If you've lived in China for a while but your Mandarin proficiency only extends to basic taxi directions and a hearty "zai lai yi bei!" this should make you feel like the lazy laowai you are.

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has somehow managed to find the time to improve his spoken Chinese while managing one of the largest social media platforms in the world. A 22-minute transcript-less inspirational speech delivered entirely in Mandarin at Tsinghua University in Beijing elicited favorable comments from Chinese netizens, who said that despite Zuckerberg's frequent pauses and less-than-biaozhun pronunciation, it was a solid attempt.

“Although it was tough for me to understand what he said because of his strong accent, I really appreciate his efforts and ability,” the Wall Street Journal quotes one Weibo user as saying.

Zuckerberg posted a subtitled video of the speech on his Facebook page.

This is not the first time Zuckerberg has revealed his love of all things China. Last December, it emerged that Zuckerberg had bought several copies of Xi Jinping’s The Governance of China book for his colleagues. This is also not the first time he has busted out his Chinese skills: he wished the nation a happy Chinese New Year in a video message in February and last month bragged about holding a conversation with Xi "entirely" in Chinese.

Zuckerberg’s speech cited Chinese companies Alibaba and Xiaomi as sharing Facebook's goal of "connecting people," which was Zuckerberg's motivation for founding the company in 2004.

Let's hope Zuckerberg's Chinese charm offensive pays off and we finally get Facebook access in a country of over 700 million Internet users.

Watch the speech below:

https://v.qq.com/txp/iframe/player.html?vid=n0170l40xcr&width=500&height=375&auto=0

by Virginia Werner

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