Weijian Shan: From Gobi Desert Laborer to Wall Street Investor

Early Life and the Cultural Revolution

• 👶 Born in Beijing in 1954, Weijian Shan's parents were clerks in the Chinese bureaucracy, living in an egalitarian society where everyone was "equally poor."
• 💔 During the Great Leap Forward, his mother suffered from severe malnutrition due to nationwide food shortages.
• 🏭 Shan recalls the national fever to increase steel production, where the entire population, including himself as a child, was mobilized to create steel from scrap metal, ultimately producing useless waste.
• 📚 His formal education ceased at age 12 due to the Cultural Revolution, which he describes as "culturally going backwards," with the school system shut down for approximately ten years.
• 🩸 He witnessed extreme violence, including teenage girls beating an elderly vice principal to death, a horrific scene that deeply affected him.

Hard Labor and Resilience in the Gobi Desert

• 🏜️ At 15, Shan was sent to the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia for hard labor, part of a massive deurbanization effort affecting millions of Chinese teenagers.
• 😔 The reality was harsh, with difficult labor, horrible living conditions, insufficient food, and no freedom to leave, leading to disillusionment.
• 💭 Conversations among peers often revolved around dreaming of good food and wishing for a drug to suppress hunger.
• 📖 Despite the lack of books and limited time, Shan pursued self-study, reading whatever he could find, including an insecticide manual, which he became very familiar with.

Education, Return, and Perspective

• 🎓 Shan returned to Beijing in 1975 and was reunited with his dispersed family after six years.
• 🗳️ He was able to get out of the Gobi Desert by being voted by his peers to attend college, a testament to the support systems formed during hardship.
• 💡 He notes that the cruelties of the Cultural Revolution are not widely taught, leading to a lack of general awareness among the younger generation.
• 🇺🇸 Upon arriving in the US, he was dazzled by its development, infrastructure, and liberal atmosphere, studying at UC Berkeley.
• 💭 The experience of collecting dried cow manure for fuel in the Gobi Desert resurfaced when he heard the expression "bull," highlighting the stark contrast and enduring impact of his past.

Hong Kong, US-China Relations, and Reflection

• 🇭🇰 Shan views Hong Kong's National Security Law as having restored calm after the chaos of 2019, comparing it to the early days of the Cultural Revolution.
• ⚖️ He believes the rule of law in Hong Kong remains strong, essential for the "one country, two systems" principle.
• 📈 He characterizes current US-China relations as the worst since 1972, marked by an intensified economic and technological war.
• 🇨🇳 He argues that China cannot be contained by external forces but only by its own policy blunders, and that China needs to shift its growth model away from export dependence.
• 🤝 Despite vast differences in life circumstances, his strongest friendships remain with those he suffered and survived with in the Gobi Desert, emphasizing shared roots and mutual care.
• ⛰️ The Gobi Desert years instilled a deep resilience, making subsequent hardships seem less daunting.