A Harvard MBA Grad Didn’t Want the Immigrant Dream; Returned to China

Growing up between two cultures shaped Sally Tian’s perspective on the world.

Tian was born in Guangzhou, China, and lived there until she was 10, when her family moved to Vancouver. At 15, she returned to China to attend an international school before heading to Toronto for college, where she later started her career in management consulting.

“I thought, ‘I’m going to fulfill the 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 major Chinese tech company.

What was meant to be a one-year stay in China stretched to nearly three years. After a year in Beijing, she was relocated to Shanghai, where she remained in the role for another year before moving on to a startup.

In 2023, amid prolonged lockdowns in Shanghai, Tian and her boyfriend left for graduate school in the US, hoping the time away would help them decide where to build their future.

After two years of pursuing her MBA at Harvard, Tian said she found her answer: The life she wanted didn’t include a corporate job.

Instead, she and her boyfriend wanted to start a search fund, which involves looking for and acquiring a small business to run themselves.

“I would say a lot of the reason why 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.

Moving back to China

While search funds are more common in the US, Tian said China felt like the place where she could make it work. In September, she and her boyfriend packed up their bags and moved back.

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 located 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 its proximity to many international schools, there are a lot of expats living in their area too.

“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 home,” Tian said.

Moreover, she said the success of her search fund in the US would depend heavily on relationship-building with potential sellers, which she felt would be more challenging due to cultural differences.

“I don’t think I can connect as well with, for example, a Midwest person in their 50s or 60s, or all the sports that they’re into,” she said.

A 2024 Stanford report of 681 search funds formed in the US and Canada since 1984 found that investors have put about $1.45 billion into search funds and search-acquired companies over the past four years.

While search funds remain rare in China compared to the US, Tian believes that gap represents opportunity.

While services and enterprise software dominate most North American search fund acquisitions, Tian said her focus in China is broader, spanning B2B services, B2C franchises, and manufacturing.

Many first-generation business owners in China are likely now in their 60s and 70s and are seeking a plan to pass on their businesses to their children, who may not be interested in taking over, she said.

Private enterprises make up more than 90% of all companies in China, and about 80% of those private firms are family businesses, per a 2023 report from the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.

Rethinking her identity

Tian said living and working across countries forced her to rethink her identity.

Growing up as an immigrant in Canada, she said, changed family dynamics early on, because everyone was focused on surviving in a new country.

There was a sharp divide between those who had assimilated into Canadian culture and those who hadn’t. In that environment, it was common for immigrant kids to distance themselves from their own culture and even from their parents, she said.

“There’s this social behavior where you feel like you need to put down your own identity so that you can adapt to the main culture,” Tian said.

When she first moved back to China for work, Tian said she believed she already knew who she was, with an established life and friends in Canada. She didn’t expect to change much. But that assumption quickly fell apart.

“I realized that if I wanted to do my job well, and relate to my coworkers, I would have to really understand how they think,” she said.

Over time, this process prompted her to reflect more deeply on her own identity and become more empathetic toward the experiences of those around her.

Returning to China, she said, helped her reconnect with her roots — and, in the process, better understand her immigrant parents’ struggles.

“I feel like moving to China has really helped me heal my relationship with my parents too, and just see them in a completely different way,” she said.

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