Original link: http://catcoding.me/p/out-of-the-gobi/
Recently I read “Out of the Gobi” by Shan Weijian. The author is a famous financier and investor. I am not familiar with this author, but after reading it, I thought it was very good, so I recommend it to everyone.
This book records the author’s experiences since childhood, his youthful life as an educated youth, and his memories of studying in the United States. It can be regarded as a memoir. The original version is “Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America” written in English, but the Chinese version is said to be not directly translated, but many parts are rewritten in Chinese. I guess there are some parts of the English version that if translated, the book would not be published.
I have read some books about educated youth going to the countryside. The first time I happened to find a copy of “Wasted Years” written by Ye Xin at home, so I started reading it. That era was unfamiliar to me, a person born in the 1980s, but some of the psychological characteristics of the characters in the novel were familiar to me at that time, such as shyness and low self-esteem. I later read this book several times, and it also contained some descriptions of the psychology of love. It was the first novel that I became more immersed in, so it is still deeply impressive to this day.
Wang Xiaobo has also written many articles about the years of educated youth. Everyone in that era was burdened with the shackles of the times. Origin and composition largely determined a person’s destiny. Most people lost the opportunity to receive education because of the 10 years of catastrophe. Chance.
Some autobiographies and memoirs can feel a bit boastful when read, but in this book, the author writes it in a seemingly calm and humorous tone. The details are very rich, and it still makes people feel comfortable while reading. Feeling the biting north wind in the Gobi desert, such a life is really hard.
A group of young people were placed in the Gobi Desert, and they had to find something to do and complete their own “transformation”. Their daily life was to “repair the earth” while hungry. There are many such things in it, which make people work hard to complete but the results seem meaningless. For example, the army asked everyone to dig potatoes, but they dug them out and did not drive to collect them. Most of them rotted in the ground. ; For example, everyone was asked to build a trench, and then they conducted endless drills in the middle of the night. As a result, a small number of people were buried in the trench.
After doing this for a few times, most people will “see through the world of mortals” and start to work as a foreigner, but the author’s mentality is “you must do everything well, otherwise it will be a waste of time to be idle, and you are competitive. Although you are thin, But I don’t want to be second to others, that’s all.”
There was no English information to read, so I read the English words in the drug instructions repeatedly. He had a positive and serious work attitude and took the time to learn everything. Because of this, he was later elected to become a worker, peasant, and soldier college student. One thing that impressed me deeply was his way of dealing with interpersonal relationships. When he was being calculated by others, he did not complain too much about others. Instead, he recognized that this is the evil that exists in human nature, and then tried to solve it from his own perspective. these questions. He started a plan to make friends, and he could also use some seemingly hidden methods, such as asking his father to send him a book to learn to be a volleyball referee, so that more people from other companies would know him. It is very difficult for a 20-year-old to be able to look at his own situation from the perspective of a bystander and find a solution.
The author was still rejected in the college student election in the past two years, probably because his relationship with the team leader was not close enough. These two times were a big blow to the author, so the ability to resist friction is very important. Even if you are very sad, you have to stay calm in front of others:
Walking endlessly, crying loudly while walking. - That night, I returned to the dormitory very late. I warned myself not to give up. No matter how much setback I suffered, I could never give up. Giving up would be a crime against myself. I have to persevere, keep working hard, and wait for the next opportunity.
Therefore, college students in that era were not purely exam-oriented, but they were definitely very extraordinary people who could go to college through group recommendation. After experiencing the hardships of that era, any hardships in study in the future will be regarded as nothing. After the author went to college, he learned and grew at an astonishing rate. In 10 years, he went from an educated youth in the Gobi to an associate professor in an Ivy League school. After arriving in the United States, he was able to convince the school and professors within two or three weeks to customize a special learning path for himself and obtain a master’s degree within two years:
- I admit that the flexibility of the American system is a natural fit for me. Under the domestic system, going to college was like going to heaven, and there was almost no right to make a free choice.
- In my most discouraged moments, I repeatedly reminded myself that self-indulgence was a crime against myself. Based on this belief, I never gave up, but worked tirelessly and studied hard to get where I am today.
One of the touching stories is that the professor and his wife found that the author wanted to get a degree and had strong learning ability, but did not have enough money to cover the academic expenses, so they lied and said that someone anonymously funded him. In fact, the professor and his wife funded him themselves. he. I guess it may be because the author caught up with the first wave of new China to study in the United States. Many people are curious about them, or “God will help those who help themselves.”
There is also a short story that shows that the author is well aware of the rules of the system and is very wise in doing things. He went to the United States through a study abroad program of the foundation, so studying for a master’s degree was not actually part of the plan:
Later I understood why the officials of the Asia Foundation were not enthusiastic. They were worried that if they made an exception for me, it would affect the relationship between the foundation and the Foreign Trade Institute. Andy said that he would write a letter to the leaders of the Foreign Trade Institute to seek Beijing’s opinions.
I said you can’t write like that, and he asked me why. I said, if you ask Beijing for their opinion, they will study whether to approve it. There are only two possibilities – approve or disapprove. It’s great if it’s approved, but what should I do if it’s not approved? Andy asked me if there was a better way? I said yes, and you sent a congratulatory message to Beijing, saying that my academic performance was excellent, and the school decided to give me a scholarship. I only need to defer for one semester, and I can get a master’s degree. For such achievements, the Asia Foundation congratulated the School of Foreign Trade. Nothing else needs to be said.
Andy dubiously accepted my suggestion and drafted a telegram praising me, attributing my achievements to the leadership of the Foreign Trade College who knew people well and expressed his congratulations. Two weeks later, Andy called and said that the Foreign Trade Institute had called back. “What do you say?” I asked anxiously. He paused and said, “Just four words – ‘Thank you very much’.” I was elated.
As I expected, who can refuse congratulations from others? Later, the leader of the School of Foreign Trade wrote a letter to me, expressing satisfaction with my academic performance in the United States and encouraging me to continue my efforts and obtain my degree as soon as possible.
While reading this book, I was reminded of my hardest working years in junior high school. It was my first time attending boarding school, and the school’s material conditions were very poor. Every time I went to eat after class, I had to race 100 meters, otherwise my meal would be divided up. Another deep impression is that cold and hot water also need to be grabbed. In those years, I began to feel the joy of learning and thinking. I didn’t feel tired even after self-study until midnight. I thought the geometry proof questions were very interesting. I would get up at five or six o’clock the next morning and go to the teacher to read early. Looking back, I have never been so focused and hardworking since then.
Deprivation and suffering may really temper people. How to survive in such a big environment, stay optimistic and grow in adversity, what this book describes is something that most people cannot do. You can modify the elder’s sentence: A person’s destiny must of course take into account the process of history, and it mainly depends on self-strength.
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