During the five years he could not work, Tang "tried to make the most constructive use" of his time. Against regulations, he secretly taught himself English and read everything he could get his hands on.
His main source of reading material was the clandestine book trade in banned books that went on during the crackdown on foreign influence.
"I kind of miss the excitement of those times when you had to read a book in a certain time because you knew others were waiting for it," he recalls.
In 1974, Tang finally found a job as a book-keeper with a collective that sold industrial waste to recycling plants. He worked there for two years.
Mao's death in 1976 brought about a great easing of restrictions on education, and the universities finally reopened. Tang passed the standard entrance exam and entered Shanghai Teachers' University to study English literature and language.
In his last year at the University, he competed in a worldwide English language contest sponsored by the British Broadcasting Company. He netted first prize, a sound trip to London and there began the second stage of his Odyssey.
"When I got there, I had no idea what I was going to do but after a short while, I was convinced I wanted to stay," he remarks.
Tang applied to the London School of Economics and was accepted by their under-graduate program. The biggest problem confronting him now was to finance his education.
He remembers walking along a London street one day and passing the offices of the Jardine Mathewson Company, renowned Scottish traders who do business in the Far East. Tang recalled that his aunt had worked for their Shanghai office before foreign firms fled in the early '50s and decided to ask if they could help him.
He asked if Jardine Mathewson would sponsor his education, and the company agreed, on the condition that he do some translating and research work for them. Tang struck up similar arrangements with British Petroleum and Barclay's International Bank, and in 1979 he received an economics degree.
"I look back at these years in London as the happiest of my life," he says, adding, "I ask, to a certain degree, an Anglophile. For Instance, I was glued to my television the day of the Royal Wedding."
In London his dream of coming to Harvard was fueled further. One of the marketing courses he ask used cases compiled at Harvard. That method of learning attracted Tang.
"I am fascinated by theory but am also a man of action. Harvard's case method gives me the opportunity to combine these two qualities," he explains.
Last October, he applied to the B-School. Although he has no definite career plans, he says he hopes to return to China to work either in its growing private sector or in a multinational firm.
When asked if he thinks his American education would be inappropriate to his work in his homeland, Tang replies. "People are the same everywhere, and I've successfully used many of my Chinese concepts here.