Wang Yuming counts the many influences that have changed his life.

He won a copy of Thomas L. Friedman's best-selling book The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century in a Tsinghua University lecture a few years go.

The book had yet to be published in Chinese, but the 593-page tome in English resonated with him. Friedman's belief that education should be made "flat", or available to all people, left an indelible impression.