MOSCOW, October 23 (RIA Novosti) – Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder of the world’s largest social network Facebook, was determined to win over the hearts and minds of Beijing, when he surprised students by conducting an entire question-and-answer session in Mandarin, AFP reports Thursday.
The 30-year-old head of the US-based company kicked off his half-hour session at the prestigious Tsinghua University with the words "Hello, everyone" in heavily accented Chinese. The crowd was charmed and responded to Zuckerberg with cheers and applause.
Zuckerberg’s pronunciation was far from perfect, but he managed to maintain a 30-minute intelligible conversation on various topics.
He spoke about founding and running a company, his opinion on Chinese innovation, as well as more personal matters such as his favorite color, his favorite Chinese dish and the Chinese-American family of his wife, Priscilla Chan.
"The best companies aren’t made because the founder wants to found a company, but because the founder wants to change the world," he opined.
Zuckerberg said that China is an amazing country, and for him learning the language is the best way to understand Chinese culture.
"I want to study Chinese culture," he said. "Studying the language helps me study the culture. So, I'm trying to learn the language. Also, I like a challenge."
Zuckerberg married Chan in 2012 and started to learn Chinese in 2010. He said Wednesday that he wanted to learn the language because his wife’s grandmother only speaks Chinese.
"Priscilla and I decided to get married, so I told her grandmother in Chinese, and she was very surprised," Zuckerberg was quoted by AP as saying.
Facebook has been inaccessible in mainland China since 2009. It is one of several major global social networking sites, including Twitter, YouTube and Instagram, which have been blocked by the ruling Communist Party.
Despite the measures, many Chinese state news companies and government bodies have social media accounts. In addition, many Facebook officials have travelled to China to speak at tech conferences and meet with government and business leaders.
Facebook has an office in Hong Kong and has reportedly rented office space in Beijing to develop its business selling online ads to Chinese companies.
Zuckerberg himself has travelled to China four times, he said at the event. Earlier this week, he was appointed to the advisory board for Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management and met with Tsinghua President Chen Jining.
During the event there was no explicit conversation of the Chinese ban on Facebook or the company’s effort to enter the China market.
However asked about Facebook’s plans in the country, Zuckerberg noted that his company already helps some Chinese companies in foreign markets.
"We're already in China. We help Chinese companies increase their overseas customers; they use Facebook advertising to find more customers," he said. "So, we want to help different places in the world connect with China."
