A Sidebar Conversation with Master Dong on 20 Years of Chinese Venture Capital

@Jing Liu

Happy New Year to all elsewherereaders!

Today's issue is a special edition. Toward the end of last year, I sat down with Dong Lihan — known to many as "Master Dong" — editor-in-chief of ChinaVenture. The occasion was the recent release of his and his editorial team's book, a Chinese counterpart to Power Law, titled The History of Chinese Venture Capital.

The book chronicles the past two decades of China's VC industry in all its swagger and strategic brilliance. Compared to my own sporadic "Chinese Investment Stories" on social media, Master Dong's work is the real official history.

Dong was among the earliest journalists to cover China's investment industry. He joined ChinaVenture in 2012, later worked at a proper magazine, founded a media outlet called "Bowangzhi," and even briefly did branding at a VC firm before returning to ChinaVenture in 2020. Many have noticed the editorial experiments the publication has pursued since his return.

As a fellow journalist, I've always been curious how Dong describes the investment world beyond his articles. Though one can roughly guess that what draws him to investing or business differs from what draws me. His real fuel seems to be understanding people and wrestling with philosophy.

For instance, he thinks about questions like this: Why does a fellow Hebei native of his speak without a trace of regional accent? Why is Yan Li of Zhongding Capital the only one in the industry bold enough to let his Northeastern dialect run free? Is regional economy itself a symbol of power?

Or why does Neil Shen always walk so fast?

Or how he was moved by a line from DCM's Hurst Lin: "Never envy the rich."

Or what if Allen Zhu, Neil Shen had been born 20 years earlier, or even 200 years earlier — how would their lives have turned out?

Or how he always recalls Tong Weiliang of Wutongshu Capital, whom he first met when entering the industry. What he truly remembers isn't Tong as an investor, but Tong as a literary youth, as the founder of a website called "Sick Children in the Dark."

Or his reading of John Doerr — not merely the (misguided) clean-energy investments he led at KPCB, but his social value beyond the investor identity, as "a leading figure pushing society forward."

In a previous elsewhereconversation with Yuan Liu of ZhenFund, he joked that we were all "people who stumbled into this industry." That assessment seems to fit Master Dong even better.

For more on Neil Shen, David Zhang, Hurst Lin, Peter Kwong, and the inside story of twenty years of Chinese venture capital, please head to the Xiaoyuzhou app for the full audio version, or Bilibili and other platforms for the full video version.

Finally, two small stories between Dong and me.

The first is from when we first met. My editor and I had gone to Sequoia Capital China for an interview. As we entered, we greeted him and asked how he'd been. Dong didn't seem to treat it as small talk — he answered quite seriously: "Not too well." As I recall, the interview was about to begin, so we didn't follow up and just walked into the conference room. Dong stood in the doorway holding his coffee cup, frozen for a few seconds.

The second was in 2019. Both of us were writing pieces about Hillhouse. The pressure of competing on the same story is hard to describe. But the thing was, the straight-shooting Dong actually asked me to coffee, said he was working on Hillhouse, and asked if I had any leads or valuable contacts. That cup of coffee was a complicated one to drink.

Though come to think of it, the most memorable stories for two people covering the investment industry both involve these two firms — I wonder if that's just coincidence.

The Bowangzhi WeChat account description once quoted a line from Lo Ta-yu: "Those who don't understand you fret for you, those who do sigh that this life was worth the journey." I asked Dong what he meant by it. He said it had been so long, he'd forgotten.

That's rather Dong of him. Now, let's hear his sharp takes on China's VC industry.

Once again, wishing everyone a Happy New Year — may each year bring more joy than the last!

Cover image: On-site photograph