Chinese New Year : Mark Zuckerberg Announces Daughter’s Chinese Name


Mark Zuckerberg, while delivering the Chinese New Year wishes, in a video post on Saturday, made a special announcement about his daughter.

Mark said, “Happy New Year! Priscilla and I are very excited to celebrate our first Lunar New Year with Max,”

The video shows Mark and Priscilla, with daughter Max, sitting between them. Priscilla added, “We hope on this holiday, you are also spending it with your family and friends,”

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/videos/10102638915613751

Speaking in Mandarin, Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan announced a Chinese name for their two-month-old daughter as they wished the world a happy Lunar New Year. February 8, marks the start of the Year of the Monkey in the Chinese calendar. Zuckerberg said, “This is also a meaningful holiday for Max because we have chosen her Chinese name. Her name is Chen Mingyu. Chen after her mother’s family name. And Mingyu represents our hope for a brighter tomorrow for the world.”

Her English name, Maxima, was given after members of Zuckerberg’s family. Two-month-old Max cooed and gurgled during the video, much to her parents delight, while dressed in a beautiful red and gold traditional Chinese outfit.

Chinese names traditionally mean something. There is a lot of symbolism involved and parents make a lot of efforts in choosing a name, visualizing in advance about how well the name will serve the child in the future. Max’s Chinese name stands evidence to that practice. Mingyu, is a combination of the words “ming,” which means bright, and with “yu,” which means the universe.

Max continues to be in the news regularly. Zuckerberg and Chan made Max’s birth announcement last year and in a letter they wrote to her, vowed to donate 99 percent of their Facebook shares, currently worth about $45 billion, to personalized learning, curing disease, connecting people and building strong communities by starting the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.

Zuckerberg’s daughter was also in the news even before she was even born when Mark announced that he would take paternity leave. Max’s photo showing her waiting in a doctor’s office to get vaccinated led to a wide debate about vaccinations and grabbed headlines.

Zuckerberg has been studying Mandarin for many years and has visited China on several occasions. He started studying Mandarin when he was dating Priscilla. The latest video is another example of Zuckerberg’s language skills after he made a resolution to learn Mandarin several years ago. He posted a video of himself offering wishes in Mandarin during the occasion of the Chinese New Year in 2015. In October, Zuckerberg gave a 20-minute speech about Facebook’s mission while visiting Tsinghua University in Beijing.

The Daily Mail reported that Facebook ended January with the news that sales has jumped 50 percent since January 2015, and profits had more than doubled.

Facebook hosted Annual Lunar New Year celebrations with celebrity chefs from China showcasing various different cuisines from the region. Zuckerberg admitted that hi personal favorite was dish the duck. He said, “Last night at Facebook, we hosted our annual Lunar New Year celebrations. This year, we have the honor of hosting famous chefs from China representing many different cuisines for everyone at Facebook to experience. My favorite was duck!”

Pricilla said that the couple also members of their family gathered together to enjoy a reunion dinner on Friday.

“From our little family to yours, we wish you health and prosperity in the New Monkey Year,” Zuckerberg concluded. Then, he adorably asked Max, “You think my Chinese is bad?”

The Business Insider reported that Facebook is currently blocked in mainland China, but the company has indicated that it hopes to eventually offer the service in China as part of its mission to connect the world.

[Photo by David Ramos/Getty Images]

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