---Column of Larry Lee, president of the US-China Foundation
Excerpt from the airline magazine The Metropolitan with Blue Sky, Issue 3 of 2006
I do not know what I will do in the next decade. One Chinese old saying goes that man of 50 knows his destiny. “I know that my choice is right now”. Larry Lee said, having experienced changing life of a half century.
Larry lee, president of the US-China Foundation, generalized his past life as “four decades, four visages”. In the past four decades, he continuously changed his role in life. From a student to a school leaver; from a poet to a leader of fugue poem theory; from a brilliant scholar to a doctor graduate student of Duke University and from a businessman to a pioneer of Sino-US relations. Every change meant a challenge to him. But it was his attitude to life that led him to a relative peak in each field. Larry said, it was one’s contribution to the society that first represented his success, and then came the success and happiness one achieved in a particular field. The amount of money you earn cannot be taken as a sign of how successful you are. People always pay too much attention to money, but value cannot be measured by money, which is just one aspect of success. It never represents all. Your sense of accomplishment derives from the agreement of your ideal and what you are doing.
“Play”—“play” to the extreme
Chinese Cultural Revolution began in 1966, when Larry lee was 10 years old and his father transferred to the Central Communist Northeast Bureau from the Northeast Engineering College (now the Northeast University). Therefore, they moved from Changchun to Shenyang. At that time, the Cultural Revolution carried out the doctrine that “doubt everything, knock down everything”. Although Larry had already gone to the primary school, there was hardly a normal class. Like other children at that period, he saw people criticized, the fight, the Red Guard, etc. Besides, he played to the extreme, the tunnel war, the land mine station, digging holes, hiding kinds of food, etc.
To the country and publish the first long poem
To Larry lee, 1975 can be considered as the first turning point in his life. He graduated from high school that year. At that period, the nation started to pay attention to the education, so did the teacher. It was at that time that Larry lee possessed his dreams. In 1975, he volunteered to Mongolia. Three years past, Leader of production for two years and political leading member of starting business for one year. At that time, literature was Larry lee’s favorite. He published his first long poem birth of the rising sun with the whole version space in Liaoning daily, which became a sensation. “Bestride the horse, flick to rise the pole and run quickly on the prairie.” “Live to bestriding the horse in the prairie and die to seeing the sunset in the prairie”. This kind of intense romantic revolutionary emotion spread across the Mongolia prairie.
The living environment can cultivate the will and the dream of a person at that time. That decade formed the basic style of Larry lee’s life, which full of intense emotion and persistent will.
At Renmin University of China—a period of refreshment
In 1976，Gang of Four was crushed and the college entrance examination was restored. In 1978, Larry Lee became the number one in the art examination with excellent mark. Peking University, Renmin University of China, Fudan University, etc. were under his consideration. At last, he went to Renmin University of China. From 1978 to 1985, four-year a bachelar and three-year a postgraduate made the whole seven years. In that learning environment with intense academic thought and freedom, where talents all over the country gathered, Larry lee’s eagerness of the knowledge was fully satisfied. Larry lee grew up to be mature and reached a higher level. That environment posed him not only a challenge, but also a motivation to keep on learning.
At that time, from Confucianism to Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Hegel, from Marx, Engels, Nietzsche to Hedguer and Ardona, at last, to professor F. Jameson, his tutor in Duke university and sponsor of post-modernism. Eagerness and accumulation of knowledge was another turning point to Larry lee. During college times, he became the leader of fugue poem without intentions. In 1981, when he was a junior, he released a well-known article named Fugue Poem and One Generation, which made a controversy with the old poet AiQing. Numerous publications republished that article, which was his first academic article published, but it established his status in Chinese literature field. Since then, people have focused on him in that literature-regard period.
In the United States—birth of a new idea
1986 was the beginning of the great changes in his third decade. After graduation, he chose to work in Peking University. However, this opportunity ended before it had appeared soon. Larry lee met professor Jameson, the founder of the post-modernism, who transformed all the rest of his life. Professor Jameson taught at Peking University then. He happened to know Larry lee and considered that he is quite a promising man. Then, he took him to Duke University, the one where the president Nixon graduated. Larry lee devoted himself to the doctor’s degree there. Soon after Larry’s arrival to the US, he seemed to be back to the start: from a famous scholar to an ordinary doctor. He learned up-to-date literature theory with his American schoolmates. In 1990s, he received Doctor’s degree. But during that period, his conception changed a lot. He felt that what Americans knew about china was far less than Chinese knew about America.
What shocked Larry Lee most was in a party. An American lady about 27 year old chatted with him and asked where he came from. He said Beijing. The lady was surprised, “Beijing, why”? He had no idea but explained that Beijing is the capital of china just as Washington of America. At that time, Larry Lee was the president of the sodality concerning Chinese students abroad and visit Scholars in Duke University, and he had many American and Chinese friends with the common ideal. That idea was to set up an institute that can further promote Sino-US communication. It was at that time the rudiments of the US and China Foundation was shaped.
Until 1992, the US-China Foundation was formally registered in America. Larry lee worked in the foundation and at the time worked as the vice-president of a department store. He was in charge of the purchase in the store, which was another challenge for his character. Soon after that he established his own company and became a real businessman. During this decade, from a scholar with high reputation to a businessman, Larry also did part-time job at the foundation. In 1997, after much consideration, Larry lee made another great decision to give up his business and devote to the foundation wholeheartedly. From academic field to business circles and then back to Sino-US relations, he experienced a no-yes-no progress in his life.
Ten Years—My life and Destiny
The old saying tells that cast a sword for a decade. From 1996 to 2006, Larry lee devoted himself building a bridge of friendship between China and US communication. Ever since 1999, Larry Lee took up the post of Executive President of the US-China Foundation; the US-China Forum has been held every year. The annual forum began from the millenary year and became an important brand of the US-China Foundation in communication of the two countries. In 2004, International Environment Protection Forum was held in shanghai and the US former president Bush was invited. Then, Sino-US educational communication and cooperation Signature Ceremony was held in People’s Great Hall. These years, Larry Lee has made several of his own brands for the foundation during recent years in various aspects, including politics, economics, culture, academic communication and students’ summer camping. Larry Lee has played so many roles in the past live. However, if you ask him what is his favorite in life, his answer will be a comfortable life. But what is a comfortable life? It is that feeling yourself in your career, and the most happiest is to pursue what you would like to do.
