Sally Tian grew up between China and Canada, living and working in both countries at different times in her life.
After graduate school, she decided against the corporate life and moved to China to pursue a search fund.
She says that returning to China reshaped her identity, her work goals and her relationship with her parents.
Growing up between two cultures shaped Sally Tian’s perspective on the world.
Tian was born in Guangzhou, China, and lived there until the age of 10, when her family moved to Vancouver. At 15, he returned to China to attend an international school before going to Toronto for college, where he later began his career in management consulting.
“I thought, ‘I’m going to fulfill my immigrant dream. I’m going to get a great corporate job and all that,'” Tian, now 30, told Business Insider.
However, the predictability of her days left her wanting more, and after three years, she moved to Beijing in 2020 to work for a large Chinese technology company.
After completing his MBA, Tian realized that he did not want to be in a corporate job.Sally Tian.
What was supposed to be a one-year stay in China stretched to almost three years. After a year in Beijing, she was moved to Shanghai, where she stayed in that role for another year before moving on to a startup.
In 2023, amid prolonged blockades in Shanghai, Tian and her boyfriend left for graduate school in the US, hoping that the time away would help them decide where to build their future.
After two years of pursuing his MBA at Harvard, Tian said he found his answer: The life he wanted didn’t include a corporate job.
Instead, she and her boyfriend wanted to start a search fund, which involves finding and acquiring a small business to run on their own.
“I would say a lot of the reason people want to do it is because they don’t want to work for someone else. They want to be their own boss, and I definitely want to do that as well,” Tian said.
While search funds are more common in the US, Tian said China feels like the place where he could make them work. In September, she and her boyfriend packed up and moved back.
Tian moved into a three-bedroom apartment in Shanghai with her boyfriend.Sally Tian.
The couple considered several cities, including Guangzhou, but ultimately chose Shanghai for its strong investor network and business opportunities.
With the help of a real estate agent, they found a three-bedroom apartment about 40 minutes from the city center. The monthly rent is 8,900 Chinese yuan, or about $1,270.
The neighborhood has everything they need, including a mall, a Sam’s Club and a Costco, Tian said. Due to the proximity to many international schools, a lot of expats also live in their area.
Rent is approximately $1,270 per month.Sally Tian.
“Culturally, I understand. I just feel like this is my home and I don’t feel like I’m doing it in someone else’s house,” Tian said.
Moreover, she said the success of her search fund in the US would depend heavily on building relationships with potential sellers, which she believed would be more difficult because of cultural differences.
“I don’t think I can connect as well with, say, a Midwesterner in their 50s or 60s or all the sports they play,” she said.
Tian said he is looking to acquire a business in industries including B2B services, B2C franchises and manufacturing.Sally Tian.
A 2024 Stanford report on 681 search funds formed in the U.S. and Canada since 1984 found that investors invested about $1.45 billion in search funds and companies acquired by search in the past four years.
While search funds remain scarce in China compared to the US, Tian sees the gap as an opportunity.
While enterprise services and software dominate the majority of North American search fund acquisitions, Tian said her focus in China is broader, encompassing B2B services, B2C franchises and manufacturing.
Many first-generation business owners in China are probably now in their 60s and 70s and are looking for a plan to pass their businesses on to their children, who may not be interested in taking over, she said.
Private enterprises account for more than 90 percent of all companies in China, and about 80 percent of these private firms are family businesses, according to a 2023 report by the China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
Tian says that returning to China made her better understand the struggles her parents faced as immigrants.Sally Tian.
Tian said living and working in different countries forced her to rethink her identity.
Growing up as an immigrant in Canada, she said, changed the family dynamic early on, as everyone was focused on surviving in a new country.
There was a stark difference between those who had assimilated into Canadian culture and those who had not. In that environment, it was common for immigrant children to distance themselves from their own culture and even their parents, she said.
“There’s this social behavior where you feel like you have to let go of your own identity so you can fit into the mainstream culture,” Tian said.
When he first moved to China for work, Tian said he thought he already knew who he was, with a settled life and friends in Canada. He didn’t expect much to change. But that assumption quickly collapsed.
“I realized that if I wanted to do my job well and relate to my colleagues, I would have to really understand how they think,” she said.
Over time, this process led her to reflect more deeply on her own identity and become more empathetic to the experiences of those around her.
Returning to China, she said, helped her reconnect with her roots — and, in the process, better understand the struggles of her immigrant parents.
“I feel like moving to China really helped me heal my relationship with my parents and see them in a completely different way,” she said.
Have a story to share about moving to a new city? Contact this reporter at agoh@businessinsider.com.
