Yang Huaiding obituary

Warehouse worker who became Yang Million' - China's first retail investor in government bonds

In February 1988, Yang Huaiding, who has died aged 71 of diabetes, saw the opportunity that enabled him to give up being a warehouseman at a ferroalloys factory in Shanghai to become a retail investor - China's first. Eventually his success led to him being popularly referred to as Yang Bai Wan (Yang Million).

His example served as an inspiration to ordinary Chinese people looking for ways to change their livelihoods after years of the communist planned economy. With his immediately recognisable buzzcut and endless insights into the city's stock market in his awkward yet distinctive Shanghainese-accented Mandarin, Yang represented a rags-to-riches tale that paralleled the country's transition from pure communism to semi-capitalism.

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