceive and interact with the world”.

加州理工学院院长托马斯.罗森鲍姆(Thomas Rosenbaum)表示，该校和这对夫妇共享一个愿景，那就是把对大脑的科学洞察转化为“对于人类如何感知世界、如何与世界互动的更深入理解”。

The initiative is the latest high-profile donation to elite US universities by a new generation of Chinese entrepreneurs.

此举是中国新一代企业家向美国精英大学作出高调捐赠的最新一例。

Chinese Ivy League graduates such as Neil Shen of Sequoia China have been generous donors to their alma maters. Zhang Xin, the real estate mogul, and Pan Shiyi, her husband, signed a $15m gift agreement with Harvard in 2014.

常春藤大学的中国毕业生，如红杉中国(Sequoia China)的沈南鹏(Neil Shen)，已向各自的母校慷慨捐赠。房地产大亨张欣和她的丈夫潘石屹在2014年与哈佛大学(Harvard)签订1500万美元的“SOHO中国助学金”协议。

In May, Charles Chen Yidan, Tencent co-founder, launched a $7.6m annual award aimed at recognising outstanding research in education.

今年5月，腾讯(Tencent)联合创始人陈一丹(Charles Chen)发起了一项760万美元的年度奖，旨在表彰杰出的教育研究。

Mr Chen, 43, and his wife, 40, founded their business together in 1999 and have a fortune of $3.43bn, according to the Hurun Report’s annual China Rich List.

现年43岁的陈天桥和40岁的妻子在1999年创业。根据《胡润中国百富榜》(Hurun China Rich List)，他们的身价达到34.3亿美元。

Nasdaq-listed Shanda Interactive became the largest Chinese games company by market capitalisation in 2004, later spinning off its games unit Shanda Games in a separate US initial public offering that raised $1.04bn — the biggest US public offering for a Chinese internet business at the time.

在纳斯达克(Nasdaq)上市的盛大互动(Shanda Interactive)在2004年成为中国市值最大的游戏公司，该公司后来剥离其游戏部门盛大游戏(Shanda Games)，将其在美国进行首次公开发行(IPO)，募得10.4亿美元，当时这是中国互联网企业在美国最大规模上市。

Shanda Group sold its stake in Shanda Games in 2014. The privately owned Singapore-based investment group has about $8bn in net assets under management, according to Mr Chen’s LinkedIn profile.

盛大集团(Shanda Group)于2014年出售其在盛大游戏所持股份。根据陈天桥的领英(LinkedIn)个人资料，这家总部位于新加坡的私有投资集团旗下管理着大约80亿美元净资产。

As well as its substantial stakes in US public companies, Shanda Group is an investor in ElMindA, an Israeli start-up specialising in medical technology analysing brain function, and SpaceVR, a US start-up that aims to offer virtual reality space tourism.

除了在美国一些上市公司持有大笔股份，盛大集团还投资于ElMindA（以色列初创企业，专业开发分析大脑功能的医疗技术）和SpaceVR（美国初创企业，有志提供虚拟现实太空旅游）。

The couple plans to hire a chief scientist for Shanda Group to help direct future charitable giving and say the philanthropic support for brain research dovetails with an investment interest in technology that interfaces between computers and people.

这对夫妇计划为盛大集团聘请一位首席科学家，由其帮助指导未来的慈善捐赠，他们表示，对大脑研究的慈善支持，与他俩对计算机与人类之间接口技术的投资兴趣相吻合。

“Our philanthropy is to find out the secret of the brain, but our technology is to leverage our brain,” Mr Chen said.

“我们的慈善事业是了解大脑的秘密，但我们的技术是利用我们的大脑，”陈天桥说。