Heros (英雄）

February 24th, 2009
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I’ve been lucky. My entire life has been filled really great teachers. People much wiser than I who have been kind enough to help point the way ahead. Confucius (孔子) said that:

“By three methods we may learn wisdom: first, by reflection, which is noblest; second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third, by experience, which is the most bitter.”

Perhaps my parents read me Analects of Confucius (论语) when I was an infant, as I’ve always worked hard to take the easiest of Confucius’ paths. If you’re going to imitate, best to emulate the best…

JIM JANNARD (简纳德): Entrepreneur. Founder Oakley and RED Digital Cinema.

JIM ROGERS (罗杰斯): Investor. Founder Quantum Fund and Rogers Commodity Index.

SIDNEY RITTENBERG (李敦白): Revolutionary. American. Founding member of People’s Republic of China.   Three very different, extremely amazing guys who’ve each taught me a lot…

And you thought I was just going to tell you? ;-)

OK ~ some day I’ll pass on some of these lessons… But just not quite yet.

Sidney Rittenberg 李敦白, Wang Yulin 王玉林 and Ryan Erwin (欧文) at Shanghai Xintiandi 新天第

Sidney Rittenberg 李敦白, Wang Yulin 王玉林 and Ryan Erwin (欧文) in Shanghai

Jim Rogers 吉姆．罗杰斯 and Ryan Erwin 欧文 on top of the Shanghai Ritz-Carlton

Jim Rogers 吉姆．罗杰斯 and Ryan Erwin 欧文 on top of the Shanghai Ritz-Carlton

Yang Qianli 杨千里 and Ryan Erwin 欧文 at the Hyatt on the Bund, Shanghai

Yang Qianli 杨千里 and Ryan Erwin 欧文 at the Hyatt on the Bund, Shanghai

 Yang Qianli was director of the IEEE among other things ;-)

  1. Rocky Wang
    May 5th, 2009 at 21:40 | #1
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    Hi Ryan, When I was searching “War Reparations” in google, found your site here. And only from your article, I know there was a brave man,”SIDNEY RITTENBERG ” the only American citizen to join the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). But I wonder why never had I learned this before from Chinese press. Thanks for your aticles and best wishes to you! Wang

  2. ryan
    May 6th, 2009 at 02:24 | #2
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    @Rocky Wang Actually, there is occasionally some discussion of Rittenberg, but not a whole lot. Sidney isn’t really a “fame seeking” guy. His chinese name is 李敦白 and the chinese version of his book is called 『红幕后的洋人』. You should be able to find it at most Chinese language book stores.

  3. Yolanda Huang
    July 18th, 2009 at 02:25 | #3
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    Just read a news report of Sidey. Found your website while I googled his name. It’s interesting to see you have met these legendary people. I browsed through the things you wrote up, and thought you might be a journalist.

  4. ryan
    August 10th, 2009 at 09:49 | #4
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    @Yolanda Huang Interesting idea! I just checked with Wikipedia which says that a journalist is:

    A person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that aren’t biased

    From that prospective, RyanErwin.com is gathering and disseminating information about issues and striving for a viewpoint that isn’t biased.

    However, wikipedia also says that:

    Reporters are one type of journalist. They create reports as a profession for broadcast or publication in mass media.

    According to the definition, I know at least one great reporter, but am not one myself.

    I am only Ryan Erwin. Entrepreneur. Manager. Technologist.（创始者，管理者，技术者)

    Perhaps one day I can become: Ryan Erwin. Philosopher. Historian. Economist. Linguist. Statesman. (哲学家，历史家，经济学家，语言学家，政治家)

    Or maybe a poet… 诗人

  5. ryan
    August 10th, 2009 at 10:13 | #5
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    @Rocky Wang Rocky, there was some mention of Sidney as Mao’s appointed Chief Editor for the english version of Chairman Mao’s Red Book (红皮书) on the Shanghai History Channel yesterday (Sunday, August 9th 2009). He and Qian Zhongshu (钱锺书) were officially credited as doing the translation.