David was born in Trinidad， West Indies in 1952， with Canadiannationality. At the age of eight， he went back to Canada for primaryschool. When he first saw written Chinese he felt it to be quite intriguing.
Of course he couldn’t imagine that later on he would forge an indissolublebond with China. At that time， he only knew that Chinese foodwas delicious. So he would ask his parents on his birthday to take himto satisfy his craving for this delicious food in a Chinese restaurant.
Because of moving about in his early years， David doesn’t have a deepimpression of Canada. He migrated to the United States at the age oftwelve and stayed there till he grew up. Even so， David doesn’t have asense of belonging to the United States. His father died in 1973 whenDavid was 21 。 His brother and sister also died in their prime. The earlywithering of the family left him almost have no relatives to turn to andeven harder to find a sense of home.
In 1981， David met Yang Zhi， who also was studying in the Departmentof Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Universityof Chicago， and fell in love with her. Perhaps it was Yang Zhi’s diligenceand easiness， or her inherent elegance from a family of scholars，that attracted David. They finally married.
During the ten years of the Cultural Revolution， Yang Zhi wentthrough many hardships. Before her， her father， Yang Xianyi， had goneabroad to study at Oxford in his early years. There he received an advanceddegree and married a British girl. They came back to China andeventually translated A Dream of Red Mansions into English， revealing to the world China’
s number one classicmasterpiece. Therebyarose a much-toldromantic story of atalented scholar and abeautiful lady. Theyhad a son and twodaughters， a perfectand happy family.
But during the CulturalRevolution， Yang Xiangyi’s honest and frank character turnedhim into a target of class struggle. He was criticized and jailed. Hiswife Gladys Yang was accused falsely of being a British spy and takeninto custody and put under investigation. Yang Zhi’s elder brother diedand all were separated. As the youngest daughter in the family， YangZhi seemed to be treated the best， but her “foreign doll” face betrayedher family background and she was discriminated against. The Yangparents were liberated after the Cultural Revolution. Yang Zhi and hersister went to the United States to study. Her sister finally settled downin the States， but she decided to return to China in order to work. Ontop of this she felt that the American way of life was boring.
At that time Yang Zhi was studying Assyriology for her doctorate，while David was studying Arabic and getting ready to go to theMiddle East. In 1983， he went to Jordan， but in 1985 returned to Chicagoto marry Yang Zhi. He returned to Jordan thereafter for anotheryear. During this period， Yang Zhi received her degree. David thencame back to a thriving China with Yang Zhi. Originally， David wasa “stateless” rover. After marriage， where his wife went became hishome. In fact， coming to China was not only to settle down， but China’
s thirst for talented people was also a factor.
As early as 1984， the Ministry of Education had decided to establisha Chinese Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations （IHAC）
in Northeast Normal University， and had allocated special funds tobuy books and magazines in Assyriology， Hittitology， Egyptian and13 8 Western Classics （Greek and Roman）。 Three or four European andAmerican experts could be hired to teach these courses every year.
Classes for the study of the history of ancient civilizations were set upand senior students from key universities of China were enrolled， includinggraduate students with master’s and doctor’s degrees. In 1986，IHAC founded the Journal of Ancient Civilizations （JAC）， the onlyinternational annual in China in a foreign language dealing with thescience of history.
David and Yang Zhi were just the talents the Northeast NormalUniversity needed urgently. Yang Zhi’s teacher had tried to persuadeYang Zhi to come back and establish IHAC. In addition it would begreat if she could come back with David. So at the end of 1986， YangZhi came back and became the Vice-Director of IHAC. David wentwith her， and taught English and historiography， besides polishing articlesfor JAC. The couple spent four years of a busy and enriched lifethere.
However， David’s teaching concept was different from the university，and Yang Zhi felt it was hard to deal with some people. Moreover，she wanted to take care of her parents， so the couple decidedto give up their work in Northeast China and returned to Beijing towork in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. David worked as anEnglish editor and polisher， while Yang Zhi worked as a translator andpolisher. They worked like this for another three years. Yang Zhi sayswryly， “I just worked to get by. The Wind Blows in the Right DirectionWhen people reach middle age， they have to think how to live outtheir life in retirement. Although David was prepared to live the rest ofhis life in China， his situation could not be compared with Yang Zhi’
s mother Gladys Yang’s generation of experts. That generation hadcome to China in the most difficult of times. They had passed throughcountries that hadn’t set up foreign relations with China or were evenhostile to China. They had shared the happiness and woes of the Chinesepeople. For them， the Chinese people were obligated to look after them in the sunset of their lives and give them a proper burial afterthey died. David was not part of that generation， even though he lovedChina and was willing to share in the happiness and woes of Chinesepeople. The couple， therefore， decided to start their own business.