From gifted student to AI hero, DeepSeek’s founder Liang Wenfeng inspires a nation

Hailing from an obscure village in southern China, Liang Wenfeng has risen from humble roots to become a household name

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Coco Fengin Mililing, Guangdong Province

Published: 11:00am, 19 Apr 2025

Not long ago, few people in China had heard of Mililing, a sleepy village nestled in a remote corner of southern Guangdong province. But things changed earlier this year when hundreds of visitors arrived every day to pay homage to Liang Wenfeng, the 40-year-old founder of the artificial intelligence (AI) start-up DeepSeek, who has emerged as a hero for giving his country an edge in its tech rivalry with the US.

Villagers, many sharing the surname Liang, set up stalls near his childhood home to sell souvenirs and drinks, including zhuangyuan sugar cane juice – an homage to the ancient title given to top scorers of the imperial examination. Like Liang, many past scholars had risen from humble beginnings to achieve fame and fortune through sheer intellectual excellence.

Since DeepSeek shocked Silicon Valley and Wall Street alike with its powerful reasoning model in January, Liang has become one of China’s most influential figures, akin to the nuclear and rocket scientists of the 1950s and 1960s, who helped advance the nation’s strategic advantages. Globally, Liang is viewed as a formidable technology entrepreneur, with the potential to overshadow US leaders like OpenAI founder Sam Altman and reshape the US-China rivalry.

“China can’t always be a follower,” Liang said in an interview with Chinese media outlet 36Kr in 2024.

A vendor told a Post reporter that Liang returned to the village during the Lunar New Year in late January, accompanied by armed police officers, highlighting his critical importance to the country.

A stall at Mililing village selling zhuangyuan sugar cane juice. Photo: Coco Feng

When Liang was born to a primary school teacher in 1985, China had yet to emerge from the shadow of a planned economy. It had a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of US$300, limited financial services and no stock market. Mililing still remains a traditional rural community where everyone seems to know each other.