The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and Shaanxi provincial Party committee jointly held a seminar on a newly published book Liangjiahe, which tells the story of President Xi Jinping's struggle and growth during his youth.

The book describes Xi's experience during his youth in Liangjiahe village in Northwest China’s Shaanxi province. It recorded the seven years from 1969 to 1975 that Xi spent in this small village on the Loess Plateau as an "educated youth", urban young student who went to rural areas in response to Chairman Mao Zedong's appeal of "making achievements in the countryside" during the 1960s to 1970s.

Seven years' hard struggle in adversity turned Xi from a teenage boy to an excellent leader of the village. He helped the villagers overcome great difficulties to build the first biogas digester in Shaanxi province, which improved the villagers' life. During those years, he worked with and learned from local farmers, and established the faith of working for the people.

"The growth experience of President Xi Jinping is the root and source of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, as well as the historical starting point and logical starting point of the thought," said Hao Peng, Party Secretary of the SASAC, at the seminar.

"State-owned enterprises should learn from President Xi's people-centered thought," Hao said.

Representatives of several State-owned enterprises including China Energy Group, State Grid Corporation, China National Petroleum Corporation and China Railway Group participated in the seminar on Friday and shared the inspiration they got from reading the book.

"President Xi's experience in Liangjiahe shows the grassroots frontline is a significant platform for officials' growth", said Qiao Baoping, Party secretary of China Energy Group. "State-owned enterprises will encourage young officials to learn from President Xi's excellent quality and working style to work in the difficult and remote areas".

People around the nation warmly responded to the publication of this book. "Till now the book's circulation is more than 3.14 million, and it ranks first on the non-fiction bestseller list,” said Zhuang Changxing, member of Standing Committee of Shanxi Provincial Committee.

"In the next stage we will work on the multilingual editions of this book," said Zhuang. "The English edition of Liangjiahe is under review and will be published soon."

wangyiqing@chinadaily.com.cn