As the chaos of the Cultural Revolution engulfed China, Weijian Shan, age 15, endured years of manual labor in the remote Gobi Desert. Passionate about his education, Shan lost a decade of schooling. Yet, as he describes in his remarkable new autobiography, Out of the Gobi: My Story of China and America, he never gave up on studying. Having only completed elementary school, Dr. Shan attended prestigious academic institutions in the United States beginning in the early 1980’s.

Dr. Shan shared his amazing story with the National Committee on January 28.

About the Speaker