Out of the Gobi

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 labor and barefoot doctor who is now one of Asia’s best-known financiers, is smart, eloquent, and brutally honest, making him well-positioned to candidly tell the story of a life that is a microcosm of China in the nearly 70 years since Mao’s Communist Party seized power.Out of the Gobi draws a vivid picture of the raw human energy and the will to succeed against all odds. It is a story of both the folly and futility of Mao Zedong’s policies in the first 30 years of the People’s Republic, and the power of Deng Xiaoping’s market reforms in generating unprecedented economic growth during the past 40 years. This nuanced picture of China also shows the country’s...