FT年度人物評選獎項得主 馬雲

The sound of 16,000 people chanting “Ali, Alibaba” fills the Yellow Dragon Stadium in Hangzhou, a city on China’s eastern coast. As the theme to The Lion King begins to blare over the sound system, a diminutive figure rises through the stage floor.

在華東城市杭州的黃龍體育館，16000人有節奏地反覆喊着“阿里，阿里巴巴”。接着，《獅子王》的主題曲在音響系統中響起，一個瘦小的身影從舞臺中升了起來。

Dressed in leather and sporting a giant spiked Mohawk, black lipstick and a nose ring, Jack Ma begins to belt out an off-key rendition of Elton John’s “Can you Feel the Love Tonight” to his adoring employees.

馬雲(Jack Ma)身穿皮衣，戴着一頂巨大而有尖頂的莫西乾式假髮，塗着黑色脣膏並穿了一個鼻環。他拉開嗓門，有點走調地向崇拜他的員工們演唱埃爾頓•約翰(Elton John)的《今夜你能感覺到愛嗎》(Can you Feel the Love Tonight)。

It had been 10 years since Mr Ma founded Alibaba, the internet company that made him a billionaire, and it was time to celebrate. Soon, it will be time to celebrate again: Alibaba, the world’s most successful ecommerce company, is preparing to sell shares in a global initial public offering that is expected to be valued at well over $100bn.

這是馬雲創立阿里巴巴10週年紀念會，這家互聯網公司使他成爲了億萬富翁，這是一個慶祝的時刻。不久，另一個值得慶祝的時刻又將到來：阿里巴巴這家全球最成功的電子商務公司正準備進行首次公開發行(IPO)，預計其市值將遠超1000億美元。

Mr Ma has been a cult figure in China for years. But he captured the attention of the world this year as excitement built around the impending IPO, which will let investors own a slice of the fastest-growing internet market on the planet.

多年來，馬雲在中國一直是受人崇拜的偶像人物。但在今年，隨着市場對阿里巴巴即將進行的IPO越來越感興趣，他也吸引了世界的關注。上市將讓投資者有機會在全球增長最快的互聯網市場持有股份。

Alibaba’s sales now exceed those of eBay and Amazon combined and make up about 2 per cent of China’s gross domestic product. Seventy per cent of all Chinese package deliveries come from Alibaba sales. Roughly 80 per cent of Chinese ecommerce transactions are conducted through Alibaba’s sites. And this is probably just the beginning, considering more than half of China is still offline. With 600m people using the internet and counting, China will soon overtake the US as the world’s biggest ecommerce market.

阿里巴巴的銷售額如今超過了eBay和亞馬遜(Amazon)之和，佔到了中國國內生產總值(GDP)的約2%。中國所有的快遞包裹中約有70%來自於阿里巴巴的銷售。中國的電商交易中大約有80%是通過阿里巴巴的網站進行的。而這很可能只是一個開始，因爲仍有一半以上的中國人不上網。鑑於中國網民人數已經達到6億，而且還在不斷增加，中國將在不久超越美國，成爲全球最大的電商市場。

Mr Ma, godfather of China’s scrappy entrepreneurial spirit, is the FT’s 2013 Person of the Year because he personifies the Chinese internet – with all its potential and its contradictions.

身爲中國鬥志旺盛的企業家精神“教父”的馬雲，被英國《金融時報》評爲2013年度人物，因爲他是中國互聯網的化身——體現了中國互聯網的全部潛力和矛盾。

In a nation whose success has been built largely on business ideas developed elsewhere, Mr Ma is a true innovator. His contemporaries have mostly copied established business models to create “China’s Google”, “China’s Amazon” or “China’s Twitter”. But when Mr Ma started Alibaba in his apartment in 1999, this type of business-to-business ecommerce website did not exist.

在中國，創業成功大多依賴於借鑑海外發展起來的商業理念，但馬雲是一位真正的創新者。與他同時代的人，大多複製成熟的商業模式，創立“中國的谷歌(Google)”，“中國的亞馬遜(Amazon)”以及“中國的推特(Twitter)”。但當馬雲1999年在自己的公寓裏創立阿里巴巴時，企業對企業(B2B)電子商務網站還不存在。

Mr Ma is now setting his eyes on a new goal: shaking up Chinese finance. This has sent shockwaves through the staid, state-dominated financial sector and shows that his ambitions extend well beyond online retail.

馬雲現已將目光投向新的目標：撼動中國的金融業。這在古板的、公有制爲主體的中國金融行業激起了軒然大波，並表明馬雲的雄心遠遠超出了在線零售業。

But there is another reason for choosing Mr Ma this year: his decision in May to step down as Alibaba’s chief executive at the age of 48 to devote himself to tackling some of China’s biggest problems – in particular its looming environmental disaster.

但將馬雲評爲今年的年度人物還有另一個原因：今年5月，他決定在年屆48歲之際卸任阿里巴巴首席執行官職務，轉而投身於應對中國一些最大的問題——尤其是中國日益迫近的環境災難。

He remains executive chairman of the company but his decision to focus less on the blind pursuit of riches and more on improving the state of the world reflects a profound shift in Chinese society – one that is being facilitated by the rise of the internet. After three decades of double-digit economic growth, the country’s growing and increasingly vocal middle class is no longer content with a myopic focus on GDP growth rates.

馬雲仍是阿里巴巴的執行董事長，但他決定將更少的精力用於盲目追求財富，而將更多精力用於改善世界面貌，這反映了中國社會的深刻轉變——互聯網的崛起正使這種轉型變得更加容易。在經歷了30年的兩位數經濟增長後，中國不斷壯大且越來越願意表達自身訴求的中產階層不再滿足於短視地關注於GDP增長率。

“In China, because of problems in water, air and food safety, in 10 or 20 years we will face a lot of health problems, like increased cancer. So that is one area where I will invest my money and time,” Mr Ma said in a telephone interview last week. “My second focus is people’s culture and education – if we don’t do this then young Chinese people will grow up with deep pockets but shallow minds.”

馬雲上週在接受電話採訪時表示：“在中國，因爲水源、空氣質量以及食品安全等方面的問題，10至20年後我們將面臨大量健康問題，例如癌症發病率上升。因此我將在這個領域投入我的資金和時間。我的第二大關注領域是民衆的文化和教育——如果我們無所作爲，中國的年輕人將成長爲富裕但淺薄的一代。”

Mr Ma’s energy and optimism inspire many. But that does not mean he is a saint. Some former colleagues and confidants say his incredible success and the adulation it has brought has made him overconfident in his ability to change the world.

馬雲的活力和樂觀精神鼓舞了很多人。但這並不意味着他是個聖人。一些前同事和密友表示，馬雲驚人的成功以及由此帶來的過度美譽，使他對自己改變世界的能力過於自信。

In almost the same breath, he will say the internet is going to make China more open and transparent, while also vowing to hand over to the authorities information on any netizen who dares criticise the authoritarian Communist party.

他會在幾乎同一句話裏表示，互聯網將使中國變得更加開放透明，而他將繼續向當局提供任何敢於批評威權的共產黨的網民的信息。

His own authoritarian tendencies, and his sometimes dizzying reversals in business strategy, have bred resentment among a minority at Alibaba. But his cult-like following ensures even disgruntled former employees do not dare criticise him openly.

馬雲自己的專斷傾向，以及他有時令人眩暈的商業戰略逆轉，使阿里巴巴的少數人產生反感。但他近乎偶像人物的光環意味着，即便是心懷不滿的前員工也不敢公開批評他。

“Anybody who wants to do anything in the Chinese tech industry in future has to be careful what they say about Jack Ma because he is just so powerful,” says a former employee who asks not to be named.

一位要求匿名的前員工表示：“任何未來想在中國科技行業中做點什麼的人，在談到馬雲時都必須慎言，因爲他的影響力太過強大。”

“But even people like me who don’t buy into his cult of personality recognise that he epitomises the entrepreneurial new China, where a person from a very poor background can become huge through pure perseverance and by rallying people around him.”

“但即便像我這種不吃他的個人崇拜那一套的人也承認，他是中國新一代企業家的代表，一個背景很窮的人通過堅持不懈和籠絡人才成長爲巨頭。”

Born in the southeastern Chinese city of Hangzhou in 1964, Ma Yun (his Chinese name) inherited a gift for showmanship from his parents, who earned their living as performers of “ping tan”, a traditional musical storytelling technique.

馬雲1964年出生於杭州，他從父母那裏繼承了表演的天賦。馬雲的父母靠表演評彈（一種傳統曲藝形式）爲生。

Mr Ma’s early life cannot have been easy: traditional ping tan was banned during the Cultural Revolution, the catastrophic decade-long political campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 in which millions were persecuted, killed or banished to remote parts of the country.

馬雲的早年生活肯定不容易：評彈在文化大革命期間遭禁，這場由毛澤東在1966年發動的災難性政治運動持續了整整十年，其間數百萬人受到迫害、被殺死或下放到中國的偏遠地區。

As a child, Mr Ma was bad at maths but fascinated by English. As China emerged from the trauma of Maoism and began opening up to the world, he decided he would devote himself to learning the language.

馬雲小時候數學較差，但他對英語很有興趣。隨着中國漸漸撫平毛時代的創傷，開始向世界開放，他決定全身心投入英語學習。

For nine years he got up early every morning and rode his bike to the Hangzhou Hotel, where he befriended foreign tourists and worked for free as a tour guide in order to practise English.

有整整九年時間，他每天都早早起牀，騎上他的自行車奔向杭州大酒店(Hangzhou Hotel)，他在那裏和外國遊客交上朋友，免費充當導遊，以練習自己的英語。

After twice failing China’s national university entrance exam he was eventually admitted to Hangzhou Teacher’s Institute, where he graduated in 1988.

在參加高考兩次落第之後，他最終進入了杭州師範學院，並於1988年畢業。

He worked as an English teacher at a local university making $12 a month but in 1994 he started a translation business that took him to the US, where he was introduced to the internet. At the time, China’s state media were not allowed even to mention its existence.

此後他在杭州當地的一所高校擔任英語老師，每月的工資相當於12美元。但1994年他成立了一家翻譯公司，這使他有機會去美國出差，在那裏接觸到了互聯網。那時中國的官方媒體甚至不能提及互聯網的存在。

After a failed attempt to start an online Chinese version of the Yellow Pages, Mr Ma went to work for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, where one day he was assigned to take an American visitor on a tour of the Great Wall.

在創辦中國黃頁(China Yellow Pages)失敗之後，馬雲進入中國對外經濟貿易部工作。有一天，他被指派陪同一位美國遊客遊覽長城。

The visitor was Jerry Yang, co-founder of Yahoo. The meeting would turn out to be transformative for both men.

這位遊客就是雅虎(Yahoo)的聯合創始人楊致遠(Jerry Yang)。事實證明，這次的見面將成爲兩人事業生涯的轉折點。

Early in 1999, Mr Ma gathered 17 friends and founded Alibaba in his apartment in Hangzhou, giving rousing lectures that revealed his ambition, his vision and his fighting spirit.

1999年初，馬雲聯合17位朋友在他位於杭州的公寓裏創建了阿里巴巴。他發表了勵志演講，展示了自己的雄心、願景和戰鬥精神。

“Chinese brains are just as good as theirs and this is the reason we dare to compete with Americans,” Mr Ma told his comrades in a speech that was caught on camera. “If we’re a good team and we know what we want to do then one of us can defeat 10 of them.”

馬雲在這段被錄製下來的演講中向他的戰友們表示：“中國人的大腦和美國人一樣聰明，這正是我們敢於和他們競爭的原因。如果我們是一個優秀的團隊，而且我們知道自己想要做什麼，那麼我們就能以一當十。”

Alibaba’s model was simple: allow small and medium-sized Chinese companies to find global buyers they would otherwise only be able to meet at trade shows. It worked brilliantly.

阿里巴巴的模式非常簡單：幫助中國的中小企業找到原本只能在交易會上見到的全球買家。這種模式取得了極大的成功。

In 2003, Alibaba made its first tiny profit and launched Taobao (“search for treasure”) to compete with US ecommerce group eBay, which then dominated in China with market share of about 80 per cent.

2003年，阿里巴巴首次實現了小額盈利，同時爲了與美國電子商務集團eBay競爭而創建了淘寶網，當時eBay在中國佔據主導地位，擁有大約80%的市場份額。

In a series of interviews with global media, Mr Ma announced he was “going to war” with eBay. At the time, it seemed like a comical mismatch.

在接受全球媒體的一系列採訪時，馬雲宣佈與eBay“開戰”。當時，這種宣戰顯得有些可笑，因爲雙方實力懸殊。

By 2007, eBay’s market share in China had dropped to less than 8 per cent and it had in effect quit the market. Taobao’s share price had soared to 84 per cent, making Mr Ma the unrivalled king of Chinese ecommerce.

到2007年，eBay在中國的市場份額降至不足8%，實際上已經退出了中國市場。淘寶的市場份額飆升至84%，這讓馬雲成爲了無可匹敵的中國電商之王。

He struck a landmark deal with his old friend Mr Yang in 2005, with Yahoo paying $1bn for a 40 per cent stake in Alibaba and handing its China operations over to Mr Ma to run.

2005年，他與自己的老朋友楊致遠達成了里程碑式的協議：雅虎支付10億美元收購阿里巴巴40%的股權，並將其中國業務交給馬雲運營。

In taking over Yahoo China, Alibaba inherited a scandal that would cast a shadow over Mr Ma’s reputation in the west but cement his image as a safe pair of hands in the eyes of the Chinese government.

阿里巴巴接管雅虎中國(Yahoo China)的同時也繼承了一樁醜聞，這將爲馬雲在西方的形象帶來陰影，但鞏固了其在中國政府眼裏辦事可靠的形象。

Yahoo’s earlier decision to hand over private email information to the Chinese authorities had led to at least two Chinese journalists and democracy advocates being thrown in prison for subversion.

此前，雅虎將私人郵件信息移交給中國有關部門的決定，導致了至少兩名中國記者和民主人士因顛覆罪被捕入獄。

When asked how he would handle such a situation now that he was in charge of Yahoo’s China operations, Mr Ma’s reply was unambiguous.

當時有記者問馬雲，既然你現在負責雅虎中國業務，你將如何處理這種局面，他的回答相當乾脆。

“We create value for the shareholders and the shareholders don’t want us to oppose the government and go bankrupt,” he told reporters at the time. “Whatever [government officials] say, we’ll do it.”

馬雲向記者表示：“我們爲股東創造價值，股東不希望我們與政府作對，走上破產之路。無論（政府官員）說什麼，我們都會配合。”

When asked last week in the interview about the challenges of dealing with the Chinese government, Mr Ma pointed out that there had never been an organisation in China or perhaps anywhere that is as large as Alibaba. It boasts more than 600m registered accounts and welcomes about 100m shoppers a day.

在上週採訪中被問及與中國政府打交道的種種挑戰時，馬雲指出，中國（或許全世界）從來沒有阿里巴巴這麼大的企業。阿里巴巴號稱有6億多註冊賬戶，每天有大約1億人通過其平臺購物。

“At the beginning I thought the government would worry,” Mr Ma said. “[But] we focus on business and the creation of jobs. The government seems to feel more comfortable now.”

馬雲說道：“起初我以爲政府會感到不安。（但）我們致力於商業和創造就業。政府現在似乎放心多了。”

To his employees he has often said that Alibaba should “be in love with the government but never marry it”. Over the years he has repeatedly turned down offers to establish joint ventures with the state.

在公司內部，他經常對員工表示，阿里巴巴應該“跟政府談戀愛但不要嫁給他們”。多年來，他一再拒絕了與政府建立合資企業的提議。

Apart from the Chinese government, Mr Ma seems willing to pick a public fight with almost anyone.

除了中國政府以外，馬雲似乎願意與幾乎所有人公開作對。

That includes Alibaba investors such as Yahoo and, most recently, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which this year refused to change its listing rules to accommodate the corporate structure Alibaba would like to use for its forthcoming IPO.

這包括雅虎等阿里巴巴投資者，最近還有香港交易所(Hong Kong Stock Exchange)。香港交易所今年拒絕爲了配合阿里巴巴希望採用的股權結構而修改上市規則。

Within Alibaba, this fighting spirit is celebrated constantly and employees – or “Alipeople” as they are called – assume nicknames taken from characters in the kung fu novels that Mr Ma loved to read as a young man.

在阿里巴巴內部，這種戰鬥精神不斷得到讚揚，而員工們（他們被稱爲“阿里人”）幾乎都有一個來自馬雲年輕時非常喜歡閱讀的武俠小說的化名。

This is more than a gimmick for Mr Ma, whose own nickname – “Feng Qingyang” – comes from a reclusive swordsman character who was unpredictable and aggressive.

對馬雲來說，這不只是一種噱頭。馬雲自己的綽號是“風清揚”，它來自一個隱居山中的劍俠角色，行事不可預測而且非常好鬥。

“People don’t realise how much martial arts and kung fu novels influence Jack and his strategy for business,” says a former confidant. “They also helped shape his idealism because they are all about upholding the righteous way.”

馬雲以前的一位密友表示：“人們沒有意識到武術和武俠小說對馬雲及其企業戰略的影響有多大。它們還幫助塑造了馬雲的理想主義，因爲它們的要義都是弘揚正義。”

Outside the ruling Communist party it is hard to find anyone today in China who has had a bigger impact on the lives of ordinary people than Mr Ma.

在執政的共產黨以外，在當今中國很難找到另一個人像馬雲一樣，對普通人的生活影響如此之大。

His decision to address some of the biggest problems facing China shows that his ambition extends far beyond changing the way people do their shopping. In an essay published this year, he laid out the scope of his vision.

他決定應對中國一些最大的問題，這表明他的雄心遠不止改變人們的購物方式。在今年發表的一篇文章中，他闡述了自己的願景。

“Just as the internet is revolutionising retail,” Mr Ma wrote, “we at Alibaba believe it will eventually do the same to fundamentally information-driven industries such as finance, education and healthcare. Once this change happens – once we are all connected – I believe the spirit of equality and transparency at the heart of the internet will make it possible for Chinese society to leapfrog in its development of a stronger institutional and social infrastructure.”

馬雲寫道：“就像互聯網正在改寫零售業那樣，在阿里巴巴，我們相信它最終也將轉變那些根本上由信息驅動的行業，比如金融、教育和醫療。一旦發生這種變化，一旦我們全面實現互聯互通，我相信，互聯網核心的平等與透明精神，將讓中國社會有可能在發展更強大的制度和社會基礎設施方面實現飛躍。”

But he also included a warning: “Our water has become undrinkable, our food inedible, our milk poisonous and worst of all the air in our cities is so polluted that we often cannot see the sun,” he wrote. “Twenty years ago, people in China were focusing on economic survival. Now, people have better living conditions and big dreams for the future. But these dreams will be hollow if we cannot see the sun.”

但他也提出了警告：“現在我們的水不能喝了，食物不能吃了，牛奶有毒，最糟糕的是，我們的城市空氣污染如此嚴重，以至於我們經常看不到太陽。20年前，中國人只想着經濟生存。現在人們的生活條件變好了，對未來有更遠大的夢想。但如果我們看不到太陽，這些夢想將是空洞的。”