Life Is a Stage

Born in 1965 in Chenjia’ao, Chen Jianjun was the first person from his village to go to college. As the tide of reform and opening-up swept across China, he headed south to Shenzhen with nothing but his courage. He went from a down-and-out entrepreneur living in a tin shack in an urban village, to a steadfast guardian of a state-owned canning factory, and then to a pioneer in the food industry. He spent half his life riding the waves, enduring the hardship of business failures, bitter rifts over conflicting ideals, and the struggles of the marketplace. Guided by the four pillars of “safety, quality, cost, and market,” he stayed true to his principles in an age driven by profit and shouldered his responsibilities through every storm. At last, he returned to his hometown and built a factory, giving back to his community and bringing the flavors of home beyond the mountains. This is a personal epic spanning more than sixty years, the story of an ordinary man who struggled, persevered, and grew amid the tides of his era. It is also a vivid testament to a generation that used its passion and integrity to show how life imitates drama, and drama imitates life. Every step along the way was a struggle against fate; every act of perseverance was an expression of what life meant to him.