Chinese-born value investor who was a student leader of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests; co-founded The Asian American Foundation in 2021 and chairs it.
Charlie Munger's chosen manager for his family's China capital, and his Peking University lectures are the primary text on applying value investing in China - but his main book has never been translated.
2 books of their own · 9 articles · 15 books they recommend · 3 appearances
Memoir of the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen; his only English-language book.
Recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Published in Chinese only; no English edition exists.
Moving the Mountain: My Life in China | Memoir of the Cultural Revolution and Tiananmen; his only English-language book. | 1990 | Mohnish Pabrai | |
Civilization, Modernization, Value Investing and China | Published in Chinese only; no English edition exists. | 2020 | T4 | – |
Buy a few outstanding growth companies, research them by scuttlebutt, and hold.
Also recommended by: Arnold Van Den Berg, Bill Stewart and 9 others
Avoid permanent loss: buy well below value and aim for absolute returns.
Also recommended by: Arnold Van Den Berg, Frank Martin, Guy Spier and 5 others
Speeches making the case for a latticework of mental models from many fields.
“is by far the most comprehensive publication that captures the essence of Charlie's philosophy... I treated the book as a treasure and read it cover to cover multiple times.” — Li Lu
Source: Foreword to the Chinese Edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack (English translation), p. 1
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Charlie Munger and 25 others
How to read financial statements sceptically and value bonds and stocks.
Also recommended by: Christopher Bloomstran, Howard Marks and 10 others
Reflexivity, where beliefs move prices and prices move facts, tested in a live diary.
Also recommended by: Guy Spier, Paul Tudor Jones, Peter Cundill and 2 others
Berkshire's shareholder letters arranged by topic: governance, valuation, mergers.
Also recommended by: Christopher Bloomstran, Francois Rochon and 10 others
Treat stocks as parts of businesses and buy only with a margin of safety.
Also recommended by: Benjamin Graham, Christopher Bloomstran and 26 others
Crowd manias from the Mississippi scheme and South Sea Bubble to witch trials.
Also recommended by: Barton Biggs, Bernard Baruch, Peter Cundill and 1 other
Financial crises follow a repeated sequence of boom, mania, panic and crash.
Also recommended by: Howard Marks
Diamond's central question — why did some civilizations come to dominate others over 10,000 years? — is precisely the kind of question that requires long-term thinking to even ask. The answer, rooted in geography and biology rather than culture or intelligence, is a model for how to reason about slow causes and fast effects.
Also recommended by: Charlie Munger, Christopher Bloomstran and 13 others
How shared fictions such as money, nations and gods let humans cooperate at scale.
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Bill Gates, Mohnish Pabrai and 37 others
Barriers to entry as the only durable source of a toll.
Also recommended by: Mohnish Pabrai
Hayek's 1944 warning that central economic planning corrodes political freedom alongside economic efficiency. Written for a British Left audience, it argued that the path to socialism and the path to fascism share structural features. Its critics say it proves too much; its admirers say history vindicated it.
Also recommended by: Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel
Builds out Munger's latticework idea from primary sources.
Also recommended by: Andrew Wilkinson, Nat Eliason and 7 others
Why some nations grew rich over 500 years, with culture as the deciding factor.
Also recommended by: Charlie Munger, Mohnish Pabrai, Jamie Dimon
| Global Value Investing in Our Era | Himalaya Capital (speech, Peking University Guanghua School of Management) | 2024 |
| Remembering My Teacher Charlie Munger | Himalaya Capital | 2023 |
| Li Lu's Recommended Book List | Himalaya Capital | 2020 |
| Discussions About Modernization, Part Two: A Look at the Future of Sino-US Relations | Himalaya Capital | 2018 |
| The Prospect of Value Investing in China | Himalaya Capital (lecture, Peking University Guanghua School of Management) | 2015 |
| Li Lu on Discussion of Modernization | Himalaya Capital | 2014 |
| Li Lu interview | Graham & Doddsville, Columbia Business School | 2013 |
| John Jay Award Acceptance Speech | Columbia College | 2012 |
| Foreword to the Chinese Edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack | Himalaya Capital | 2010 |
| Li Lu - Himalaya Capital: A Deep Dive into His Portfolio Strategy | PortfolioCasts | Investor Portfolio Podcasts | 2026-01-21 |
| 36th Annual Graham & Dodd Event with Li Lu '96, Founder and Chairman of Himalaya Capital | Columbia Business School | |
| Li Lu reflects on his mistakes | The Financial Review |
| No other investor has a life story quite as unbelievable as Li Lu Paywall | Financial Times | 2023 |
| From Tiananmen Square to Possible Buffett Successor Paywall | The Wall Street Journal | 2010 |