Please join the USC U.S.-China Institute and Asia Society Southern California for a talk with Weijian Shan, one of Asia's best-known financiers, as he recounts his remarkable personal story of his exile to the Gobi Desert for hard labor at the age of 15 amidst the turmoil of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution.

Out of The Gobi：My Story of China and America

Date：Monday, August 19, 2019

Time：4-5:30 PM

Location：Wallis Annenberg Hall, ANN 106

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

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 Yellen："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."

About the Author

Weijian Shan is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PAG, a private equity firm. Prior to PAG, he was a Partner of TPG, a private equity firm based in San Francisco, and Co-Managing Partner of TPG Asia（formerly known as Newbridge Capital）. Mr. Shan led a number of landmark transactions, including the acquisitions of Korea First Bank and China's Shenzhen Development Bank, both of which made his investors billions of dollars in profits and were made into case studies at Harvard Business School. He previously was a Managing Director of J.P. Morgan, professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School and a farm laborer in China's Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia. Mr. Shan holds an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley and M.B.A. from the University of San Francisco. He studied English at the Beijing Institute of Foreign Trade（now Beijing University of International Business and Economics）, where he also taught as a faculty member.

The book will be available for purchase and signing at the event.

Driving Directions to Campus
For maps and directions to campus, visit the University Park Campus Map & Driving Directions page. 

Suggested Parking
McCarthy Way Parking Structure - $14/day
Enter at the Figueroa Street Entrance at McCarthy Way

Upcoming USCI Events 

The Transpacific Experiment：How China and California Collaborate and Compete for Our Future

Date：Thursday, September 5, 2019

Time：4 - 5:30 PM

Location：USC Campus, ASC 204

Cost：Free, please rsvp.

Tensions between the world's superpowers are mounting in Washington, D.C., and Beijing. Yet China and the state of California have built deep and interdependent socioeconomic exchanges that reverberate across the globe. Journalist Matt Sheehan chronicles the real people who are making these connections. Sheehan tells the story of a Southern Californian mayor who believes a Chinese electric bus factory will save his town from meth labs and skinheads. He follows a celebrated Chinese AI researcher who leaves Google to challenge his former employer from behind the Great Firewall. Sheehan joins a tour bus of wealthy Chinese families shopping for homes in the Bay Area, revealing disgruntled neighbors and raising important questions about California's own prejudices and perceptions of immigration and the American Dream.

China's Rise in Historical Perspective
Date：Thursday, October 3, 2019
Time：4 - 5:30 PM
Location：USC Campus, venue TBA
Cost：Free, please rsvp.

Many commentators claim that China's ongoing global rise reflects a restoration of its earlier international prominence, while others highlight that China's emergence reflects distinctive characteristics of the country's current political leadership. In his new book, Making China Modern, Klaus Mühlhahn of the Free University of Berlin provides a panoramic survey of China's rise and resilience through war and rebellion, disease and famine. At this event Professor Mühlhahn will focus on the lessons from history that provide insight into China's evolving international position and how the United States and others should respond.