China Needs 20 More Years to Become Really Innovative

On Saturday I went to a Yale Club of Beijing Masters Tea talk by Xu Xiaoping at Peking University. Xu Xiaoping is one of China’s most prominent angel investors; but not just in the fields of tech start-ups but also film and philanthropy. At the end of 2011, his angel fund Zhenfund announced its partnership with Sequoia Capital China to create a US$30 Million JV seed fund. He is probably most famous for being the former co-founder and Vice Chairman of New Oriental Group, a NYSE-listed education company that helps prepare Chinese to study overseas, mainly America.

The main topic of discussion was about ‘Innovation in China’. One of his conclusions was that, in this generation, China will not be able to produce their very own equivalent of Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. However he did say, things are changing and it will just take time to happen. Here are some of his reasons:

1. China has a culture of education first at the expense of passion

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