Althouse: Speaking in Mandarin, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he'd give an honorary Chinese name to the baby he and his wife are about to have.

October 3, 2015

Speaking in Mandarin, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg asked Chinese President Xi Jinping if he'd give an honorary Chinese name to the baby he and his wife are about to have.

Xi said: "No."

73 comments:

Drago said...: I wonder if Zuckerberg approached on bended knee and averted his gaze from his overlord when making this humble request.; 10/3/15, 10:52 AM
JackWayne said...: Good for Xi. Or was it Xe or Xer?; 10/3/15, 10:59 AM
walter said...: i.e. "dislike"; 10/3/15, 11:07 AM
Bob Ellison said...: I tweeted a request to Xi for a Chinese rhyme for "Nantucket". He sent back "Zuckerberg".; 10/3/15, 11:12 AM
Bob Boyd said...: Reminds me of the Soup Nazi on Seinfeld.

"No name for you!"; 10/3/15, 11:13 AM
rhhardin said...: Rolf.; 10/3/15, 11:19 AM
rhhardin said...: Craw.; 10/3/15, 11:20 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: What a douchey request. I'm embarrassed for him.; 10/3/15, 11:28 AM
Michael K said...: Zuckerberg is a perfect symbol for the weak leftist Democrat elite.; 10/3/15, 11:33 AM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: Fascinating how quickly the very wealthy and protected fall out of touch with reality. Presumably, many politicians and gazillionaires started out as hard-scrabble kids, blue-collar strivers, or broke-ass college students. How does one forget how to be a regular Joe?; 10/3/15, 11:34 AM
Achilles said...: My parents and I just had a discussion about whether or not Obama was a puppet.(My Dad voted for him at least once) I don't think he is. You could go on any college campus and find 20+ people/professors that would act and do the same things he does and they aren't stupid. They are very smart.

But they do lack wisdom. They cannot look at the context of the situation and assess how their actions and policies will manifest else they would look at history and note that everything they are doing has been done before and failed.

Zuckerberg is smart. He is not wise. My wife was born in Hong Kong and naturalized here. She is laughing at this story. Zuckerberg thinks the Chinese are like us with darker skin. He is so smart he memorized a line in Chinese and thought it would make them friends. Liberals in this country hate nationalism so much they can't believe an enlightened statist like Xi would hold that view. Liberals entire paradigm is based on all the smart people think like them. It leads to a myopia and cultural blindness that is terrible for the world.; 10/3/15, 11:36 AM
Bill said...: "No"? That's an odd name for a baby....; 10/3/15, 11:41 AM
rhhardin said...: Wei Tu Lo.; 10/3/15, 11:44 AM
rehajm said...: If it's true there's no particular word in Mandarin for 'no' just what is the kid's name exactly?; 10/3/15, 11:44 AM
SayAahh said...: He could have just said "eff yu".; 10/3/15, 11:54 AM
Ambrose said...: Scene from 2035: "Hey, No Zuckerberg, how'd you get that name?" "Well, it's a long story..."; 10/3/15, 12:02 PM
madAsHell said...: Even Chairman Xi knows that there are some things that government should stay out of.; 10/3/15, 12:03 PM
averagejoe said...: Haha, Jingping was zooing on Zuckerberg- No is a Japanese word!; 10/3/15, 12:03 PM
Humperdink said...: Xi should have responded: "Why should I name the baby, I already have his password?"; 10/3/15, 12:05 PM
Fernandinande said...: Oh that Xi! Such a kidder! Also a great scrabble word.; 10/3/15, 12:09 PM
FullMoon said...: How Long is a Chinese name; 10/3/15, 12:35 PM
Laslo Spatula said...: Wang Chung Zuckerberg sounds good.

If he asks me.

I am laslo.; 10/3/15, 12:39 PM
gadfly said...: To thunderous applause and astonishment from the White House state dinner audience, Xi said: "No."; 10/3/15, 12:49 PM
Sebastian said...: The report unfairly neglected to mention the four-letter word Xi added under his breath, completing the honorary Chinese name: No (----) Zuckerberg.; 10/3/15, 1:01 PM
Mark Caplan said...: "No" in Chinese means Rich Offspring.; 10/3/15, 1:06 PM
Bob Boyd said...: "Speaking in Mandarin..."

Zuckerburg may have thought he was asking for an honorary name for his daughter, but who knows what he may actually asked Xi.

Will you friend me?

Could you get me a human kidney?

Is that a toupee?

Would you go out with my sister?

Would you help us move to our new house next weekend?

How about a Cleveland Steamer?; 10/3/15, 1:08 PM
walter said...: He should just consult the interwebz; 10/3/15, 1:10 PM
Mid-Life Lawyer said...: Apparently, having a lot of money is similar to taking a lot of acid.; 10/3/15, 1:11 PM
n.n said...: Zuckerberg will need to donate several trillion dollars to earn that honor. The Chinese communists can't be happy with the Western leftists' inflationary economic model.; 10/3/15, 1:23 PM
Sydney said...: Do the Chinese elite still speak Mandarin?; 10/3/15, 1:28 PM
Sebastian said...: Z misunderstood. The answer was Know.; 10/3/15, 1:28 PM
pm317 said...: This is what happens when boys suddenly become billionaires for their garbage idea.; 10/3/15, 1:31 PM
pm317 said...: Thank God, that "peeple" thing is going nowhere.; 10/3/15, 1:32 PM
dbp said...: If Jinping had been clever, he could have suggested "Jazz" as a good first name for the Zuckerberg girl. Later, he could regale his friends about how he tricked the stupid American devil.

Zuckerberg means something like sugar mountain in German, which is current urban slang for vagina. Jazz, of course was originally a slang term for having sex, so it makes for a pretty raunchy whole name.; 10/3/15, 1:35 PM
Jaq said...: Mark told Merkel that he would be happy to report anybody who complains about the huge wave of immigrants she has personally invited, if,, for example, they complain about them on Facebook, on account of that would make them xenophobes and possibly lead to loss of their job and their children being taken away.

https://www.rt.com/news/316821-xenophobic-posts-child-rights/

She *is* from West Germany, isn't she?; 10/3/15, 1:42 PM
David Begley said...: Yuan.; 10/3/15, 1:50 PM
dbp said...: Merkel grew up in East Germany though she was born in West Germany.; 10/3/15, 2:03 PM
Jeff Bangle said...: Maybe the kid will go into medicine, and become "Dr. No"....; 10/3/15, 3:10 PM
Humperdink said...: Wing Nut.; 10/3/15, 3:10 PM
pm317 said...: @Jeff Bangle, LOL; 10/3/15, 4:42 PM
The Godfather said...: So in 1936, John D. Rockefeller III asks the Chancellor of Germany to name John III's son. Thus was born Adolph H. Rockefeller.; 10/3/15, 4:50 PM
Balfegor said...: Am I missing something, or did that article completely gloss over the fact that Facebook is banned in mainland China? Has that changed recently? Isn't the key dynamic that Zuckerberg is sucking up in the hopes of accessing the Chinese market?; 10/3/15, 4:51 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: David Begley: That's excellent.; 10/3/15, 4:51 PM
walter said...: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-09-29/facebook-s-sandberg-china-business-thriving-amid-ban

"China’s censorship laws prevent the country’s more than 600 million Internet users from accessing Facebook. Yet, in one example of how companies there are still using the world’s largest social network, Sandberg said a Chinese airline is advertising flights to consumers outside the country."; 10/3/15, 4:56 PM
chickelit said...: The snub cheers me, actually.; 10/3/15, 5:09 PM
Quaestor said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/3/15, 6:02 PM
Anonymous said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/3/15, 6:14 PM
walter said...: Yeah..that would be weird. Obama would be wondering why he didn't ask for an iPod of his speeches.; 10/3/15, 7:28 PM
traditionalguy said...: How many Divisions does the Internet Geek have. That is the usual question from Dictators with a modern military the size Russia and USA combined.

Facebook is not a weapon. It is a dossier creator used by the Dictators.; 10/3/15, 7:49 PM
SGT Ted said...: Why is he kissing the ass of a Communist?; 10/3/15, 7:57 PM
Nichevo said...: Because he thinks there is a profit in it? Or because he thinks it is the right thing to do? I wonder which is worse.

Punk. You don't ask a question like that unless you know the answer.; 10/3/15, 8:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Stupid ass-kissing Zuckerberg. Only family elders could name the baby. The baby's date and time of birth, the number of strokes in the characters making up his name, the paternal ancestors... are all considered. For a Chinese woman to marry a "gwe-lo" foreign devil, no matter how wealthy he is, is below her. Racist? Yeah, very. But... Xe is the head of state, he ranks much higher than a shop keeper, even a rich shop keeper.

Dear Leader covets Zuckerberg's money, Xe does not.; 10/3/15, 8:23 PM
pm317 said...: elk1, my thoughts exactly. Who asks a head of state that just because this guy has a Chinese origin wife and he is some billionaire? Immature and total suck up.; 10/3/15, 8:28 PM
Achilles said...: SGT Ted said...
"Why is he kissing the ass of a Communist?"

A communist that banned the reason he is a billionaire no less.

Zuckerberg is a complete tool.; 10/3/15, 9:13 PM
Unknown said...: No Zuckerburg. What a strange name.; 10/3/15, 9:18 PM
richard mcenroe said...: I can just see Zucky showing off his kid to his friends, "Everyone, I'd like you to meet little Gweilo Lo-Fa'an..."; 10/3/15, 9:19 PM
Jim S. said...: Hu's on first, Xi's on second.; 10/3/15, 10:00 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: The interesting query is:

Is it better to go way way up, subsequently crashing hard, than to have never gone way up at all?

The answer is of course different if you gained during the upturn signigicant assets the downfall didn't take.

People, me, who didn't gain nor directly lose also lose for not playing.

Regrets are all I can speak of, unlike Sinatra.

I regret I failed to recognize the individual motivations that raise an economy way, way up.

Since there is, and can be, no ceterus parabus piss on the rest.; 10/3/15, 10:08 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: There is no way for my limited brain to separate Zuckerberg's success from my failure's multitudes.

But before there was Facebook, it was noticed Princes will fail to keep what they easily gained. China's man about the world rep worked harder than Zuckerberg. They both know it. Zuckerberg will learn from this and probably become the ruler of the free world.

I read Machiavelli and his Prince for about 75 pages then figured I caught the jist.

Easy come, easy go.; 10/3/15, 10:21 PM
MrCharlie2 said...: A plutocrat by any name would smell as sweet.; 10/3/15, 10:25 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: Where do ideologues find the room for arrogance when comparing Carter to Reagan and Bush to Obama?

It must be style as opposed to substance that allows for feelings of superiority when causing disaster.

How many times did Reagan blame Carter for the situation Reagan inherited?

Because Reagan belived America was exceptional in ways Greece was not in 1980 or now, unlike the profoundly evil stupidness of Obama, perhaps it can all be attributed to crazy wacko cock simpistic bitterness clinging to the placebo ideals Americans have died for again and again with only hatred registering from Communists like Ayers and Franky Fuckcunt Davis and Cass Suckstein*.

*I could have chosen to write Cuntstein not Suckstein but I have reverence for things Satan cannot distance me from, that far.; 10/3/15, 11:21 PM
Fred Drinkwater said...: Achilles, damn it, you used the word before I could post.
What with this and the "How can I help you dear Angela?" bit, also an evil tool.
Brings back fond memories of when I briefly worked for Loral when Bernie Schwartz ran it, who at least got into some actual legal trouble for selling defense tech to PRC.; 10/3/15, 11:21 PM
furious_a said...: Seems kind of condescending, like asking Mr. Xi if he would demonstrate some Kung Fu moves.; 10/3/15, 11:30 PM
Guildofcannonballs said...: "the situation Reagan inherited" was intented to specifically to refer to after Reagan was elected, as I'm sure, rightly, Reagan blamed Carter for one Hell of a lot before the 1980 election.

So turds trying to turn a point could turd it up all day, but they won't find President Reagan acting like President Obama, even though as Obama noted candidates act differently than victors without regard to party.; 10/3/15, 11:41 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "Am I missing something, or did that article completely gloss over the fact that Facebook is banned in mainland China? Has that changed recently? Isn't the key dynamic that Zuckerberg is sucking up in the hopes of accessing the Chinese market?"

The article says: "Zuckerberg, who was seated at the head table with the Obamas, the Chinese president and his wife, Peng Liyuan, is trying to persuade Beijing to lift a ban on Facebook. Presumably, he wasn’t brave enough to ask for that favor over dinner."

They way I read it was that Z was trying to suck up -- demonstrating that he speaks Chinese, has a wife with Chinese ancestry, is having a baby who'll be of Chinese ancestry, and cares about the Chinese tradition in that he purports to value some supposed "honor" in having a Chinese name.; 10/4/15, 5:41 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I wish I could see Z's quote... but it's in Chinese. Did he really overuse the word "honor" the way The Daily News suggests: "Zuckerberg spoke to Xi in Mandarin and asked if he would do him and wife Priscilla the honor of giving the baby she is expecting an honorary Chinese name."

That reminds me of how, years ago, when American comedians imitated a Chinese person, they'd use the word "honorable" over and over. That and a gong sound.; 10/4/15, 5:45 AM
Humperdink said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10/4/15, 6:09 AM
Humperdink said...: Reminded me of Mark Halperin asking Ted Cruz to respond to a question in Spanish. Both Haperin and Zuckerdope come off as fools.; 10/4/15, 6:12 AM
amielalune said...: Left unsaid is that the Chinese are very racist. My cousin is married to a Chinese woman and whenever they visit China, he hates going out in public because total strangers never fail to approach her and call her and their child names.; 10/4/15, 7:32 AM
Balfegor said...: Re: Althouse:

Was that there before? I read it quickly so perhaps I skipped over it, but I recall checking for that specifically because it struck me as a significant omission.; 10/4/15, 7:48 AM
David said...: Zuck has Bill Gates Disease. You make a shit load of money with one really great idea and decide you are really special.; 10/4/15, 8:56 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Yes, it was there before. I noticed it when I was writing the pist.; 10/4/15, 1:14 PM
ttrtilley said...: In China, the family name goes first.
So your first name is your last name,
And your last name is your middle name,
And your middle name is your first name.

So the baby’s name would be something like:
Zuck Mie Dong.; 11/19/21, 10:03 AM