CH INA

China’s nextgen returns home with ideas and skills that will energize business and infl uence economies around the world

Financial ana- lyst Guanlei Ren returned to China in 2009, when the US economy was sinking and China's was booming.

NATION BUILDERS

WEB EXTRA Read these stories in Chinese at bu.edu/bostonia. 要阅读这些故事的中文版本，请前往: bu.edu/bostonia

224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014_r3.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014_r3.indd 4242 22/4/14/4/14 66:26:26 PPMM By Art Jahnke For another, Wang (COM’08) and tion nearly 7,000 miles from Beijing, at Ren (GRS’07, COM’09) have a plan Boston University. The clients they will to start their own business—a video work for, the young women imagine, Wenwen Wang and production company—that could pro- could be from anywhere in China. And Guanlei Ren have sev- vide a good living shaped largely by the videos they hope to create could be their dreams. seen by people anywhere in the world. eral reasons to consider But mainly, Wang and Ren are fortu- That international progression, learn- themselves fortunate. nate because they live in China at a piv- ing in the United States, building in For one thing, they are otal time in the country’s history. Like China, and sending product out into the most young professionals working in world, is for many young Chinese an in- sitting in a booth at the Beijing, they believe that after a century creasingly common skip and jump to a China Grill restaurant on of struggling to make and remake itself, whole new lifestyle, and it is changing all China is approaching its moment. Wang three stations along the way: American the 66th fl oor of Beijing’s and Ren are thrilled and honored to be universities, China, and the world. upscale Yintai Center, part of it. Huiyao Wang, a Beijing-based expert Their lives are different from those of on foreign-educated Chinese, says the and the evening sky is so previous generations of Chinese and dif- several ways that the trend has changed uncharacter istically clear ferent too from the lives of most Ameri- China are overwhelmingly good for that they are able to watch cans. They are defined by their duties as China. His research shows that return- only children, and enabled by the first- ees, people who were educated over- the sun set behind a spar- generation wealth of their parents. They seas, contribute disproportionately to kling palisade of modern- are unequivocally global. the Chinese economy, accounting for The two hopeful entrepreneurs 78 percent of Chinese university presi- ist skyscrapers. acquired their skills in video produc- dents, 72 percent of senior positions at GILLES SABRIE (2)

Wenwen Wang is a report- er for the Global Times, a daily paper that publish- es in Chinese and English.

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224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 4343 11/30/14/30/14 11:01:01 PMPM CH INA Returnees contribute disproportionately to the economy, accounting for 81 percent of the members of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

the leading state and provincial research camera—they rent one—and they don’t ing in this chaotic, exuberant city with centers, 81 percent of the members have a workspace, mainly because all 20 million people, projected to grow to of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, space in Beijing comes with a prohibi- 25 million by 2020, it’s easy to believe and 54 percent of the members of the tively high price tag. What they do have that one is at the center of the world. Chinese Academy of Engineering. He is a set of attributes that Huiyao Wang Ren remembers the rush of opti- points out that returnees have founded says puts them on a fast track to suc- mism she felt returning to China in July several Chinese internet giants, includ- cess: English language skills, profes- 2009, a time when the United States ing Baidu and Sohu, as well as the first sional training from a highly regarded was still discovering the true depths of venture capital firm, IDG Capital Part- university, and a conviction—uncom- its financial crisis. “I felt very excited,” ners, started by BU trustee Hugo Shong mon in their parents’ generation—that she says. “I thought I had a very good (COM’87, GRS’90) (see page 49). they really can shape their careers to fit opportunity to learn the capital market “People who are educated overseas their dreams. of China and might be able to contribute bring new thinking that will influence They also have day jobs that, by the to the development of the society. I felt all aspects of society, culturally, socially, standards of any city in any country, are that I was one of the people who were and politically,” says Wang, director gen- rewarding. Wang is a reporter for the in the big time, and I did my job with eral of the nonprofit Center for China Global Times, a daily newspaper that great enthusiasm.” and Globalization and vice chairman of publishes in both Chinese and English, Almost five years later, although the the China Western Returned Scholars and Ren is an analyst in the investment growth rate of China’s gross domestic Association, as well as a senior fellow at banking department of Zhong De Secu- product has backed off the 8 percent a Harvard’s Kennedy School. “They bring rities, a joint venture of Shanxi Securi- year that it had reached for a decade, new ideas and new technology, and they ties and Deutsche Bank. Ren’s enthusiasm hasn’t diminished, bring new business like venture capital. On most days, Ren works in a high- and neither has the intensity of her daily All of those things are helping China be- rise office in the central business dis- routine. Much of her time is spent doing come more international, and interna- trict of Beijing, a city whose main tour- due diligence for clients seeking regula- tional connections are very important.” ist attraction, the Forbidden City, has tory permission to conduct mergers, At the moment, Wenwen Wang and been overshadowed by starchitect sky- acquisitions, or IPOs, three business Ren have an ambitious plan, but few scrapers that sit cheek by jowl with gray practices that until recently were con- assets. They don’t own their own video concrete Sino-Sov housing projects. Liv- sidered exotic. And much of her time,

DAY IN THE LIFE 7:30 A.M. 9:15–11:30 A.M. 11:30 A.M.–NOON A Wake up, check Roll into o! ce, tend Associate vice BlackBerry. Have to outstanding work. president calls me breakfast of muesli, Usually around this to go over a return/ yogurt, eggs, or time my conference leveraged buyout Chinese congee, calls for various model that I set up.

GILLES SABRIE (3) with either a “café,” projects begin. If He questions some or a double espresso the call is not due of my assumptions macchiato made in diligence–related, I and tells me to fur- my espresso ma- multitask and work ther break down the chine. I brought in the background. target company’s back organic beans operating expenses from the United and other fi nancial States, which are metrics. cheaper than you fi nd in China.

Jeff Zhao (SMG’11) Investment Another adopted US business banking analyst practice: the 10-hour day

!!

224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 4444 11/30/14/30/14 11:01:01 PMPM two-thirds last year in fact, is spent trav- that young adults spend more time with ents went to graduate school. When his eling to companies hoping to go public, their parents than her American class- family returned to China, he was sent to to buy other companies, or to be bought mates at BU would think reasonable. the International School of Beijing, in themselves. The pace, she says, is relent- “Life in the United States was much Shunyi, a former US embassy school. At less, and relentlessly exciting. simpler,” she says. BU’s School of Management, Zhao stud- “It doesn’t matter if I’m in Beijing or ied finance and accounting, and when he some other place,” she says. “We usually THE PATH BACK TO CHINA graduated he sensibly chose to work, he have to work overtime. When there are For Jeff Zhao, visiting with his parents says, where the GDP was thriving. rush deals, we have no free time.” is not a problem. Zhao (SMG’11) lives “Prospects for China were promis- Ren says her downtime in Beijing is a with them, primarily because of exor- ing,” he says. “GDP growth was triple or lot like her downtime was in Boston: she bitant Beijing rents. Like Ren, he works quadruple that of countries in the de- goes to the movies, she goes out to eat as a financial analyst in Beijing’s central veloped world. There was a lot of invest- with friends, and she tries to find time business district, and he travels often ment banking activity, especially with to get to the gym. But there are differ- to meet with clients of his employer, regard to the privatization and public ences here. The number of cars on city the China International Capital Cor- listings of Chinese state-owned enter- streets makes getting from point A to poration. In most cases, Zhao says, he prises, and there were plans by Chinese point B maddeningly time-consuming, is scouting for start-up companies to securities regulators to allow foreign and often not worth the effort. Passen- invest in. He specializes in what he calls multinational companies to come and gers routinely leave stationary taxicabs “the food space,” and he is pleased with float their shares in the Shanghai Stock and walk to their destinations, and the a recent investment in a young company Exchange. And given the shortage of air is so polluted that even those people that produces organic milk, the kind of truly bilingual talent, especially at the lucky enough to win a license plate in promising boutique product that would junior level, I saw a good opportunity a complicated lottery system are often have died on Beijing store shelves a few for myself.” prohibited from driving on designated years ago. days of the week. Zhao’s English is flawless, surpris- GLOBAL RIPPLES Perhaps the biggest difference be- ingly so until he explains that he spent Aimin Yan, an SMG professor of orga- tween life here and back at BU, says Ren, his early years, through kindergarten in nizational behavior and faculty direc- is cultural: Chinese custom demands fact, in the United States while his par- tor of the school’s International MBA

NOON–1 P.M. 1–1:30 P.M. 1:30–3:30 P.M. 3:30–5:30 P.M. 5:30–6:30 P.M. 6:30–7:30 P.M. Go out to lunch with Back on the phone, Principal tells me he I have a conference I talk to my asso- Do a little bit more friends. Lunch really this time with is visiting another call on a niche in- ciate VP about my work at home, depends, because advisory fi rm to company tomorrow dustry with industry model again and go preparing for tomor- there’s a lot of confi rm travel plans and asks me to do experts. Companies over points of focus row’s fl ight to visit variety. I stay away for tomorrow. We some research on with networks of ex- for tomorrow, when with o! cials of a from mainstream are working on a the industry and perts like to arrange we go to see the young company. restaurants, given potential investment tailor our company experts in various company together. the lack of quality together and need introduction materi- industries to talk I usually clock out procurement (gutter to do on-site due als to them. I do it with us so they can around 7, then head oil, terrible-quality diligence. quickly; as a rule we sell us their expert to the gym, where meat, MSG, you don’t spend a lot of consulting services. I follow The 4-Hour name it). So I go to time on a company I listen in. I’m in- Body program by either a dumpling until we know there terested, but while Timothy Ferriss, and house, a bakery, the is a deal. I’m on the phone I occasionally have a salad bar at the JW continue to work on boxing lesson. Marriott outside my my modeling. o! ce, or this Korean lunch place called Bibigo. "I clock out about 7 p.m., then head to the gym."

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Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, both leaders of the Communist Program, says returnees like Zhao also represent a good opportunity for Chi- Party, studied in France. In fact, there were 8 returnees—people na. Yan, who spends three months each who studied abroad—among the 12 delegates at the meeting year in China and meets often with BU alums in senior management positions, that led to the founding of the Chinese Communist Party. In the first estimates that the country will need government of the People’s Republic, 42 of the 63 people with between 30 million and 50 million ranks above minister were returnees. With the exception of Mao managers at different organizational levels in the next 10 years. He thinks as Zedong, all 7 central political bureau members were returnees. many as half of them will be educated Li Yanhong, a graduate of Peking University and the University at in the West. Buffalo, the State University of New York, worked at Dow Jones and “I haven’t done a real study about the globalization of Chinese companies,” Infoseek before founding Baidu, the internet search giant that beat says Yan, “but I can hypothesize that Google in the Chinese market. He is said to be the 2nd richest more than 80 percent of country man- man in China. agers of Chinese multinational compa- nies have a Western education.” That, he Returnees make up 78 percent of Chinese university presidents, says, leads to a global ripple effect that 72 percent of senior positions at the leading state and provincial is increasingly significant, as Chinese research centers, 81 percent of the members of the Chinese trade with other countries swells. (Chi- na’s direct investment in Africa from Academy of Sciences, and 54 percent of the members of the 2009 to 2012 increased more than 20 Chinese Academy of Engineering. AJ percent a year, to $2.52 billion, accord- ing to China’s State Council Information Office, and the UN Conference on Trade and Development reports that China’s direct investment in Latin America The result is a positive impact on every sophisticated midlevel managers, which increased from $621 million in 2001 to aspect of life, as the United States may is exactly what our MBA graduates are. $44 billion in 2010.) become an economic, political, and They are ideal candidates, and China has Returnee expert Huiyao Wang be- probably even philosophical reference a shortage of them.” lieves the migration to universities for China. I believe it will make the Jeff Zhao believes that he brings his abroad is a major force behind China’s world a better place.” employer three important skills: sales- 30-year climb to its current position as Jay Kim, an SMG associate profes- manship, financial analysis, and famil- the world’s second largest economy, in sor of operations and technology man- iarity with two influential cultures, terms of both gross national product and agement, has been leading graduate Chinese and American. “Salesmanship purchasing power. His research shows seminars in China since 1994. He says is something that can be learned on that recent returnees, unlike their pre- SMG grads who return to China gener- the job,” he says. “You can also learn it decessors, tend to be entrepreneurs, and ally take one of two paths. “I see alums through practice, as I did at BU. My un- very often high-tech entrepreneurs. He who create small companies,” says Kim, derstanding of financial analysis can be says Zhongguancun, a part of Beijing who meets frequently with alums in partly attributed to BU, but much of it is that is known as China’s Silicon Valley, China. “They are often in high-tech or self-taught. My familiarity with Chinese employs more than 9,800 returnees. web-related fields, and that is very im- and Western culture comes from living Vincent Fenghua Wang, an execu- portant for China’s development. They in China and going to international tive manager at the Shanghai Stock Ex- bring to Beijing some colors and smells schools, as well as going to BU.” change, sees another difference between that weren’t there, and when there are He also believes that the deals he in- earlier and more recent returnees. enough of them you have a subculture fluences every day make a positive con- “The earlier stage of globalization that will play an important role in the tribution to Chinese society, and that’s was more on a production level,” says future development.” important to him. “While we are focused Wang (GRS’02). “Now it has reached Kim says the second commonly fol- on generating returns for our investors, the thinking level. At this level, the re- lowed career path leads to management our multicultural and multiregional turnees’ impact is more subtle but also at multinational companies. “China has background and coverage puts us in a much more profound. They help people a lot of multinational companies, and unique position to make deals happen in China understand America and pro- they find it difficult to develop a coher- across borders,” Zhao says. “That hap- vide a map of interpreting global events. ent strategy,” he says. “They don’t have pens when a Chinese company is look-

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224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 4646 11/30/14/30/14 11:01:01 PMPM WEB EXTRA Nick Haisu Yuan (CAS’14, COM’14) talks about a decision Chinese students at BU must make—to stay in the United States or return to China—in a video at bu.edu/bostonia.

ing to acquire foreign technology abroad as well as SMG, and both have parents ries passed down in his family were of a but lacks the negotiation skills to do it. whose education condemned them to different kind. We come in and help them. The Chinese years of farm labor during the Cultural Lu studies the menu. It’s expensive, company gains technology, which they Revolution. During that 10-year period, but not surprisingly so. This is a popular can apply to the China market. Every- from 1966 to 1976, Chinese universi- restaurant in a Western-style mall in the one wins.” ties were shuttered and the country central business district of Beijing. And Zhao meets former BU classmate ceased sending students abroad. Today, while by US standards most Chinese Fred Dafu Lu at a hot pot restaurant Huiyao Wang says the practice, insti- salaries are unimpressive (the average on the sixth floor of Shinkong Place, a tuted by Mao Zedong, cost the country annual income in Beijing, which has Beijing luxury mall that advertises “938 a generation of economic progress and the highest income in China, was just brands from around the world.” Zhao set back its development by decades. shy of $8,000 in 2012), there is money and Lu (SMG’11) have much in common: Lu mentions that his mother has fond to be spent. On Singles Day, the Black both speak unaccented English, both memories of her temporary life in the Friday and Cyber Monday of China, attended the embassy school in Beijing country. Zhao doesn’t think so: the sto- last year, Taobao and Tmall (China’s

Fred Dafu Lu works in Hangzhou, China,for a US-based developer of mobile apps. His cousin, who studies at UC Irvine, hopes to find find a re- search job in the United States. GILLES SABRIE

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Amazon and eBay) sold more than development: schooling abroad, work- procuring artifacts that document $5.7 billion in merchandise, two and a ing at home, marketing to the world. China’s 8,000 years of civilization. The half times what American retailers Lu says he’s encouraged by the num- young archaeologist, who works for sold on Cyber Monday. ber of internet companies that are China’s National Conservation Cen- The meal starts with cold beer, a plate disrupting traditional industries, dom- ter for Underwater Cultural Heritage, strewn with duck innards, and a recap of inated by state-owned enterprises such spends most of her days collecting ma- Lu’s fledgling career. He works in Hang- as communications, financial services, terials, reading, thinking, and writing zhou, in Zhejiang province in eastern and education. “I wanted to be part of articles or project reports. Wang, upbeat China, as a kind of chief operating offi- the change,” he says. “China is transi- and scholarly, says she prefers to work cer for a San Francisco–based internet tioning from a source of cheap labor in the field, where she plans excava- start-up that develops social mobile and manufacturing to a more globalized tions, makes drawings, and catalogs ar- applications for iOS and Android plat- marketplace, and I wanted to help shape tifacts. And she believes that her work is forms. The company’s flagship product the course of change as much as I can to every bit as critical to China’s future as allows users to send text messages, voice a place that is more efficient, transpar- the work of financial analysts and inter- messages, photos, videos, location, con- ent, and globalized. Social and environ- net start-ups. tact information, and other information mental issues aside, I’m seeing more and For example, Wang says, she re- over data networks. It is, to some extent, more of my friends and acquaintances cently finished a long project that con- inspired by Weibo, the web-based com- who live abroad move to China to take sidered whether China should approve munication tool that is the standard advantage of the potential possibilities the 2001 Convention on the Protection among young Chinese, at home and at in almost every industry.” of the Underwater Cultural Heritage, That said, Lu cites the example an issue that is particularly important of a cousin studying stem cells at the to the future of China because it involves Archaeologist University of California at Irvine work done in international waters Jing Wang who has decided to look for a job in and seabeds. says China's the United States, where research Wang says she was fortunate at BU to rich culture is the coun- facilities are better equipped than have as her master’s thesis advisor a PhD try's soul. they are in China. Others who have student trained by K. C. Chang, a profes- studied in the United States and sor of archaeology at Harvard and one of decided to stay express concerns the foremost authorities on ancient Chi- about air pollution in China. One na. “K. C. Chang is my model,” she says. young graduate of Cornell said she “I hope to do something important for returned to Beijing after gradua- archaeology in China. I hope that work- tion intending to make her career ing in cultural heritage conservation will in management in China. After one help China keep its culture, because that year of breathing the air, she said, is the country’s soul, and in that sense health concerns compelled her to it’s also important for the economy.” take a job in California. Perhaps more than most return- Lu believes that SMG prepared ees, Wang really does contemplate her him well for such a global enter- country’s soul, thousands of years deep prise. “Aside from the basic busi- and rich in poetry, music, and other ness skills you learn from the re- arts. And when she tries to reconcile the quired curriculum, working in a wisdom of the distant civilizations she GILLES SABRIE group of students with different studies by day with the world she sees concentrations and cultural back- on her way home—the skyscrapers and BU. Lu knows that Weibo, with roughly grounds definitely helped me,” he says. street vendors and the bicycles and new the same market penetration in China “The international community makes Mercedes-Benz dealerships—she is that Twitter has in the United States, up a pretty significant portion of stu- blessed, she says, with a very long view. is unassailable on its home turf, but he dents in SMG.” “Beijing always impresses me with thinks young people in other countries, so many different people, ideas, and val- including the United States, might adopt CONTEMPLATING CHINA’S SOUL ues,” she says. “It mixes the coolest is- a tool with texting-like capabilities but When Jing Wang (CAS’08) talks about sues in China with the most traditional no data charges. It’s the skip and jump acquisitions, she’s not referring to the issues. But it’s important to remember that, according to Huiyao Wang, is mergers and acquisitions that concern that Beijing changes more quickly than sparking much of China’s economic her fellow alums; she’s talking about people do.”

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224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 4848 11/30/14/30/14 11:01:01 PMPM Hugo Shong’s empire includes publishing, movies, TV shows, concert venues, and mainly, ven- ture capital.

THE PRODUCER Hugo Shong fi gured that if it worked in America, it should work better in the world’s fastest growing economy ADAM DEAN ADAM

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Hugo Shong recently sent a team to New York to study the production of Broadway musicals.

By Art Jahnke Hugo Shong scrawls a number on Shong (COM’87, GRS’90) pauses a whiteboard in a conference room a moment for emphasis, then of the sixth-fl oor o! ces of IDG raises his blue marker to the Capital Partners in the Dongcheng whiteboard. District of Beijing. “So in China there are 1.3 billion “Three hundred million,” he people, and we have 16,000 screens says. “That’s how many people by 2012.” are in the United States.” The message is that China, for all He writes again. of its explosive commercial devel- “About 40,000,” he says. “That’s opment, is still tens of thousands of how many movie screens are in theaters shy of its optimum num- the United States, OK?” ber. The message says opportunity.

WEB EXTRA Read these stories in Chinese at bu.edu/bostonia. 要阅读这些故事的中文版本，请前往: bu.edu/bostonia

224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014.indd 5050 11/30/14/30/14 11:01:01 PMPM Shong, founding general partner of IDG Capi- Shong was ready to go. “My happiest memory was tal Partners and chairman of IDG Greater China, as in college,” he told China Daily. “I could take classes well as a BU trustee, has been sounding out oppor- and learn new things every day. I always thought, tunities for two decades, and most of them involve isn’t that the most wonderful thing in the world.” the application of an American business model to Shong graduated from Hunan University and Shong now the world’s fastest growing economy. In the early took graduate courses in journalism at the Chinese publishes 1990s, Shong started publishing a Chinese edition Academy of Social Sciences, where he won a schol- more than 40 of a technology magazine that had been produced arship to COM. magazines, most with for years in the United States. In 1993, he launched American the first venture capital firm in China. Next came $38 AND A DREAM titles, including big-brand consumer magazines, a television game He arrived in Boston, he says, with $38 and a dream Cosmopolitan, show, then movies, an outdoor concert venue mod- of being the best journalist in China. He finished Harper’s Bazaar, eled on Tanglewood, and most recently, Broadway- what was supposed to be a two-year program in National style theater. eight months, and in 1988 enrolled in the Fletcher Geographic, Shong, who according to China Daily is known School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, and Men’s as “the godfather of Chinese venture capital,” has where a professor helped him get an internship at Health. cut a broad and somewhat unusual path to success Cahners, a publisher of trade magazines such as in the new China. Huiyao Wang, director general of the Center for China and Globalization, a nonprofit think tank based in Beijing, says most entrepre- neurial “returnees”—Chinese who were educated abroad—put their Western educations to work STUDENT BECOMES MASTER building technology companies. And while Shong has made many profitable investments in internet companies, his daily efforts often focus on softer While studying for a master’s degree at BU’s College of Communication, markets: publishing and entertainment. Hugo Shong (COM’87, GRS’90) worked as a teaching assistant in a course He now publishes more than 40 magazines, called Reporting Revolutions: China and Vietnam. The class, it turned out, most with American titles, including Cosmopoli- would make a big impression on a diligent student named David Barboza tan, Harper’s Bazaar, National Geographic, and (CAS’90), who 16 years later became the New York Times correspondent in Men’s Health, and his IDG China fund has invested Shanghai. Last year, Barboza won a Pulitzer Prize for International Report- in nearly 300 companies, including Chinese in- ing for his coverage of billions in secret wealth owned by relatives of China’s ternet behemoths like Baidu, Sohu, Tencent, and prime minister. SouFun. In May 2012, China Daily put the value of Barboza’s talent had been honored before. Seven years earlier, he re- his venture capital fund at $3.8 billion, which hap- ceived BU’s Hugo Shong Journalist of the Year Award for his reporting on pens to be 100 million times what Shong says he the economic boom in China. The $15,000 award, which was established by had when he arrived at BU’s College of Communi- Shong in spring 2005, is given each year to a print journalist for outstand- cation in 1986. ing reporting on Asian issues. Shong also endows the annual $30,000 Like most Chinese people older than 50, Shong Hugo Shong Lifetime Journalism Achievement Award, whose recipients felt the burden imposed by the Cultural Revolu- include ABC newsman Ted Koppel and Thomas Fiedler (COM’71), former tion, Mao Zedong’s dictate that from 1966 to 1976 Miami Herald managing editor and now dean of COM. AJ forced “bourgeois” elements who he thought posed a threat to Communism to be reeducated by work- New York Times ing as laborers on farms and in factories. As a young correspondent man, Shong spent four years working as an electri- David Barboza (right) receives cian in a factory. a Pulitzer Prize “I made the equivalent of $6 a month,” he says. for International Reporting from

“Life was different because of the Cultural Revolu- DAVE KOTINSKY/GETTY IMAGES Lee C. Bollinger, tion. We didn’t have the chance for a normal edu- president of cation. That’s why we appreciate the opportunity Columbia and why we always try to have some kind of dream.” University, in May 2013. When the Cultural Revolution came to an end in the late 1970s, Deng Xiaoping, then China’s leader, championed broad economic reforms, in- cluding the opportunity to get a college education.

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Variety and Publishers Weekly. “On the first day, I McGovern’s bets paid off. Shong’s fund directed helped them negotiate a contract to publish four is- investment to several internet start-ups, including sues of Electronic Business in China,” Shong recalls. Baidu, Tencent (QQ), Sohu, Ctrip, and SouFun, “They offered me a job.” companies that today are among the most success- More Shong attributes much of his success to two ful in China. More than 70 of the companies fueled than 70 things: an ability to recognize opportunities and by Shong’s money have gone public or sold for high companies a willingness to seize them. When the Fletcher returns in the last 20 years. backed by School was seeking a corporate sponsor for a din- “Hugo made investments in virtually every one Shong have ner whose special guest was a Chinese business of the highly successful technology-based com- leader, he persuaded Cahners to pitch in. panies starting in China during the 1990s,” says gone public At the dinner, the sociable Shong hit it off with McGovern. “Under his leadership, IDG Technology or sold another publisher of trade magazines, Patrick Venture Investment averaged 800 percent growth for high McGovern, the founder and chairman of Interna- on its investments. Hugo and his general part- returns. tional Data Group (IDG). Three years later, when ners now manage $4.4 billion of investment funds Cahners rejected Shong’s proposal to publish in China, and they continue to get outstand- another magazine in China, he rewrote the busi- ing results.” ness plan around Network World, one of McGov- Shong and McGovern, whose initial magazines ern’s magazines. focused on technology and business, expanded “I had worked at Cahners 16 hours a day for 3 their Chinese publishing to include consumer mag- years,” says Shong. “I learned so much about the azines, which flourished in China even while they publishing business. But what I really learned flagged in the United States. The September 2013 about was venture capitalism and entrepreneur- issue of Cosmopolitan had more than 600 pages of ship. And I thought that China was an opportunity.” editorial content and ads, and Harper’s Bazaar was McGovern read Shong’s proposal and invited so fat that it had to be printed in two parts. Shong him to a meeting that Shong recalls as an intense says Men’s Health and National Geographic are also and interesting three-hour discussion. Finally, thriving, as American advertisers rush to get their McGovern asked a question: if he were to fund products in front of China’s increasingly prosper- Shong’s plan, how much would he expect to be paid? ous and brand-conscious consumers. Shong, whose Shong told him $42,000, the same salary he was get- “Hugo grew IDG’s media business from 2 publi- IDG Media Fund ting at Cahners. He also asked that he report direct- cations in 1990 to over 40 joint-venture magazines, has invested in ly to McGovern. McGovern had a slightly different newspapers, and websites today,” says McGovern. several films, idea. He offered Shong $50,000, to be reconsidered “Those include all the leading consumer maga- among them last year’s 21 & Over, in six months, when he had a better idea of what zines on fashion, jewelry, automobiles, travel. says American Shong’s efforts were worth. Half a year later, the Hugo also has arranged to establish three centers filmmakers are two met again. for neuroscience studies at leading universities in “very good at “I said, ‘Pat, what do you think?’” recalls Shong. China with philanthropic funding support of over making movies, “‘Have I met your expectations?’ He said, ‘Hugo, $30 million.” but really poor at capturing you have exceeded all of my expectations.’ And he culture.” He says doubled my salary.” NO ENTERTAINMENT STONE UNTURNED there are many In 1992, Shong brought another, and much bold- Movies were next on Shong’s list, and with good classic Chinese er, idea to McGovern: he wanted to start a venture reason. The New York Times reports that China’s stories that could and should be capital fund in China. “Everything I knew about domestic box office was expected to hit $3.5 bil- made into movies. venture capital I learned from being a reporter lion in 2013, making it the world’s second largest, and writing about it,” he says. “I really didn’t know behind the United States. Shong, whose IDG much, but I knew people who did, so I talked to peo- Media Fund has invested in several films, among ple at venture capital firms, such as Hambrecht & them last year’s 21 & Over, says American film- Quist and Schroder Ventures.” makers are “very good at making movies, but really Now a believer, McGovern gave Shong $10 mil- poor at capturing culture.” He says there are many lion in seed money, and he was given another classic Chinese stories that could and should be $10 million by the government of Shanghai. made into movies. “I learned a lot from Pat McGovern,” he says. “I know people in Hollywood,” he says. “And “He had a philosophy of ‘Let’s try it.’ I learned I see the potential to train American students to to identify opportunities, and he was willing to make movies in China.” bet on me.” Toward that end, Shong last year funded a schol-

!" BOSTONIA Winter–Spring 2014

224-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014_r4.indd4-53_BostoniaWinterSpring2014_r4.indd 5252 22/6/14/6/14 99:35:35 AAMM Shong says too many Americans know Chinese culture through Kung Fu Panda and Mulan. ADAM DEAN ADAM

arship program that will send nine fellows of the one of three leading judges on the popular televi- American Film Institute (AFI) to China for cultural sion show Win in China, which gave $5 million in research that will support feature-length screen- venture capital funding to the contestant with the Shong founded Looking Beijing, plays. The AFI/IDG China Story Fellowship gives most viable business plan. The show attracted tens a partnership the screenwriters a full scholarship to a second year of millions of viewers, who shared on social media program between at the AFI Conservatory, where they can develop Shong’s often-witty remarks. Beijing Normal their projects. Shong sometimes seems unwilling to leave any University and “Too many Americans know Chinese culture entertainment stone unturned. Since 2010, his IDG IDG that sends eight Boston through Kung Fu Panda and Mulan,” says Shong. Media Fund has been organizing the annual Beijing University film “But China has a remarkable and distinguished his- Great Wall Forest Festival in the Music Valley, an majors to Beijing tory. Americans deserve to see other types of mov- outdoor concert venue next to the Great Wall that for 10 days each ies about China, movies that can educate them and is modeled on the Tanglewood Music Festival in summer. touch their hearts.” Lenox, Mass. He plans to expand the park, one Three years ago, Shong also founded Looking hour from Beijing, to include indoor and outdoor Beijing, a partnership program between Beijing theaters, hotels, and villas. Normal University (BNU) and IDG that sends In April 2013, true to his formula of translating eight Boston University film majors to Beijing for American know-how to Chinese business, Shong 10 days each summer. There they are paired with sent a team from his media fund to New York to "What a communications major at BNU and set loose in meet with the Nederlander Organization, which China has the city to film short documentaries on subjects owns nine Broadway theaters and is known around is a huge they choose. the world for its production expertise. Shong says market; “The US students take the lead in the creative he hopes to produce in China “the kind of beautiful what the part, and the Chinese students are producers,” says musicals” seen in New York theaters. United program coordinator Roni Zhang (COM’08). “The “What China has now is a huge market,” he says. BU and Chinese students work one-on-one, so it’s “What the United States has is a place to learn. It States has not just about making a movie in the end. The pro- has the best education system, and it has competi- is a place cess of making the movie itself is interesting.” tiveness. I think that over the next 20 years, the two to learn." In 2006, Shong became the face of Chinese countries will make a big difference in the world, entrepreneurship, literally, when he signed on as socially, culturally, as well as economically.” p

Winter–Spring 2014 BOSTONIA !"

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