Mr Ma and Son (Penguin Modern Classics)

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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.” Ma Wei]... sat there, staring, his thoughts as sombre as the wretched London fog, his soul as glum as if it were enclosed in a tiny box, deprived of all light, and doomed to gradually die." Or that it isn’t simply military strength but also knowledge that is relevant to Empire-building. Likewise, London, to him may be ‘noisy, bustling and chaotic’ but it has its ‘calm and beautiful’ parks ‘providing a refuge where people can take a breath of fresh sweet-scented air’. 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.

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. the strength and prosperity of England was in large measure due to the fact that the English don’t shout battle cries, but put their heads down and get on with it. The denouement comes from an event contemporaneous with Lao She’s last year in London, the making of the film Piccadilly (1929) scripted by Arnold Bennett and recently restored to some acclaim as a vehicle for Anna May Wong. The complicity of Chinese as paid extras in stage productions and films such as Piccadilly was an issue that concerned Chinese students who fruitlessly petitioned the Lord Chamberlain against demeaning representations of Chinese people. In March 1928, W. C. Ch’en (Chen Weicheng), the Chargé d’Affaires at the Chinese Legation, made an official complaint to the Foreign Office that no less than five plays currently showing in the West End represented Chinese people in a ‘vicious and objectionable form’. Lao She’s exploration of the damaging consequences of their effects on the psyche of his young protagonist, Ma Wei, expressed chiefly through his ill-starred passion for Mary Wedderburn, bears comparison with other London novels of the period. Lao She Many of Mr Ma’s friends and colleagues strongly dispute suggestions that he is personally in any sort of legal jeopardy, let alone on the run. “He is in China and not travelling because of Covid, not anything else. He’s lying low,” says one friend of Mr Ma.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. In an unprecedented public rebuke of Ant two months later, on December 26 China’s central bank criticised Ant for being too cavalier about financial risk and taking advantage of regulatory loopholes. But as frustrated as regulators are with Ant, they cannot ignore the beneficial effects of the financial revolution it has led in China. The Reverend Ely had never held Mr. Ma in any high regard, and his reason for suggesting that Ma write a book was purely so that he might have Ma help him." To innovate without taking risks is to strangle innovation,” Mr Ma said. “There is no such thing as riskless innovation in the world. Very often, an attempt to minimise risk to zero is the biggest risk itself.” This is quite a dense book and the story is merely a recounting of incidents but it tells you a great deal about life for an immigrant and the Ma's disillusion with what they thought England would offer. All in all, a salutary tale fit both sides.

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. 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. Me: “You mean like shaving your head in support of a cancer survivor or wearing a LiveStrong bracelet?”realise there’s money to be made and so bring themselves to put on a good face and make the best of dealing with a bunch of yellow-faced monsters. Li Tsu-Jung:] 'But let's not go on about that. If we can't sort ourselves out, it's no good blaming others.'" This is a well-written novel about the misadventures of the protagonists - the Ma's, Pere & Fils - in London in around the 1920s - as the senior Ma tries to make a go of being the owner of an antiques shop which specializes in imported Chinese goods, and Ma junior strives to obtain a college education. The process of their adjustment to life in London is what the book is about, and it pulls no punches in describing the anti-Chinese prejudice - racism, really - that was prevalent at the time.