Making an effort and standing up for her cause is something Haifen Nan learned at an early age. She grew up in a small village near the southern Chinese city of Wenzhou; her parents had spent their own childhood in severe poverty and wanted their children to have it better. „My father always said, ‘Everything you own can be lost.’ But no one can rob you of what you have in your head; with that, you can build a good life anywhere,“ Nan recalls.