 "Zuckerberg courts China with speech on people and perseverance")
Mark Zuckerberg knows how to court Chinese users: During a speech this weekend at Tsinghua University in Beijing, he filled his remarks with compliments on the nation's history and idioms of traditional Chinese wisdom.
Calling China a nation historically known for innovation, Zuckerberg, the chief executive of Facebook, addressed students in heavily accented Mandarin and shared the now-familiar story of how he started his company on Harvard University's campus.
That Zuckerberg speaks Mandarin is no longer news. But his speech underlined Facebook's eagerness to expand in China, where it remains blocked. Zuckerberg told his audience at Tsinghua that his company had already overcome doubts about its international reach. "Some people say, 'Maybe it works in the US, but it won't work internationally,'" he said. "But we kept going, and we expanded internationally."
Invoking a Chinese idiom halfway through the 20-minute speech, Zuckerberg hinted that Facebook would plow ahead in the face of challenges. "There is a good Chinese saying, which says that if you work at it hard enough, you can grind an iron bar into a needle," he said. "If you keep working hard, you will change the world." Indeed, Zuckerberg has worked hard to polish his Mandarin. Qiao Mu, a communications professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said Zuckerberg's choice of language had been a calculated move to appeal to Chinese users.
Internet companies like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have been blocked in China since 2009. But they are eager to gain access to the world's most populous country, which has had a sharp increase in Internet users despite widespread censorship.
But he added that one billion - roughly China's population - was just "a number," and that the company's real ambition was to connect everyone in the world.
"He chose the language on purpose so that he can project a more easygoing image with the young Internet users in China," Qiao said.
In a question-and-answer session at Tsinghua last year, Mr. Zuckerberg elicited a wave of comments online after he spoke Mandarin with the students there. Although some mocked his heavy accent, many applauded his willingness to learn the language. Several months later, he was seen giving good wishes in Chinese during the Lunar New Year.
Most recently, while rubbing shoulders in Seattle with the visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping, Mr. Zuckerberg seized the opportunity to practice the language. He even was said to have asked Mr. Xi to come up with a name for his future child.
©2015 The New York Times News Service
