This archive report was first published on 29 July 2019.
On July 29, 2019, Weijian Shan's memoir, 'Out of the Gobi', was published, recounting his life story from forced labour in China's Gobi Desert to his rise as a top financier in Asia.
At the age of 15, Shan was exiled to the Gobi Desert, where he endured gnawing hunger and back-breaking forced labour. However, his sense of hope was kept alive by an unlikely source - insecticide manuals.
Shan's memoir recounts his experiences as a member of China's 'Lost Generation', young men and women who were banished to Inner Mongolia in 1969 and expected to transform an arid landscape into fertile fields.
Despite being deprived of a formal education for 10 years, Shan devoured everything from chemistry textbooks to medical manuals in secret, and even got into trouble for reading Karl Marx's 'Civil War in France' because his company commander thought it was a novel.
Shan's life took a stunning turn when he was allowed to return to Beijing to attend college and study English. He then became one of the first students sent by Communist China to the United States, where he finished a doctorate studying economics under future Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen.
Now 65, Shan believes his life holds lessons for young people. He warns against the all-or-nothing approach adopted by Hong Kong protesters and lawmakers demanding universal suffrage, which risks closing off any possibility of compromise and change.
Shan's story is a testament to the power of resilience and determination, and serves as a reminder that even in the darkest of times, there is always hope for a better future.
