Silicon Valley Tech VP Long Way From Countryside

I first met Dr. Tong Liu (not his real name) at a Chinese New Year gathering in February of 2016. When he heard about my blog, he agreed to be interviewed. But as a Vice President of a well-known Silicon Valley tech company, he’s super busy. So this new-year plan turned into an end-of-the-year interview.  

We met in a relatively quiet café one Friday in October. I’d only planned to spend a couple of hours with him. But, by the time we were done, the waiter had given up on us ever vacating the premises. It’s not that Liu was long-winded; in fact, he spoke in bullet points (I could almost see the power point slides in the air.) But, he had lots to say.

Like our previous guest on Bridge Over the Pacific-- Jason Jianyu Tu-- Liu was born in China’s countryside, albeit in 1961.

“If you visit China, there are two cultures. One is the northern part, represented by Beijing and Xian. The other is the southern, represented by Suzhou, Hangzhou, Yangzhou.  The south--my hometown--is along the Yangtze River. I grew up in the countryside and then came to the county of Jiangdu in the district of Yangzhou at age 12.”

From my earlier interview with Tu we heard how difficult it was to move from one location to another. He mentioned that each person needs a hukou—proof of residence—in order to live legitimately in a place. Whereas Tu’s mother spent a decade bribing officials so that they could move out of the countryside, Liu was fortunate. His mother had grown up in Jiangdu and thus still had ties to that county.

“My mother is the daughter of a merchant of a family-owned business.” 

Liu’s parents were not highly educated. (His mother had received a middle school education, while his father only got as far as elementary school.) Still, they believed in schooling their children. Liu’s mother held more than the average sway in the family, and not because of her education. 

“She had six siblings, and she was the only survivor. In China, the girls typically marry to the man’s family. But in our family, my father went to my mother’s place because my mother is the only child surviving the family.”

Typically, explained Liu, women do not change their surnames when they marry. But the children of the marriage take the father’s surname.  

“The first two kids in my family are actually named after my mother.  I’m named after my father. The way the rule works, the first two kids go after the mother’s last name if the man is married into the mother’s family. The rest could be named after the father if there was an agreement before they married.”

(To be continued. Next:  University--an unexpected opportunity.)