Shen Yushi: cloud computing is ALL that matters

The world knows him through all the titles listed on his name card, activities he has been engaged in, TV shows and interviews he has appeared in, and other interviews he has sat through. Ours could well be just another continuity episode of his many publicity promotions. However, our session had the potential of becoming a stand-alone audio and video presentation of a subcultural icon, who didn't come off as being inapproachable, but instead being very down to earth and easy going.

Shen Yushi, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at 21Vianet Group [File photo: provided to China Plus]

Yushi was born in Beijing during the same year China launched its economic reform and started to open up to the outside world 40 years ago. Throughout his entire life, Yushi actually was able to witness living and growing with every step and tide of China's reform and opening up, and now has ripened or matured into who he is today.

Talking with him face to face, I couldn't help thinking if this interview was an exhibition to showcase what China has achieved over the past four decades, in which Yushi would be the best live model in the display window. He is a precious living fossil, through which the world would be able to decode how China has been evolving, improving, adapting, overlapping and merging with the rest of the world; how China has been upgrading living standards of people, lifting people out of poverty and changing the lifestyles of people; how China's education has been impacting people, and the world too.

Despite prior expectations, Yushi is not that eloquent, colloquial and rhetoric as previously presented by other media coverage. Research on him through the Internet shows he is active, social, competent at organizing events and not afraid of speaking on the stage or in the public. Initially, we thought he certainly should not fall into a stereotyped image we all tend to impose on inventors, engineers and scientists. However, seeing him in person, we realized that we had been misled by media, and being in that industry ourselves perhaps it's time and a good opportunity for us to present a different, fuller and more well-rounded projection of Yushi to our audience.

Yushi IS still a child! That's the first impression I got. Adult children are products of China's one child family policy, so it's not uncommon. With overprotection from at least two generations, many children simply refuse to grow up even after they themselves have become parents. How could such a big "boy" reap so many achievements even in areas other than his major of cloud computing? How is he able to manage the constraints of time working in his field if at the same time being engaged in so many other activities and responsibilities? Is he an interesting person? Can he represent his generation in values and in pursuing life goals. How much has he benefited from China's reform? What can he predict for the future of China's IT industry and what role is he going to play in the new tide of development?

"I don't know this." "I don't want to answer these questions." "I don't know how to answer this question." "I thought this interview is about cloud computing not me." "My favorite food? I don't remember what I eat." "I love movies, but I can't remember the names of the movies I watched recently." These were the many answers that I got from camera shy Yushi after diligently trying to squeeze them out. Although abnormal, it was the most unique interview I have ever encountered in my life.

Shen Yushi, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at 21Vianet Group [File photo: provided to China Plus]

With headshakes, pauses, confusions, sweat wiping and hesitations of what to say, the sound tracks we recorded were intermittent and not good enough for public broadcast of any kind. Editing must have been an enormously daunting task. Perhaps the reason for the apparent lack of eloquence could be he was caught short and obviously not prepared for such an interview about his personal life as an engineer, as opposed to his field of cloud computing, on which he could talk endlessly in comfort. However, at the end of the interview, we fortunately were pleased with the content we got from him. Here is the profile or sketch of a 40 year old IT professional, from and through whom we can get glimpses of how far China has traveled in its economic reform and opening up.

Though born in the same year of China's reform and opening up, which was a period when the nation was under a ration economy with extremely low living standards, Yushi didn't express the slightest bitterness of suffering from shortages and scarcity. All he recalled to us was being able to attend the best schools, partake in leisure, enjoy study, and excel effortless in academics. During primary and middle schools, he mentioned having his classmates do his homework while he only needed to correct their mistakes afterwards. His father is a specialist in pure science, so he wanted to choose a different academic expertise and therefore chose applied science. His grandparents generally brought him up and worked to make sure he received the best education and quality of life available, which he took for granted. The ample exposure to foreign culture available within China helped him to easily adapt to a life in the United States. He has always aimed for the best and the doors have simply been there, always open for him to walk into to success. Such a smooth and rather uneventful record of growth can only occur with the rapid pace of China's development. From Microsoft to 21Vianet, from learning and serving in one of the world's top notch companies, to joining efforts with his peers to run their own businesses, Yushi has leaped forward in whatever he has done. Never burdening himself with too much thought on future aspirations, Yushi is currently content with focusing on excelling in his own field and to narrow the gap in core technological development between China and the western world through steadfast efforts made by himself and people of his like. He presently learns to manage people in order to attract more talents in this pursuit of a shared dream among visionaries like himself. "Aim clear, life simple!" Cloud computing is all that matters to him. As a merry man by nature, he reads literature, travels, watches shows and enjoys food. However, when asked about how he lives his life, he remembers none of the details. His brain simply spares no storage for things other than his cloud computing, the sole passion of his life.