Michael Norris farewelled in Shanghai after shock death

A well-known former Adelaide Uni student has been remembered as a rising star. Sadly, the 31-year-old died after emergency surgery in Shanghai and was farewelled last week.

Michael Norris, one of Australia’s elite young Chinese scholars and a rising star analyst and strategist in China, was farewelled in Shanghai on Saturday. The well-known Adelaide University law school alumnus died unexpectedly, at just 31, following emergency surgery.

Adelaide University law school alumnus Michael Norris has died in Shanghai after emergency surgery at the age of 31. Picture: Twitter

The sudden passing of the former recipient of the Prime Minister’s Asia awards at the end of May, only days before the city lifted its strict lockdown rules, shocked the Australian expats and business circles in Shanghai. There, his colleagues and friends held a funeral ceremony while his families and friends in Adelaide watched via Zoom.

Mr Norris was also mourned by his beloved LinkedIn community. His frequent and in-depth analyses of Chinese consumers and companies had won him the LinkedIn Spotlight Award 2019 as one of the most viewed and active professionals in China.

“Raw sadness at the news Michael Norris has passed too early,” Norris’s friend and mentor, Australian businessman Jerry Clode posted on LinkedIn. Mr Clode had recruited Mr Norris to join him in Shanghai in 2017.

After moving to Shanghai, Mr Norris, who spoke and wrote fluent Mandarin, worked in multiple roles including Resonance China and AgencyChina, advising investors and executives and conducting ethnographic and digital consultancy for the world’s leading brands into the Chinese market.

He soon became one of the most frequently sought-after media commentators and consultants and an emerging authority on China’s tech dynamics.

Notably, he warned on Luckin Coffee’s shonky corporate governance, a year before the company admitted to sales fraud, which eventually led to its delisting from Nasdaq in 2020.

We are truly sorry to hear about the loss of our contributor Michael Norris @briefnorris. Our deepest condolences are with his family and friends.
Thank you for always giving us thoughtful insights on China's consumer trends and the tech sector at large, Michael. We miss you. pic.twitter.com/sgXVgizGyW

— TechNode (@technodechina) May 30, 2022

“Given the trajectory Michael was on in his career and the reach he had already gained, I’ve no doubt that many people are shocked to hear this news,” general counsel of the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade Chris Carr said on LinkedIn.

Jesse White, the trade manager at Global Victoria wrote: “Michael was an incredible guy, head and shoulders above so many of us who play in China. He was the benchmark that I aspired toward, but also a really great guy. Shocked.”

Once the youngest committee member of the Australia-China Business Council (SA), Mr Norris had studied at China’s top university, Tsinghua University. He was awarded the Prime Minister’s Australia Asia Undergraduate Award in 2014, an elite scholarship for Australia’s “best and brightest students to develop longstanding linkages with Asia”.

More than 800 condolences were sent to his grieving family from all over the world.

It is understood that Mr Norris’s family has been supported by the Australian Consulate for the repatriation of his ashes to his Adelaide home.

In Adelaide, a celebration of Mr Norris’s life will be held and Zoomed to his friends and colleagues in various countries.