Net Stories Ten Years: 100 People Who Influenced Chinese Internet

Author: Lin Mu / Country: Mainland China
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Ten years ago, how did that revolution begin? What was the spark? Under what circumstances did those once-dominant "digital heroes" enter the internet industry? How did the imported internet change their lives? Ten years ago, Wang Zhidong went to the United States for the time, carrying a vague idea of raising funds for Four-Link Infoseek; ten years ago, Zhang Chaoyang returned to China after living in the U.S. for a decade to start a business, unable to tolerate his thirties without a "substantial" career. From July to September, in ninety days, Zhang Chaoyang settled his luggage with his sister, swiftly handled his affairs in the U.S., and rushed back to serve as the China representative for U.S. ISI (Internet Securities Information Company); Wang Zhidong visited the U.S. three times in a year, meeting venture capitalists and bankers from Wall Street investment banks, marking the beginning of overseas capital entry and financing reforms for domestic software companies; Zhang Shuixin's China.com asked the Chinese, "How far is China from the information superhighway?"; Zhang Xiangdong had already printed his email address on his business card. "All in all, the atmosphere felt like the gathering of heroes described in Water Margin—everyone was at the door of the internet." At that time, a translated work titled Being Digital not only ignited the long-simmering internet enthusiasm in China but also deeply influenced all levels of society due to the relentless promotion by officials, scholars, and entrepreneurs, laying a relatively solid foundation for the early development of the internet in China. That conference brought eight ministers. Lin Mu: How did you notice this book? Gao Hongbing: At the time, Hu Yong translated a book by Negroponte titled Being Digital. After the translation, Lan Feng, who was working on book project planning at Hainan Publishing House, promoted it. I was then at the State Council Information Office. Lan Feng came to me and said that Being Digital discussed digitalization, which he believed was related to informatization. He wanted to promote the book through government agencies, of course for commercial purposes. I carefully read the book and was greatly moved. Negroponte's explanation of the future information revolution and informatization inspired me deeply. I thought the book was worth recommending. Lan Feng and his team wanted to invite Negroponte to visit China and hoped I could help. I contacted Su Weizhou at the U.S. Information Industry Office's Beijing office and asked if they could secure funding from some U.S. IT companies for Negroponte's visit. Su Weizhou said no funding was needed, as one of Negroponte's students, Zhang Chaoyang, was already in Beijing. Lin Mu: I mean the Media Lab at MIT, the one Negroponte headed. Gao Hongbing: Zhang Chaoyang had also been involved with the Media Lab during his early years at MIT, so he could connect with Negroponte. I told Lan Feng, and Lan Feng quickly found Zhang Chaoyang. At the time, Zhang Chaoyang was still the chief representative of an American company, ISI, in China and had not yet started Sohu. A few of us met and discussed preparing for this event. In reality, Negroponte was not coming to China specifically—he was attending an international conference in Malaysia and visiting China as a tourist. Zhang Chaoyang said Negroponte's schedule was already arranged six months or a year in advance, so if we wanted him to come specifically to China, we needed to arrange it in advance. Lin Mu: Was it the time Negroponte visited China that he came not as an internet expert? Gao Hongbing: Yes, not. But when we were preparing for this event, we invited Ma Bing, the future president of the Future Studies Association, and also the then-president of the Institute of Electronic Development. Personally, I am very interested in future studies. It was exciting to discuss with these experts. We collectively planned the visit to China, and after completing the plan, the State Council Information Office formally submitted a report to the State Council, hoping the leadership could arrange a meeting. Lin Mu: Was it at that time that you realized the internet would later play such a significant role and decided to report to the State Council? Gao Hongbing: Mainly because Zhang Chaoyang expressed Negroponte's wish—he was not satisfied with just visiting China as a tourist and wanted to meet high-level leaders in China, as he had met the prime ministers of India and Thailand and believed he should meet leaders of a corresponding level in China. So he made this request. But we all understood it was a completely different matter. I said I could try to apply and report. Lin Mu: Was there already a government element in the planning at that time? Gao Hongbing: Because we attached great importance to the significance of this event, we made such arrangements. In the end, in February 1997, Negroponte officially visited China and organized a report on the information revolution, serving as the keynote speaker. We arranged for about ten domestic future studies scholars and IT experts to engage in dialogue with him. The discussion covered many topics, including future digital television, artificial intelligence, and internet robots. I remember very clearly that it was February 28, 1997, in the afternoon. Lin Mu: Was the translation for the report session done by Zhang Chaoyang himself? Gao Hongbing: We initially hired a professional translator, but his translation was poor, so we had to ask Zhang Chaoyang to translate directly. He could understand the meaning and content of Negroponte's speech, which a professional translator did not grasp. Our conference invited eight ministers, over forty bureau directors, and about two hundred section chiefs. At that time, Zhang Chaoyang, who had only returned to China for a year, was still an unknown figure, and the precursor to Sohu, iFast, had just been established. Zhang Chaoyang, in his time as an entrepreneur, had some good luck, having already secured "angel investment" from Edward Robert and Negroponte, but since Negroponte would be visiting China, Zhang Chaoyang was confident he could persuade Negroponte to invest further in him. P2-4