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Chen Zhi is one of millions of workers in China who left their home villages to find a job in the big cities. 

He is not good at talking about himself or making friends.

 In fact, he stutters, which makes it even more difficult for him to make ends meet. 

To support himself, he hopped between menial jobs in a number of cities, working as a seamer, maintenance man, and warehouse helper. In this sense, he is not remarkable at all.

But this unremarkable man has pulled off something that has surprised many. In a less than 20 square meter rented underground room, where there is only a double bed, a drop-leaf table, and a study desk to call furniture, in four months, Chen Zhi translated Heidegger: An Introduction from English into mandarin.  

Chen was born in 1990 in a village in central China’s Jiangxi Province. 

At the age of 18, he passed the national college entrance examination and became a major in mathematics in a university in China. But his real passion had always been philosophy. 

In university, he spent most of his time in the library, reading everything he could find written by the leading thinkers and philosophers. Heidegger was certainly one of them. But Chen confessed his knowledge at the time was not enough for him to “read even the contents of his Sein und Zeit (Being and Time)”. 

His reading did not help his studies in mathematics. Rather, he failed his exams and had to quit college. 

So much for formal education. Chen began to taught himself philosophy while working odd jobs here and there. Being an introvert and a labourer whose day is filled with repetitive, physical exertion, Chen finds himself with little interest in communicating with others after work. 

Reading and thinking alone is his best escape from reality. 

He spent all his spare time in reading philosophy, carrying with him everywhere a kindle with 1,200 electronic books in it. 

Although Heidegger was a tough challenge back in college days, the depth of his thought continue to fascinate Chen, especially his explorations of the concept of being. Chen decided to dig deeper. To force himself to read Heidegger more thoroughly, Chen thought translation could be a good idea. 

But it sounded like a pipe dream, even to himself. Chen said, “I had many difficulties. I was not making enough money. I was not good company for my wife, who also has to take up hard factory jobs to get by. I did not have good training in either philosophy or English. 

And my friends and co-workers teased me all the time for my dream. ” 

Fortunately, Chen was not a quitter. He built his English vocabulary with the help of an English-learning app. He often asked for leave from work to make time for his project. His wife supported his ambition. 

When he finished the translation and asked online to find a publisher, his story became viral. 

Many asked him how he balanced between his dream and reality, Chen said “Geist, or the spirit and mind, is the true reality worth living in. 

Philosophy gives me a clearer perspective on myself, others, the world and the ‘human place in the cosmos’, as Max Scheler termed it. I cannot accept myself living in a shallow way.”