Coming home for Tet, DeepSeek founder is welcomed like a hero

DeepSeek founder and CEO Liang Wenfeng became a “hero” in his hometown when he returned home for Tet.

Startup DeepSeek is a phenomenon of world technology in the early days of the year of the Snake after the unexpected success of two AI models R1 and V3 in the US.

Liang, 40, arrived in his hometown, a small village in the port city of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, on January 28 and left on January 29. Villagers greeted him with bright red banners and called him “the pride of the hometown,” according to posts on Chinese social media.

“Welcome Wenfeng, the pride and hope of our homeland”, “Welcome home, Wenfeng. The homeland is proud of you” were the words printed on the banner. Even the character “joy” which is used in weddings was used to decorate, to celebrate Liang’s return.

Liang’s birthplace has also quickly become a tourist attraction. Many domestic tourists have visited the remote village, according to the Yangcheng Evening News. They have taken photos at the village’s entrance, showing Wenfeng’s popularity in China.

Zhanjiang Release shared some information about Liang from his middle school teacher, Mr. Rong. According to him, Wenfeng grew up in a normal family, and both of his parents taught elementary Chinese.

He was a good student from a young age, consistently achieving good results in school, especially in mathematics. He could do high school mathematics in middle school and even studied university mathematics early.

He is also passionate about football. According to Mr. Rong, when he returned to his hometown a few days ago, Liang played a football match with his classmates.

Notably, he sent messages to friends announcing that he would return home for Tet but wanted to avoid any attention, showing his desire to maintain a private life despite his sudden fame.

DeepSeek impresses by developing AI models at a fraction of the cost of Western competitors like OpenAI, Meta, and Google.

The attention DeepSeek and its founder have received at home and abroad reflects the AI ​​community's admiration for low-cost, high-quality models despite the US embargo on advanced technology and chips from China.