Li Lu: from Cultural Revolution to Tiananmen Square

Executive overview

Li Lu — founder of Himalaya Capital and Charlie Munger's 20-year investment partner — wrote this memoir in his early 20s, before any of that success was imaginable. The book covers his childhood in Communist China: nine foster families by age nine, surviving the deadliest earthquake in human history, and leading student protests at Tiananmen Square before fleeing the country.

The drive for accurate, complete information — forged by a childhood of propaganda, deprivation, and isolation — became the foundation of one of the most disciplined investing minds of his generation.

Childhood in Communist China

• Born to "problem" parents: father accused of being a spy, mother from a land-owning family — both categories persecuted under Mao
• Placed in a state boarding kindergarten at age four; only child not allowed to go home on weekends
• Wore the same patched, dirty jacket year-round; bullied as a "bastard" by classmates
• Teachers maintained control by encouraging children to hate each other and beating them with fly swats and bamboo switches
• Moved through at least nine families by age nine — parents couldn't keep him due to ongoing political persecution

Early lessons in authority and truth-seeking

• When other children believed lizards were poisonous, Li tested it himself — and found they weren't; his confidence grew from seeking truth over received wisdom
• Developed intense questioning habits to learn about the outside world he never got to see
• Recognized early that those given power routinely abused it — factory officials, neighborhood committee directors, teachers
• The Zang family (connected to local government) could deny ration tickets for meat and vegetables, effectively starving those they disliked

Loss and survival

• Taken in by "Big Dad" — a coal miner and true friend of his biological father — who housed him alongside six sons despite extreme poverty
• Big Dad died in a mine explosion; the family collapsed immediately: "The family collapsed. We had nothing left. Very soon the family had nothing to eat. I could no longer stay with them."
• Survived the 1976 Tangshan earthquake — the deadliest in human history, killing over 300,000 — at age ten; found Big Ma and her six children crushed under their collapsed roof
• Fought back against bullies and powerful children throughout; refused to accept injustice without resistance

Books as a way out

• A teacher named Wang offered him a home when his parents were sent away, giving him stability for the first time
• Discovered a school library with thousands of books — his first — and read "all day long"
• Described books the same way Charlie Munger later would: a means to travel the world and "make friends with the eminent dead"
• Formed a secret study group called Stream, modelled on Einstein's Olympia Club, to read and discuss China's problems
• A physics teacher told him: "You should go to the United States. Study and research need an atmosphere of free inquiry."

The drive to compete

• Father's explanation of the college entrance exam became a turning point: "Competition means you work hard and society will give you a reward"
• Devised a strict daily schedule: up at 4:45am, study, run to school, full day of classes, home at 9:30pm, work until midnight
• Placed fifth in his school in the national exams; secured a place at a top university
• Later, after fleeing to the US at 23, learned English in a single summer and became one of the first Columbia students to receive three degrees simultaneously: BA economics, MBA, and JD

Tiananmen Square and escape

• Became a student leader in the 1989 protests; placed on the government's list of top 21 most wanted
• Witnessed soldiers fire on crowds, tanks crush tents with sleeping students inside
• Spent nights moving between safe houses; descriptions of him and fellow leaders broadcast nationally
• Escaped China via a smuggling route through Hong Kong originally used for Western contraband
• Left at 23 with no money, no English, and no idea what his future held