Editing Li Lu (section)

==Early life and education==
Li Lu was born in April 1966, in [[Tangshan]], China. He was a survivor of 1976 [[Tangshan earthquake]], one of the deadliest in recorded history.<ref name=smithsonian>[https://americanhistory.si.edu/family-voices/individuals/li-lu "Family of Voices - Li Lu,"] Smithsonian, retrieved 25 August 2021.</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Olcott |first=Eleanor |date=2023-09-07 |title=No other investor has a life story quite as unbelievable as Li Lu |url=https://www.ft.com/content/5308cd9f-037e-4524-a6d8-7388b3514199 |access-date=2024-04-09 |work=Financial Times}}</ref> During [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[Cultural Revolution]] of the 1960's, his parents were sent to labor camps by the government. As a consequence, he transitioned through multiple orphanages and caretakers as he grew up.<ref name=":0" />

In 1985, he went to [[Nanjing University]], where he majored in physics but later transferred to economics. In 1989, he participated in the [[Tiananmen Square protests of 1989|Tiananmen Square student protests]] and became one of the student leaders. He helped organize the students and participated in a hunger strike. After the crackdown on the movement, he fled the PRC and went to New York City at the age of 23, where his grandfather had received his PhD at [[Columbia University]].<ref name="smithsonian" />

In 1990, he published a book about his experience in China titled ''Moving the Mountain: My Life in China.'' The book was the basis of a 1994 feature-film documentary, ''[[Moving the Mountain (1994 film)|Moving the Mountain]]'', produced by [[Trudie Styler]] and directed by [[Michael Apted]], which probed the origins of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square and the consequences of the movement in the lives of several of the movement's student leaders.<ref>''Moving the Mountain'', directed by Michael Apted (Los Angeles, CA: Hallmark Home Entertainment, 2000), DVD.</ref> The book recounts a symbolic marriage ceremony on May 22, 1989, between Li Lu and his then girlfriend, Zhao Ming, at the Heroes' Monument.<ref name="auto">Li Lu, ''Moving the Mountain'', 174.</ref> Students gathered at the wedding to congratulate the married couple and sang the "Wedding March," which gradually turned into "The Internationale."<ref name="auto1">Li Lu, ''Moving the Mountain'', 173.</ref> Chai Ling quotes Li Lu in her book as saying the marriage was meaningless.<ref>Ling Chai, A Heart for Freedom. Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale House, 2011, {{ISBN|978-1-4143-6246-5}}.</ref>

At Columbia, Li first enrolled in the American Language Program to learn English. He then studied in the School of General Studies and later transferred to [[Columbia College, Columbia University|Columbia College]]. He ended up joining the college, law school and business school over a six-year period.<ref name=smithsonian/> Li Lu was one of the first in Columbia's history to receive three degrees simultaneously: a B.A. in economics, a M.B.A. and a J.D. in 1996.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/students/organizations/cima/conference/2005/speakers.cfm |title=2005 Columbia Investment Management Conference |publisher=[[Columbia Business School]] |access-date=July 25, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060620120703/http://www0.gsb.columbia.edu/students/organizations/cima/conference/2005/speakers.cfm |archive-date=June 20, 2006 |df=mdy-all }}</ref>