In an interview with Andrea Bernardi, Senior Lecturer in Employment and Organization Studies at Oxford Brookes University, Shan spoke about the context of the Asian financial crisis and the international rescue efforts, and how private equity can be a force for good ad create value. Money Games is a great book (more than what the title could let you guess) that a diverse readership will find interesting: economists, political scientists, businessmen, policymakers.
How private equity whiz Weijian Shan went from penniless in the Gobi desert to orchestrating a takeover of one of China’s biggest banks
Private equity is by its nature and up and down business, but few tales hold a candle to that of Weijian Shan, the Chinese-born dealmaker who clinched one of the most unlikely and successful deals of the early 21st century.
Mao’s former barefoot doctor recalls sole foreign takeover of Chinese bank
Opportunity to buy control of a bank in China, home to the fast economic growth in the world, was certainly appealing, Shan Weijian says in new book Money Machine
My review of Shan Weijian’s highly-revealing new China book MONEY MACHINE. It’s a gripping fly-on-the-wall account of Newbridge’s famed and landmark acquisition of a controlling stake in Shenzhen Development Bank; the turnaround of that NPL-festooned financial institution; and its eventual sale by Newbridge to Ping An. A must read for anyone interested in China dealmaking, local government machinations and the culture that powers Peter Ma’s Chinese financial conglomerate Ping An.
Financial Times ‘Out of the Gobi’ Book Review: Weijian Shan’s journey from Mao’s revolution to US high finance
Gabriel Wildau reviews Weijian Shan’s ‘Out of the Gobi‘ in the Weekend edition of The Financial Times:
‘Out of the Gobi’ recalls a harrowing time in China’s recent history
Project Syndicate ‘Out of the Gobi’ Review: Resilience and Rebellion in Contemporary China
Minxin Pei reviews ‘Out of the Gobi‘ for Project Syndicate:
Anyone who reads Weijian Shan’s Out of Gobi will understand why the world’s largest one-party regime wants to keep historical truths buried and undisturbed. Now a successful Hong Kong-based investor, Shan spent his teenage years living as one of the “sent-down youth” in the Gobi Desert of Inner Mongolia during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). As such, he fell victim to one of that decade’s most heartbreaking tragedies.”
Trade Talks With China Open in Washington, as Obstacles Abound
“I think it’s very difficult to keep them separate,” said Weijian Shan, a Hong Kong-based private equity investor and author of “Out of the Gobi,” a memoir that depicts China’s modern history. “To the extent that China feels that this is a major issue with America, they will bring it up.”
WSJ: ‘Out of the Gobi’ Review: The Good Earth Was Elsewhere
Tom Nagorski reviews Weijian Shan’s new memoir, Out of the Gobi, in The Wall Street Journal:
“Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America” is Weijian Shan’s deeply affecting memoir. It is also a story that mirrors China’s dizzying recent history: the Cultural Revolution, with all its madness; the opening to the United States, with all the promise it held; and Deng Xiaoping’s decision to unleash a market-based system, with all the changes it wrought. Mr. Shan has lived this history, suffered from its excesses and thrived thanks to the opening. Today he is one of the more respected and successful financiers in the “new China.”
Foreign Affairs: China Turned Upside Down – Life During Mao’s Bloody, Chaotic Cultural Revolution
This essay in Foreign Affairs is adapted from Weijian Shan’s new memoir, Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America (Wiley, 2019).