????他這種性格到底是如何養成的？世界各地的聽眾們都不能免俗，都對這個問題很感興趣。不過中國聽眾的好奇程度遠超一般水平。彼得?巴菲特喜歡提醒聽眾的一件事是，他長大的時候，父親雖然已經是非常成功的投資者，但總的來說還名不見經傳。沃倫?巴菲特成為美國經濟的預言者、多位總統的顧問并撰寫專欄文章，給抑郁的國民打氣，告訴他們希望不死，這一切都是很多年之后的事情了。那時，他還只是個普通人，知道他大名并崇拜他的人，只有那些枕著格拉漢姆與多德（兩人所著《證券分析》一書被譽為“投資者圣經”——譯注）的書入睡的人。如今，他基本上也沒有什么變化。

????彼得的股神父親宣布，將把巨額身家捐給由另一位巨富——比爾?蓋茨執掌的基金會，這也激發了中國人的好奇心。許多中國人聽到這個新聞后，腦子里只有一個念頭：“他怎么這么對待自己的子女？”其實，他們不知道的是，沃倫?巴菲特很早以前就明確表示，他將會留給孩子們“足夠的錢，他們將來想干什么就干什么——但不會給得太多，以防他們無所事事。”

????可是，僅僅靠好奇心還不足以使這本書熱賣32萬本。總編張海鷗稱，彼得傳達的信息“絕對與中國的年青一代產生了共鳴”，這一信息與彼得的身世密不可分。他告訴聽眾，從他能夠記事之日起，他就熱愛音樂。去年春天接受中國中央電視臺（CCTV）采訪時，他說：“母親說過，我還不會說話就會唱歌了。”（許多人都知道，他的父親會彈點兒四弦琴。）彼得是個好學生，進了斯坦福大學（Stanford University）讀書。但他并不是特別注重職業發展，對證券也不是很感興趣。用他的話來說，在大學頭一年半里，“我選修了一切以101（表示最初步知識——譯注）或-ology（該詞根表示‘學’——譯注）結尾的課。”

????然后，他就退學了。每次說到這里，年輕的中國聽眾們就會側身細聽，顯然不敢相信自己的耳朵。他確定，自己希望追求音樂生涯。“在我的整個人生中，這一目標就在我眼前，”他說。因此，他拿著“祖父留下來的一點遺產，在舊金山買了套公寓，嘗試在音樂領域闖出一番名堂”。多數聽眾此時已目瞪口呆，他又補充說，父母接受了這一決定。“他們鼓勵我，但也說得很清楚，如果你搞砸了的話，那就自求多福吧，”彼得說。兩年之內，他已自信作出了正確的選擇：“那時，我已經知道我能靠音樂謀生。”

????小巴菲特在中國的多次亮相中一再重申，這個故事的重點是：他從斯坦福大學輟學，嘗試在音樂方面闖天下，其實與父親當年的行為異曲同工。“我的父親很早就知道自己喜歡做什么，他也確實去做了，而且直到現在還在做，”他說。“因此，我告訴中國的聽眾們，我父親和我的啟示就是一輩子都在做同一件事。我們做的都是自己熱愛的事情。”

????對于許多美國人來說，這可能有些陳詞濫調的感覺。憤世嫉俗的人會說，“得了吧，說得輕巧。沃倫?巴菲特是你老爸，你當然可以想干什么就干什么。”但大多數中國聽眾的反應卻截然不同，他們聽得目瞪口呆。原因完全可以理解。外界將中國看成一個崛起中的經濟大國，一個似乎有著不可逆轉的經濟發展勢頭的國家，這一點可能是正確的。可是，盡管經濟數據極為華麗，中國內部同樣也是一個經濟壓力鍋。希望考上大學的孩子們每天花14到18個小時學習，竭盡全力希望進入頂尖大學深造。一旦進了大學，他們就得早早地選定專業。他們身處一個向上行進的自動扶梯，身不由己。當然，這肯定比爬不上這扶梯要好。就算大學畢業后找到了一份不錯的工作，薪水通常也不怎么樣，還得經常加班。更嚴重的是，當今的年輕工薪一族中，許多人都是計劃生育政策的產物，是家里的獨生子女。這意味著父母親退休后，他們將獨自承擔贍養老人的重擔。奧美公司（Ogilvy & Mather）在上海的一位高管愛德華?貝爾曾對中國二十幾歲的年輕人作了深度調研，他的描述言簡意賅：“這代人必須不斷奔跑，否則不進則退。我稱他們為壓力一代。”

????彼得?巴菲特所觸及的正是這種焦慮。正因如此，田林峰（音譯）與許多其他年輕的中國專業人士一樣，對他在中國大受歡迎并不特別驚訝。他主修金融專業，一年前畢業于北京一所商學院，目前在中國交通銀行（the Bank of Communications in China）——一家大型國有銀行工作。他非常崇拜彼得的父親 “我想我讀過所有關于他的書。”今年春季，田林峰去聽了彼得?巴菲特的演講，事先并不知道他會講些什么。“我深受觸動，”他說，“特別是當他講到離開斯坦福大學，追求音樂事業的時候，”他搖著頭補充說，“那么著名的學校。”

????小巴菲特明白，他所寫到的經歷，以及推動他職業發展的動力，都是美國文化的獨特產物。同時，他也很有自知之明。他坦承：如果他的姓是史密斯或瓊斯，或許沒有一個中國人會對他感興趣。他說，“這塊土地似乎正在以光速向前狂奔，以至于許多年輕人根本沒有機會慎重考慮。” 盡管他剛剛踏足中國不久，但他這話說得沒錯。

????“我覺得我的父母不會讓我像彼得那樣做，”銀行職員田林峰說，“不過，或許有一天，”他輕輕地加了一句，“我自己的孩子可以有這樣的選擇。”如果真是這樣的話，彼得在中國留下的精神財富或許足以與他的父親相媲美。

????譯者：小宇

????Audiences everywhere are, inevitably, curious as to how exactly that came to be. But in China, the curiosity is off the charts. One of the things Buffett likes to remind audiences of is that when he was growing up -- long before Dad became America's economic oracle, adviser to Presidents and writer of op-eds reassuring a depressed nation that all is not lost -- his father was a supremely successful but largely anonymous investor. He was a regular guy who was known and revered only by the kind of folks who go to sleep with a copy of Graham and Dodd under their pillow. And he's basically the same guy now.

????The curiosity in China is fed by the fact that when Peter's father announced he was giving away his considerable wealth to a foundation run by another supremely rich guy, Bill Gates, a lot of folks there had a single thought: "Why would he do that to his kids?" Mostly lost in translation was the fact that the elder Buffett was acting in accordance with his long-articulated position that he would give his kids "enough money so that they would feel they could do anything -- but not so much that they could do nothing."

????But curiosity alone wouldn't have resulted in the sale of 320,000 books. Something about Buffett's message "is definitely resonating with many young Chinese," says Zhang, his editor. That message is inextricable from Peter's biography. He tells audiences that from the time he can remember he always loved music. "My mother said I sang before I spoke," he told an interviewer for CCTV last spring. (His dad has been known to play a little ukulele.) A good student, he got into Stanford University, but was not particularly career-focused or interested in Graham and Dodd. For the first year and a half of college, he says, "I took everything that ended in 101 or -ology."

????Then -- and here is where a young Chinese audience leans in, not quite believing what they are hearing -- he dropped out. He decided that he wanted to pursue a career in music. "It was right in front of my nose my whole life," he says. So he took a "small inheritance from my grandfather, bought an apartment in San Francisco, and tried to make a go of it." And his parents, he tells mostly stunned audiences, were fine with it. "They were encouraging but also made it clear that if you blow it -- well, good luck," says Buffett. Within two years he was confident he'd made the right choice: "By then I knew I could make a living in music."

????The point, Buffett repeats in all his appearances in China, is that by quitting Stanford and trying to make a go of it in music, he was doing the same thing his father did. "My father knew early on what he loved to do, and he did it, and he's doing it to this day," he says. "So I tell audiences [in China] that my father and I do, in fact, do the same thing for a living. We both do what we love."

????To American ears, this can sound trite. The cynic says, "Okay, c'mon, it's a lot easier to do whatever it is you want to do if Warren Buffett is your dad." But that's not how most Chinese audiences react. Most audiences in China are gobsmacked -- and for reasons that are perfectly understandable. The outside world sees China as a rising economic power, a nation with seemingly irreversible economic momentum. That may be true enough. But for all its gaudy economic statistics, on the inside the country is also an economic pressure cooker. Children with aspirations for college put in 14 to 18 hours a day studying, desperate to get accepted to a good university. If they get in, they have to pick a major early. They're on an up escalator -- which, true enough, is better than not being on one -- and they can't get off. If a student graduates and lands a desirable job, he or she often doesn't get paid particularly well and has to put in long hours. To top it off, many of today's younger workers are children of China's one-child policy, which means that they alone are responsible for taking care of their parents when they retire. In short, says, Edward Bell, an executive at Ogilvy & Mather in Shanghai who has studied the twentysomething Chinese in depth, "this is a generation that has to sprint just to stay even. I call it Generation Stress."

????It's precisely that angst that Peter Buffett taps into. That's why Tian Li Feng, like a lot of Chinese young professionals, isn't particularly surprised by its success. He graduated from business school a year ago in Beijing, a finance major who now works for the Bank of Communications in China, a large state-owned bank. A big fan of Peter's father -- "I think I've read all the books about him," he says -- he went to see Peter Buffett speak this past spring, not quite knowing what to expect. "I was touched," he says. "Particularly when he spoke about leaving Stanford to pursue his music." Shaking his head, he adds, "Such a prestigious school."

????Buffett understands that the experiences he writes about, and the impulses that drove his career, are uniquely American. He also is self-effacing and secure enough to acknowledge that if his name were Smith or Jones, no one in China would be interested. But China novice or not, when he says that "it seems as if this place is moving at such light speed that a lot of young people don't get a chance to have a second thought," he's right.

????"I don't think my parents would ever let me do [what he did]," says Tian, the banker. "But maybe someday," he adds softly, "my own child can have that choice." If so, Peter might leave as rich a legacy in China as his dad.