The rashness of a romantic child
Cheng was born in Huwei Township, Yunlin County. Though her family was not well to do, her parents’ love and support gave her a happy childhood. She tells us that her father did everything he could to support her studies, including borrowing money to pay for them, because he well knew the frustration of being unable to pursue an education.
Cheng says she wasn’t especially smart, but she had a strong sense of self respect and a never-say-die attitude. Loath to disappoint her teachers, she studied hard and earned admission first to Taipei First Girls High School and then to National Taiwan University.
Cheng grew up in the years before Taiwan implemented its National Health Insurance system, a time when rural residents had a hard time accessing and paying for healthcare. Her father hoped she would train to become a doctor, and treat poor people for free. But Cheng failed to gain admission to the prestigious NTU School of Medicine. Determined to attend NTU nonetheless (she wanted to join its drama club), she chose to enroll in its atmospheric sciences department rather than attend a different medical school.
Everything about Cheng says “literata.” She could find tragedy in the death of a Chinese fringetree, but could never understand why she should waste her time explaining a cloud in terms of atmospheric physics. “Clouds are for dreaming about!” After graduating from university, she returned to her junior high school to teach STEM classes, where she was assigned to the school’s poorest-performing class. Temperamentally driven to always do her best, Cheng helped her class achieve the best STEM scores in their grade.
After completing a master’s degree in finance in the US, she stayed there and applied for what she thought was an academic research position. It wasn’t until she turned up for the interview that she discovered that the job was with a securities firm. Cheng says that she had had classmates at NTU who bought a succession of new motorcycles with their profits from stock trading. These classmates had offered her investment advice, but she rejected it because she didn’t like playing “money games.” She never imagined that she would bumble her way into the securities industry just a few years later.
Sophia Cheng frequently takes part in international climate change conferences, where she speaks with other investors about what they can do to achieve global sustainability.
After coming to know former US Vice President Al Gore (front row, sixth from left) through international conferences, Cheng (front row, left) invited him to Taiwan to speak with business leaders about addressing climate change.