Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America

by Weijian Shan

Foreword by Janet Yellen

Weijian Shan's Out of the Gobi is a powerful memoir and commentary that will be one of the most important books on China of our time, one with the potential to re-shape how Americans view China, and how the Chinese view life in America.

Shan, a former hard laborer who is now one of Asia's best-known financiers, is thoughtful, observant, eloquent, and brutally honest, making him well-positioned to tell the story of a life that is a microcosm of modern China, and of how, improbably, that life became intertwined with America. Out of the Gobi draws a vivid picture of the raw human energy and the will to succeed against all odds.

Shan only finished elementary school when Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution tore his country apart. He was a witness to the brutality and absurdity of Mao's policies during one of the most tumultuous eras in China's history. Exiled to the Gobi Desert at age 15 and denied schooling for 10 years, he endured untold hardships without ever giving up his dream for an education. Shan's improbable journey, from the Gobi to the "People's Republic of Berkeley" and far beyond, is a uniquely American success story – told with a splash of humor, deep insight and rich and engaging detail.

This powerful and personal perspective on China and America will inform Americans' view of China, humanizing the country, while providing a rare view of America from the prism of a keen foreign observer who lived the American dream.

Says former Federal Reserve chair Janet "Shan's life provides a demonstration of what is possible when China and the United States come together, even by happenstance. It is not only Shan's personal history that makes this book so interesting but also how the stories of China and America merge in just one moment in time to create an inspired individual so unique and driven, and so representative of the true sprits of both countries."

Genres: China, Nonfiction, Biography, History, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Business

501 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 3, 2019

Reviews

[Left Coast Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me forever to read this, not because it was uninteresting but because life kept getting in the way. I sense that the author, Weijian Shan, would be disappointed in me. After all, he didn't let anything stand between him and his goals. And while this might make him sound insufferable, it's hard not to root for a guy who went from spending entire winters freezing half to death in a straw hut in Inner Mongolia to UC Berkeley, the Wharton School of Economics and ultimately becoming a Wall Street shark.

At the time I'm writing this, many people in my country have adopted a "burn it down" attitude about our government, which they consider terrible because inflation is currently running at 4% and books about gay people are in our libraries. Oh, man. Until you read about China in the 1960's, you truly have no idea what a bad government looks like.

The author, growing up middle class in Beijing, became a Red Guard at about the same time that most of his classmates did. Chairman Mao decreed one day that these little hellions would be allowed to travel freely throughout the country, unimpeded by inconveniences like paying for trains or hotels. So he and his pals set off on a four-month parentless trip that took them to Shanghai, then down to Fuzhou (much further south) and then wandering around historic sites. The trip lasted for four months. Shan was twelve years old at the time -- but no worries, they had a chaperone. Who was seventeen.

But the fun couldn't last, and eventually he was shipped off to the Gobi Desert, where their Pioneer Spirit was put in service of growing crops. Living on a diet of corn cakes and pumpkin soup -- day after day, meal after meal, year after year -- they did things like spend two weeks in the blazing summer digging a canal, manually hauling 100-Kg buckets of clay up an embankment all day, and ending this two-week fiesta by working for 31 hours straight to make up for lost time. A week later, they learned that the place they were digging was too high and water could not get to it. Each year, the program they were in planted about three times as much seed corn as they harvested at the end of the year. So the government was paying about 2000 workers, feeding and housing them, to have them waste precious grain that would have better gone to feed other people.

Not to mention stuff like seeing a gang of girls beating the school principal to death with the metal ends of their belt buckles.

These are a couple of high-level examples, but the book abounds in day-to-day examples of piss-poor management and high-level lunacy. I've read plenty about the Cultural Revolution, but this day-by-day diary of what daily life was like really brought it home.

Shan is largely admirable, but he's no angel, and when he needed a bicycle -- a most prized possession in those days -- to get to his exams, he simply stole one from a poor family who could not afford the loss. One day it dawned on him that his fellow workers really didn't like him very much, so he methodically laid out a plan to make himself more likeable, in order to advance his aims. I've met some people like this, and I have no doubt many people whom society most values -- world class athletes and such -- have similar mindsets. But I wouldn't necessarily want him as a roommate.

By the way, I've always wondered if I couldn't understand economics because I'm dim or because economists are, to put it kindly, a bit sloppy in their thinking. On page 379, our intrepid Wharton School of Economics Professor (forward by Janet Yellen) says

He came to California hoping to make a fortune and struck gold within a few months, unearthing $1500 of it. His gold haul was worth more than $5 million in today's money ($100 in 1850 = $3412.56 in 2017.)

They way they taught me to do math back in my college days says that he's off by about a factor of 100. Maybe he meant $1 and not $100, but either way it fills me with the same dim dread I always feel when economists start explaining how to fix the world.

There's much, much more here. This was far better than I expected.

Shout-out to Grace for alerting me to this one.

[Jing · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about Shan Weijian's one of the most reputable investors in Asia market.

In this book, he has provided us a first hand detailed account on how cultural revolution unfolded in China and his later journey in the US.

It was probably one of the most unfortunate event in the history of China. Chairman Mao Zedong’s directive has made tens of millions of aspiring Young Chinese teens went to the remote rural China and wasted their formative years doing useless farm works.

During 7 years time in Gobi, Shan was digging canals and air raid shelter and growing potatoes. Their poor knowledge of agriculture and construction had made all these activities a waste of time and the entire generation missed the opportunity to receive proper education.

I grew up in China in the 90s and I learnt about cultural revolution in my history book however it is through Shan’s book that I really understand the devastating impact of the Culture revolution on the entire generation of his age.

I hope China will not experience this or anything similar again.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Out of the Gobi” is a story of a young man overcoming incredible obstacles to eventually become one of Asia’s best known financiers. During Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution, a young Shan is sent to the Gobi desert, ostensibly in an effort to bring educated city youth to rural areas to enlighten them. Shan leaves school at the end of elementary school and is sent to the Gobi desert and put to work in hard manual labor. He spends his time digging up potatoes, digging irrigation ditches by hand, making bricks, battling a frozen lake, becoming a “barefoot doctor” (rural doctor) practicing primitive medicine, all the while reading everything he could find in order to continue to educate himself since schools were shut down at the time. After it became apparent to just about everyone that Mao’s Cultural Revolution was a dismal failure, Shan returned to his home city of Beijing and eventually later becomes one of the first Chinese students to travel to the US in the early 1980s after China and the US agreed to be trading partners. I wasn’t aware of this but apparently there is a US law requiring that citizens of any country we trade with must also be allowed to emigrate to the US if they choose to do so. Up until this point, the Chinese people were not allowed to leave China. Deng Xiaping, who was fully in control of China in 1980, recognized the value of allowing young Chinese students to study in the US. He supported the effort to adopt more open market policies and reciprocal trade. Over time, Shan goes from digging potatoes to studying at UC Berkeley where he earns a doctorate. He later becomes a professor at the Wharton School of Business and is now a very wealthy businessman. This is truly an incredible story.

[Alice Li · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an utterly captivating read for me, but pinpointing just one reason why is tricky. Maybe it’s the way Weijian Shan effortlessly intertwines the Cultural Revolution, international business, academia, and his relentless pursuit of success across continents. Or maybe it’s the way his story makes me feel wildly unproductive by comparison.... In any case, his memoir strikes an excellent balance between a deeply personal account of surviving Mao's Cultural Revolution & a broader exploration of how sheer perseverance can lead one to navigate the complexities of global capitalism and academia.

Before this, my understanding of the Cultural Revolution was as fragmented as most people’s—sporadic lessons in school (very few), passive comments from my parents, a couple of documentaries, and the occasional Wikipedia rabbit hole. My parents' generation narrowly missed being caught in the upheaval—my mom’s older sister was just a year or two off from the students affected. That made Shan’s perspective particularly valuable, especially since it’s not just a firsthand account, but a nuanced, English-language narrative (with a slight Western lens) that breaks through China’s Great Firewall, even if today's modern China has a more critical impression of Mao. His story stands out in a world where firsthand, unfiltered perspectives on this period, written in English, are scarce. Shan’s account feels like finally hearing the full, unvarnished tale from someone who lived it—and there’s something uniquely compelling about hearing about academia, business, and history from a man who also had to shovel dirt in the Gobi Desert. It’s the minor details, too, that linger with me. Decades later, memory naturally falters, but Shan writes with such vivid clarity that I couldn’t help but wonder: how much of this is drawn from painstakingly kept journals, and how much has been shaped by the passage of time? In any case, it is remarkably impressive.

What makes the book even better is that Shan doesn’t chronicle his trials with a grim sense of duty. His writing is sharp, witty, and—dare I say—entertaining. His reflections on resilience, determination, and the pursuit of dreams across cultural and political divides left me not just thinking about China’s past, but also about how history shapes individuals in ways we rarely consider. While reading, I mentioned this book to an older coworker whose parents were laborers during the same generation. He pointed me toward learning more about the “alumni” of the Red Guard—like Song Binbin, who recently passed away and whose complex legacy, including earning a doctorate at MIT after beating eight teachers to death, raises difficult ethical questions. To what extent can someone be forgiven for their role in a turbulent period like the Cultural Revolution, when their later life contributes positively to society?

In short, Out of the Gobi is more than just a memoir of hardship and survival—it’s a deftly written, slyly humorous narrative of global ambition and political navigation. Plus, it leaves you feeling intellectually enriched and maybe just a little inadequate at the same time.

[Omar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I havent read many memoirs and so I cannot compare this one to ones of its like.

What I do know is that this is the first time I was able to entertain myself by reading. Entertainment that can be compared to the enticing and visually stimulating world Netflix, YouTube and TikTok.

Its a very personal and intimate account of one great man's extraordinary journey from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. His freindly and optimistic attidude towards life was extremely pleasant to witness. His hardwork and persevance extremely inspiring. He remained, however, humble throughout.

Weijian Shan himself, turned out to be a ball of cotton with a needle inside (Assuming Mao meant Deng was sharp, determined and accurate, not dangerous or scornful).

As I was concluding, I couldn't help but notice that the book was ending with little mention of Mr. Weijian's transition into the world of finance. "Oh high I wanted to see how this remarkable man fared in the ever-competive world of private equity", I thought to myself. I did wonder though if the inclusion of this next chapter in his life would diminish the books appeal as it got longer and longer. Then Mr. Weijian put me at ease in the epilogue by saying: "How I got into playing high-stake money games is, perhaps, another story worth telling." It really would be.

I thank you, Mr. Weijian, for sharing your story and wisdom with the world. Fortune truly does favour the prepared, as you always have been.

[Yanwen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish he had covered more chapters on his life in America and how he became so successful in America.

This is what I think key factors to his success in life:
(1) In line with traditional Chinese thinking, Weijian is a fervent believer in the value and crucial role of education in changing one's destiny.

(2) He is always prepared for any opportunity coming his way. In China of his time, all individuals belonged to an organization, which was controlled by their immediate boss. They had no control over their future and their destiny. That's why Weijian has this attitude-- be prepared and capture any opportunity. This reminds me of the saying, Fate smiles at he who is prepared. I think this attitude has helped him when the opportunity of college was presented to him.

(3）His love of reading, even in the Gobi desert when most people saw no future and no use of reading.

(4) He makes sure that he doesn't waste time, makes sure that he learns something everyday.
See this quote from his book --

"Li Rongtian believed that wasting time was the biggest sin one could commit against oneself. My whole life since then has been influenced by this wisdom he had shared with me. I still feel a sense of guilt when I find myself with nothing productive to do, such as when on vacation." pp. 132-33.

(5) Another quality that helps him is his conscientiousness, no matter where and what he does. That's how he was chosen as the best TA in Berkeley. This attitude toward whatever he does put him above the average, no matter where and when.

This is a good book for anyone who does not know that era of China and who wants to know.

[Thomas H. Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting and enlightening.

As discussed in the acknowledgements, this book is a memoir, not an autobiography. It is a personal narrative centering on the chaos and indigence of the Cultural Revolution and the Down to the Countryside Movement.

This book is a window into a world so far detached from 21st century America or Western Europe, where our basic needs can often be easily met. Thus, the hardship Weijian Shan and his friends endured in China just a few decades ago can at times seem surreal.

Shan not only survived the incessant hardships of the Gobi, but pushed himself far beyond; later becoming a Wharton professor and one of Asia’s foremost financiers. Shan’s life philosophy, always be prepared to capture whatever opportunity comes your way, appears to identify why he has succeeded. This philosophy incapsulates his work ethic, diligence, and targeted problem solving. Above all, he maintained an unyielding tenacity to advance educationally.

I came across this book through ForeignAffairs and cannot recommend it enough. For those considering this book, I recommend reading this publicly available extract on ForeignAffairs https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articl... .

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this autobiography had some interest - especially the period in the 1960’s the author spent in back-breakingly hard labor in the extreme climate of the Gobi - it didn’t not sustain this interest when he relocated to the US to study and subsequently enter academia as a faculty member. The fascination the unimaginable cultural revolution holds for westerners and the interesting Chinese characters Weijian worked with were lost when the story moved to a western environment that is all too familiar to us involving personalities that sound very much like people we know ourselves. Having said that, I do admire Weijian's success - he is obviously exceptionally intelligent, highly motivated and a very hard worker and has earned his considerable achievements.

It is hard, however, not to compare this book to a similarly themed one, ‘Wolf Totem’ by Jiang Rong in which a young Chinese teenager was also sent to Mongolia in the 1960’s. In this book, the interaction between wolves, humans and the environment, all set against the encroachment of the Han to disrupt the centuries old synergy, has a breadth and depth that is lacking in Weijian’s book. This is not to say it is not worth reading. It is but not if you are looking for something riveting.

[Jiliac · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book would be worth 5 stars just for the content I think. Even when you know Chinese people, they usually don't like to talk about the past, especially with foreigners. (Don't want to give a bad image of their country.) Even though factually, there is nothing here than isn't in the wiki page, knowing the feelings, the outlooks, an inner point of view of a person that lived through this period (from the bottom) is great.

On top of that, the authors is very insightful (his intelligence is clear from the beginning, although he doesn't say it directly). The writing style is quite engaging: you want to know what's next (although, the current position it's quite a spoiler :p ).

Great insider outlook. The only con I'd have is that the authors clearly avoided to mention recent Chinese politics (I guess to protect himself?). But then that's not what promise on the cover so it's fine :-).

[Andrew Crofts · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the best insight into modern China imaginable

I have read nothing else which has given me such insight into the China of Mao and what has happened since. The author is the most extraordinary man And Out of Gobi should become a classic. It is also a page-turning good read.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of the book is about Weijian's experience living in the Gobi Desert during the cultural revolution. It doesn't go into getting out of Gobi until chapter ~17 of 22. I hope Weijian will publish a subsequent book about his investment experience in Asia.

[Charlie Bonderman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It is a story in the vein of Unbroken, Man’s Search for Meaning, and the Long Walk — a story of one man’s struggle for survival after being separated from his family as a teenager during China’s Cultural Revolution. Sent to the Gobi desert to a hard labor camp, Shan details the stark realities of his experience in vivid color: the rampant starvation, 18 hour days in -40 degree weather, drinking mosquito larvae infested puddle water, digging holes in the ground to sleep in... and that’s just the start of it. To endure and survive such trauma and go on to the life that he has led is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit. Fascinating read.

[Tanner Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first fell in love with this book when I saw it’s cover in a Barnes & Noble in 2019. Buying a brand new hardcover book seemed like an unnecessary expense at the time, though, so I put it on my wishlist. There it sat for four years until I rediscovered it as an Audible Premium title a few months ago. It was worth the wait.

“Out of the Gobi” is the autobiography of an eminent businessman and academic named Weijian Shan (or Shan Weijian, since family names come first in China). Before reading his autobiography, I was completely unfamiliar with Mr. Shan. This did not detract from the book whatsoever, in my opinion. His story is a classic rags-to-riches tale (although the wealth he earned later in life is absolutely not point of his story). Like Tara Westover’s “Uneducated,” Weijian Shan’s book is really about the effort he put into cultivating a world-class education.

Education is one of my paramount values. I think it is one of the most important things a person can obtain. Clearly, Mr. Shan agrees. But he was not always destined to be an academic. Early in life he was a Red Guard in Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. Then he labored for six years in the Gobi Desert, where he endured life-altering hardship. Only after a winding path and a handful of seriously lucky encounters did he end up on his prestigious academic path.

I really enjoyed “Out of the Gobi.” I thought it was thoughtfully and vividly written. Weijian Shan’s passion for education was plainly evident throughout the book. I sincerely appreciated his sharp political and business acumen, too. If you’re interested in contemporary Chinese culture, business, or politics, this is well worth your time.

[Phil · Rating 5 out of 5]

An incredible story of perseverance and the importance of a sunny disposition.

[Christine Wong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Learned a lot about China’s history / the cultural revolution, and Weijian Shan’s story is really admirable! Took a long time to get through this one but it was worth the read.

[Cheng Wang · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have been working on my memoir, From Tea to Coffee: The Journey of an "Educated Youth" (to be released this Summer by Open Books Publisher). Out of Gobi has presented a similar theme of the generational story of struggle and triumph over the same part of history in China, The 10-year Cultural Revolution, thus it strikes the chord with me rather profoundly.

Although Out of Gobi reflects time changes from the same period in history, the two memoirs present two completely different storylines and central points. Out of Gobi is one extraordinary fact-finding mission, focusing on personal accomplishment along its timeline; From Tea to Coffee is an emotional excavating journey. While readers look to learn something intellectually from Out of Gobi, they can expect to experience something emotionally journeying From Tea to Coffee.

[Bea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reminded me somewhat of "Mao's Last Dancer", but from a different viewpoint. It is 480 pages long and reads like a memoir, with some pages here and there I felt could be skipped as they were practically a list of names I couldn't pronounce. But the story is great, the author mentally and emotionally strong and very, very intelligent. He lived through Mao's "Great Leap Forward", endured starvation, hard labor, being forced to live in the Gobi desert, shut out of 10 years of education, to prevail in the end. Much of what he learned was self-taught and he studied voraciously when he did finally get to complete his education. I would like to know what he is doing now.

[Jessica Liang · Rating 5 out of 5]

remarkable book on human determination and struggle. While there has been many stories and accounts on the cultural revolution, Shen combines his analytical mind to provide a factual account of the events together with his witty humor to make the journey enjoyable for the reader. Inspiring and eye opening book to be forever remembered.

[Glenn · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal story. For those with short attention spans, he may have spent too much of the book on the hardships of the Gobi, but when one spends six years essentially enslaved, the stories are really fascinating.

A great amount of Chinese history woven into his story, a lot of fun old haunts in the Bay Area, and a guy who just continued to be in the right place at the right time.

[Samuel Peck · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the raving reviews, thought that this was a pretty mundane and plodding read. Probably would have been more fascinating to Western readers less familiar with Mao's policies and their impacts on the Chinese populace.

[D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boring details in the Gobi and very interesting interactions in America. Well, because there certainly couldn't be many interesting experiences in the Gobi...inspiring guy.

[Athena Yu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a Chinese born and grew up in a small city in the 90s, made a long way to study and settle down abroad, I relate to Shan's story immensely. It helped me understand where the modern China came from, why it is such, and where we may be heading to.

Shan just finished elementary school when the Cultural Revolution broke out. His early education in the 60s was in many ways more advanced than what I received in the 90s. Things like science camp in Beihai Park have always been why I aspired to go to Beijing since my childhood.

As the call of Mao, people across the country were determined to eradicate the four pests (mosquitoes, flies, rats and sparrows). This ironically reminds me of the "zero Covid" policy the country is currently going through. It must have been too easy to crush people. Hence, to fight against and declare winning over the mother nature might be a more sweet victory for all dictators.

Cultural Revolution unleashed the cruelty of teenagers almost immediately. Shan witnessed a group of junior high school girls beat their principal to death in the school playground.

During the purge of Liu Shaoqi, a massive group of teenagers camped outside of Zhongnanhai (the central government). One night, Premier Zhou Enlai called in one representative from each camp, debated with them all night, magically convinced them to retreat from their camps. This story amazed me and reminded of the incapable Premier Li Peng during the Tiananmen protest in 1989 and his failure in talking with the much better educated college students.

Seeing all these teenagers wandering around in the city and looking for troubles, Mao came up with this brilliant idea of sending them to the countryside for hard labor. This is how Shan ended up in the Gobi of Inner Mongolia.

The absurdity of the life in the Gobi has come to the point of surreal. Shan recounted a few interesting stories:
- Digging potatoes. Where a group of people were cast away to a fly field to dig potatoes. In the first night they were asked to dig a hole and still inside - damn cold! Luckily they managed to find a shelter for the following days. The group had to eat potatoes for every meal. Nobody cared about the potatoes - regiment didn't even send anyone to transport the potatoes and they had to watch the piled up potatoes go rot.
- To prepare for an imaginary invasion by SU, they went through drill after drill, asked to crawl around over fresh cow poop.
- They harvested less than what they grew each year.
- During the winter, they were asked to live on the frozen lake to cut reed for paper mill.
- Once they were ordered to work non-stop for over 30 hours to dig a canal to meet a strict "deadline". Later they were told the calculation was wrong and the digging was in vain.
- He was chosen to be a barefoot doctor, enjoyed helping people, but later was fired because he refused to give sugarcoated cough pills to the commander who didn't cough but just wanted a taste of sweetness.
- He tried to persuade their own company leader to install a brick-making machine. When he investigate another company which had such machine, he found that leader was humble (living in mud house whilst his charges lived in brick houses), approachable, pragmatic, and their charges had a happier life. Their company store even had cookies and popsicles to sell (which the company members made themselves)
- November 9, 1949, two airlines pilots hijacked 12 planes and joined the new Communist government in Beijing. Almost all of these people were purged during the Cultural Revolution. One pilot, Yi Kong, was raising pigs in Shan's company. Yi was kind, knowledgeable, well respected, and has a good relationship with Shan. He was like the father to them all.
- Shan also recounted two sex scandals. An educated youth was charged with rape (which he denied). He was sentenced 4 years in prison. Later during 严打, he was sent to labor camp for no other reason but his criminal record. On the other hand, the company commander was charged with sextual misconduct by more than one girl (sexual exploitation of educated girls were common across the country then). He was merely discharged, without any criminal penalty.
- 1974 was the first year when educated youth could be "recommended by the mass" to go to college. To build good image among the people, he managed to master the volleyball rules so he could be a referee - not much physical work, great way to gain exposure and earn respect. There have been a few twists and turns, when he was finally approved to go to college, he left most of stuff behind and left almost immediately on the same day. I could feel his excitement and urge to leave.
- Later he had his fair share of ups and downs in Beijing and U.S., but nothing compared to the life in Gobi.

[shananigans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Since I started college in 2020, I like many others have mourned the lost opportunities from having my last semester of high school to half of my college experience being online and under a lot of covid fear. my peers and i graduated this yr into an economy marked by layoffs and low intern return offers, a reality starkly different from what we had envisioned. While I'm generally pretty good about not overthinking macro things I couldn’t control (thank you dad!), reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers recently left me frustrated that the global pandemic and hiring freezes had to coincide with what were supposed to be my most transformative years.

Reading Shan’s Out of Gobi, where he slaved away for six years—15 - 21 and what we are told to be the prime years, right?—in the desert middle of nowhere, puts so much of my own complaining into perspective. Shan’s detailed recollection provides incredible insight into the lived realities of “worker-peasant-soldiers.” The level of hardship is unimaginable to me. His story is a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit and the capacity to endure and thrive despite seemingly insurmountable odds.

I'm rlly glad I randomly decided to picked up this book after coming across someone’s review on xiaohongshu about 正能量 haha. I was debating between giving it 4 or 5 stars because occasionally, I didn't see the necessity of certain anecdotes/historical explanations. But I frequently thought about the book hours after i’ve put it down. To have made such a lasting impression probably is enough to warrant 5 stars :)

there are so many randomly unexpectedly funny moments:
- the poor animals - “In any event, by the end of November, the war preparation projects were completed. Our company was so well protected that there were trenches and air-raid holes everywhere. In fact, it turned out that these projects did have lethal powers. That winter, many of the cattle and horses roaming the land in search of dried grass fell into the ditches and died from being trapped.”
- 2 vs 20 adults labeling leading to almost a self-inflicted bubonic plague
- the cao cao pig walking an hour to visiting a “reading stud”
- xiuling’s hysteria and how Old Hou earned the nickname of “true proletarian” - “I am a proletarian, why don’t you love me?” he demanded. “If you do not love me, you do not love the proletariat.”
- his group of friends! And how much they cared for and took care of each other. li baoquan especially is so funny

other memorable moments:
- fish and the morally upright dasheng
- Old Yi - his backstory having being beaten and forced a confession, the 50 kg buckets of water for 10 km scene
- being rejected again, and again, and again in the corrupted college selection system: “To give up was to commit a sin against myself, I reminded myself time and time again. And I would never give up.”
- dealing with bureaucratic nonsense was so relatable and something literally NO ONE warned me about being an international student in the US (i was rlly naive...). this passage resonated so much - “it was impossible for me to plan my work and research or for our family to plan our life. It had been a long time since I had had to face such bureaucratic arbitrariness, and I had almost forgotten what it felt like. It was like pleading with someone who was holding a gun to my head, and I had no idea if he would step away or pull the trigger. The suspense was so agonizing I sometimes thought it might be better if he just pulled the trigger and got it over with.”
- during the un interview - “To me, the future had always been unpredictable. Why torture myself with dreams? My philosophy in life was to be always prepared, to capture whatever opportunity came my way.”My ambition knows no bound,” I said.” what a chad!

[Dalton Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the most inspirational story of overcoming hardship I have ever read. Growing up in the midst of China's cultural revolution in the 60's, Shan was sent to the Gobi desert along with countless other teenagers who grew up in cities in order to be "reeducated". This had come shortly after Mao mobilized the entire country's youth, aka the Red Guard, to destroy the "Four Olds": pre-revolutionary ideas, culture, habits, and customs. This manifested as book burnings, public shaming of professors, the closure of all schools, and censorship of anything deemed counter to Marxism and Maoism. It didn't take much for one to be labeled as a "bad element", effectively destroying all of one's life opportunities and often placing one in imminent physical danger.

For six years he toiled in the desert performing fruitless hard labor and never knowing if there would be a way out. Despite extreme hardship and many setbacks he persisted in finding time to educate himself with anything he could get his hands on like books, radio programs, and magazines. Imagine spending 10 hours a day in the fields with hardly any food or water and still having the conviction to read before going to sleep exhausted.

Even as restrictions on education loosened and the communist party started to select youth to return to the cities and go to university, Shan was denied this opportunity for several years despite being the most qualified person simply because some of his superiors didn't like him. Yet he never gave up. Eventually good fortune found him.

It's easy to see how most people in his shoes would have resigned themselves to their fate and lost all hope for a better future. Many of his peers did, and who would blame them? The fact that he didn't is nothing short of extraordinary.

[Georges Gave · Rating 5 out of 5]

Out of the Gobi by Weijan Shan is a biography and a masterpiece about a dark period in Chinese history. Shan takes us through his life growing up during the cultural revolution in China. We get to experience the hardships he faced of being exiled as a red guard to the Gobi with millions of other Chinese youth, stripping his education away. His accounts of the Gobi were genuinely eye-opening, helping me understand such an essential part of history. Shan is now an inspiration to me. Throughout the story, he tells us how even though they took away his right to education, he never abandoned his animal pursuit of wishing to learn, constantly reading and putting his hands on any book he could get.
After Mao Zedong passed and a new Chairman, Deng Xiaoping, took over China, Shan was one of a few thousand students who were given scholarships to study in the USA. Shan's relentless desire to learn and never giving up, even when he saw his peers starving and freezing beside him in the vastness of the Gobi desert, transformed him from a poor peasant boy to one of the wealthiest men in China today with an estimated net worth of over 2 billion dollars. After every middle school was shut down in China, Shan was still able to excel at Berkley and start a hedge fund right out of university, even with no formal education prior to college.
After reading his book, I realized that Shan is truly an inspiration. I recommend every person who is interested in history and wants to be motivated to read this thrilling account of China and the life of Weijan Shan.

[Giv · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brought me on a time-travel to the 1960s when China was under siege by Mao’s dictatorship. One of my favourite modules back in uni was China politics as I was just so captivated by how China grew rapidly over the years. I recalled my professor was someone who had been through cultural revolution and he too, felt emotional when he shared with us his journey.

But to read Shan’s raw experience of growing up in famine, being deported to Gobi and eventually having his life turned around during Deng Xiao Ping’s succession to leadership offered me so many perspectives on how the policies and leadership have such profound impact on a civilian’s life.

This has got to be one of my favourite memoir! I love Shan’s raw and brutally honest account of how he felt towards Mao’s cultural revolution (read: no filter 😬)- burning of books, demolishing formal education, no romance (what?!) and only allowed to read Mao’s little red book. I enjoyed reading his eye-opening experience stepping into America as a young student and my deep admiration for him grew as he topped the class even though he did not receive any formal education and picked up English language all by himself!

It made me feel thankful to have been blessed by great education policies in Singapore and having great leadership over the years to bring our nation to prosperity 🥰

[Waddah Arafat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I read this book without knowing how it is going to end (didn't read reviews) and I think that you should do the same because the progress of the story is very interesting. Nonetheless, if you are interested in reading the review, it won't have any major spoilers.

This is an amazing book that summarizes the wasted years and talents in the Eastern Bloc countries including China and other socialist/communist countries. This is what the people would experience when the leaders decide to distract them with struggles to maintain their daily living or even worse to work on nonexisting goals and to move sand dunes from one place to another to come 30 years later and find them exactly in the same place that they originally were at. Certainly, the fortunate fate of the author would not have been the same if he was not as talented and as smart, and especially that he arrived during the golden opportunity when the United States was just opening its door to the Chinese people, which later saw major restrictions. Nonetheless, the story shows the stark contrast between the nation that tries to secure talents and lure them with the best offers and surround then with the best conditions and another nation that is systematically destroying any talent and ambition.

[Abby Goldsmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm surprised this book isn't more visible and more popular.

The author is from Beijing, and he interweaves the history of the Cultural Revolution, and specifically the Great Leap Forward, into his own personal story. He makes it all clearcut, relatable, and relevant. He's also not shy about layering in cultural tidbits--jokes, proverbs, world views, trends--so that as a reader, I felt transported to that time and place.

This isn't a preachy bombardment. It's a personal narrative of someone who grew up in a very hard time and place, and through luck and willpower, against all odds, became a professor, banker, and investor. The breadth of his life experiences is super impressive. This guy has had training in medicine, in manual labor, in brick making, in electrical engineering, in calculus, in piloting, in teaching, in horseback riding, in bureaucracy, in existing as a child slave laborer, in hanging out with Nobel laureates, and a lot more. Even if some of those are only a superficial level, it's still quite a lot for lifetime.

His forthright and objective way of storytelling is respectful of the reader, and leaves one to draw one's own conclusions.

I highly recommend this. Definitely among the best memoirs I've read.

[North Landesman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping story of Weijan Shan's journey from the Cultural Revolution, to the modern Chinese economy. I learned a huge amount here. Some scenes that were especially striking:
* When Weijan figured out that his youth troup was costing 4 times the amount to feed than it produced an his time in the desert was pointless and counter-productive.
* The amazing work Deng did to rescue China.
* When the kid at Berkley was shouting at Weijan because he supported Mao's wife and not Deng, and Weijan suggested he spend a few years in the Gobi.
* China closed all of its school for ten years for no real point.
* Mao let students run the country for a few years. It did not go well. Letting students run anything is an especailly terrible idea. The scenes of high schoolers beating their principles to death with belts, was, as a teacher, especially scary.
* Weijan's joke that "America is a fee country ... if you have a car."
I just admired Weijan's work ethic and optimism in the face of terrible situations.
I can't understand how people can still wear Mao t shirts and quote Mao after all of the evidence his terrible leadership.

[Divyesh Patel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Weijian Shan is a top dog investor whose life I wanted to learn about, with the hopes of understanding how some of his risk appetite related to his investment methodology was a factor of his upbringing. The story tells about his childhood in the Gobi and China's government policies. The book suggests that where Weijian is today is a function of luck (right place right time) and risk appetite (try out, because why not? What have I got to lose)?

Ideally coming into the book I wanted more of a direct relationship on his upbringing vs investment methodology. Instead, I got a long 75% of the book about his childhood, and maybe 25% of the part of of his life in America that I was really interested in (teaching at Wharton, schooling at Berkeley, JP Morgan and World Bank experience). It could be that I came into this book with wrong expectations, or it could be that his upbringing in China was that much more important and I just didn't see the connection between that and some of what made him such a successful investor; he did not talk about his investments much.