Alibaba’s Jack Ma:from “Crazy” to China’s Rcest M

By Calum MacLeod

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China’s richest man celebrated his 50th birthday a few months before in the United States and expects his company will last twice as long, plus two years. Revealing his ambition—and a love of numbers common in China—Jack Ma says Alibaba will last 102 years so the Internet empire he founded in 1999 can span1three centuries.

Under Ma’s maverick leadership, the 15-year-old firm has already bridged a period of extraordinary change in global trade and the Chinese economy.2In a nation with little e-commerce, he raised a still-growing giant whose U.S. initial public offering, which starts trading under the BABA ticker, is the largest in history.3. 在这样一个只有极少数电商的国度里，他创建了一个不断发展壮大的企业巨头，创造了美国史上规模最大的IPO，并以BaBa这一股票代码进行交易。initial public offering:简称IPO，首次公开募股，指企业通过证券交易所首次公开向投资者增发股票，以募集用于企业发展资金的过程；ticker: 股票代码。

他曾经是个英语老师，但他的梦想却是自己创业；他曾经被身边人戏谑为“疯子”，但也正是他与众不同的理念和别具一格的眼光带领他走上互联网之路，并最终成为这一行业的领军人物；他在事业上雄心勃勃，而生活上却极其简单朴素……2014年9月19日，他一手创办的企业成功登陆纽交所，并创美股史上最高融资纪录。他是马云，是阿里巴巴的创始人之一，是中国内地富豪榜上最新的龙头老大，是无数传奇的缔造者。

Rejected by KFC

His rags-to-riches4. rags-to-riches: 白手起家的，从贫穷到富裕的。journey is just as spectacular. A scrawny5. scrawny: 骨瘦如柴的。Ma,just over 5 feet tall, was rejected by KFC and other employers in his hometown of Hangzhou in east China. He believed in the Internet’s business potential when few other Chinese did. Outlandish ideas earned him the nickname “Crazy Jack Ma.”6. outlandish: 稀奇古怪的；earn: 使得到……；nickname: 绰号，昵称。No one thinks he’s mad now, even when dressing in wild wigs and lipstick for his annual meeting where he serenades a stadium full of Alibaba employees.7.（但是）现在大家不再认为他是个疯子了，哪怕他在年会上带着夸张的假发，涂着口红，在坐满阿里巴巴员工的体育馆里唱小夜曲。wig:假发；serenade: 唱小夜曲。

Ma’s readiness to make fun of himself, and speak his mind, stands in contrast to China’s often conservative corporate barons8. baron: 巨头，大亨。. Charismatic and energetic, this former teacher has become an inspiration to millions across China. He flunked at math but loved English, and countless books and DVDs sell his business lessons in every airport lounge.9. flunk: 考试不及格；lounge: 休息室。

Ma—whose net worth is $21.8 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index—now stars in the coming-out party for China’s private sector onto the world stage.10. 根据彭博亿万富豪指数，马云目前拥有218亿美元净资产，成为中国民营企业初入世界舞台的主角。net worth: 净资产；coming-out party:女子初入社交界的交谊会，这里指中国民营企业首次登上世界舞台；private sector: 民营企业。He praises and uses Western management techniques but also quotes regularly from Chairman Mao.He is a fan of China’s kung fu novels and made those legends part of his company’s culture. He also travels the world with a tai chi11. tai chi: 太极拳。trainer.

Ma Meets the Internet

After twice failing the national college entrance exams, Ma entered what he called “Hangzhou’s worst college.” Graduating in 1988, Ma married his college sweetheart and taught English at a local college for five years, earning $15 a month. During that time, he also applied for, and failed to land, jobs at a local KFC, a hotel and the city police.

Determined to enter business, Ma set up a translation company, but he still had to peddle12. peddle: 叫卖，兜售。goods on the street to get by. He traveled to the United States in 1995 as a translator to help a Chinese firm recover a payment. The attempt failed, but a friend in Seattle showed Ma the Internet, and an idea began brewing.

Ma noticed there was not a single online listing for “China” and “beer,”unlike those that popped up13. pop up: 突然出现。for American and German beer. He returned to China and set up a listing site that he later sold to the government. After working in Beijing for an Internet firm under the Ministry of Commerce,Ma returned home to Hangzhou to pursue his dream.

Alibaba Founded

With the help of more than a dozen friends who pooled their resources—just $60,000—he founded Alibaba, a business-to-business online platform.The company now makes more pro fit than rivals Amazon.com and e-Bay combined, as China’s burgeoning14. burgeoning: 迅速增长的。middle class are big spenders online,and small companies rely on Alibaba and its online payment system.

Ma seized opportunities as China was transforming into a market economy. At the time, the Internet was first being promoted, and small, private businesses struggled to get loans and had to compete against government-protected state firms,said economist Feng Pengcheng, director of the China Research Center for Capital Management at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

“The business model Ma Yun created in China suited the Chinese market. It might be a failure in the U.S. market, but it’s so successful in China,” Feng said. “What’s more, Ma Yun is good at cooperating with other talents. His company culture and his personal charm attracted employees, and his slogans are uplifting,” he said.

For a billionaire so outspoken on company and business issues, Ma says little about his family and manages to keep his private life quiet and scandal-free.15. outspoken: 坦率的，直言不讳的；scandal-free: 没有流言蜚语的。Ma and his wife Zhang Ying have a son, an undergrad at the University of California-Berkeley, where Ma had audited classes.16. undergrad: 大学在校生；University of California-Berkeley: 加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校，美国最佳公立大学之一，是美国工程科技界的学术领袖；audit: 旁听。A black-and-white photo of a young Ma with his older brother and younger sister went viral in China’s cyberspace, as many people were unaware their richest citizen even had siblings.17. 马云年轻时和哥哥妹妹的一张黑白合照在网络上疯传，很多人才知道这位中国首富原来还有兄弟姐妹。go viral: 像病毒般扩散；sibling: 兄弟姐妹。

“Ma Yun’s lifestyle is very simple and modest. His hobbies are still tai chi and kung fu novels,” Chen, his friend and assistant, said from Boston, while accompanying Ma on Alibaba’s U.S. roadshow18. roadshow: 路演，巡回演出。before the IPO.

“I don’t think he has changed much, he is still that old style. After the IPO, I am sure his lifestyle will be simpler. He won’t change,” Chen said. In his book,Chen said Ma enjoys meditation19. meditation: 冥想。in the mountains, playing poker with friends and writing his own kung fu fiction. By Ma’s own account, he believes in both Buddhism and Taoism, and follows many tenets of Confucianism.20. 据马云自己称，他信奉佛教和道教，并且还遵循很多儒家信条。tenet: 原理，信条。

Opposite of Stuffy21. stuffy: 古板的。

“He is the opposite of stuffy and canned.22. canned:〈俚〉千篇一律的，陈腐的。He’s funny, creative and a compelling speaker. I often thought he has another career in stand-up comedy23. stand-up comedy: 脱口秀，单口相声。,” said Duncan Clark, a Brit who is a Beijing-based technology consultant.

Ma resigned in 2013 as Alibaba’s CEO, but he clearly remains in charge as the firm’s executive chairman. He has hinted at exploring more “cultural” pursuits,such as film-making, education and environmental protection.

“One issue facing China is that people’s wallets are bulging24. bulge: 膨胀。, but their heads are empty,” he told Hong Kong’sSouth China Morning Post. Ma also promises more philanthropy25. philanthropy: 慈善事业。, including what may be China’s largest charity foundation.