Remembering China's Cultural Revolution

Today, Weijian Shan is known as one of the world’s most successful financiers and a pioneer in the field of private equity. But as a teenager growing up during China’s Cultural Revolution, he was dispatched along with millions of other youths to the countryside, where he toiled in the remote Gobi Desert and participated in the era's Maoist political campaigns.

Shan recounted this experience in his new memoir Out of the Gobi: China, the U.S., and One Man’s Remarkable Odyssey (you can read an excerpt here). In the latest episode of the Asia Abridged podcast, drawn from a recent conversation he held with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Shan describes how a tumultuous upbringing in revolutionary China paved the way for his unlikely success in business.

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ARTS

In New Delhi, Three Artists Honored

Earlier this month, Asia Society India and Asia Society Museum honored artists Vibha Galhotra, Gulammohammed Sheikh, and Yang Yongliang at the third Asia Arts Game Changer India Awards in a spectacular ceremony in New Delhi. Co-chaired by Pheroza Godrej and Sangita Jindal, the evening began with a live jazz performance by Jason Hammers and Pranai Gurung and featured over 140 guests from across the art world.

The awards ceremony followed a special ceremony on January 18 that honored Akbar Padamsee and was held at Mumbai’s historic Pundole Art Gallery.

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POLICY

The Death of China's Reforms?

Negotiators from the United States and China have spent this winter working toward a deal to resolve significant differences between the world’s two largest economies. In the Winter 2019 update of the China Dashboard, a project co-produced by the Asia Society Policy Institute and Rhodium Group that tracks the country’s economic reforms, China has stalled or reversed in eight of the 10 categories measured.

The China Dashboard’s results are largely consistent with the findings of a major report recently published by the Task Force on U.S.-China Relations. In this video, report co-author and former U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky describes how China’s convergence with global norms stopped more than a decade ago — and the country has since slid backward.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Washington, D.C. — The Great Firewall: The Effects of China’s Internet Policies, 2/20
Mumbai — Young Turks on the Political Scene, 2/20
Houston — Ali Velshi: Weaponization of Culture, 2/21
New York — Buried Seeds: An Evening with Vikas Khanna, 2/21
New York — Leadership in Turbulent Times, 2/25

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