In 1964, a beautiful new actor named Cui Wencai came to the Pingtan Troupe of Wuxi County.
Cui Wencai was originally a worker in a factory in Hangzhou. Because he loved Pingtan, he gave up his job as a worker, left his hometown and came to Wuxi to pursue his dream.
When she came, she was already pregnant. A few months later, she went back to Hangzhou to give birth.
Cui Wencai's husband was named Ma Laifa, who was a photographer of Hangzhou Photo Agency at that time. Ma Laifa was as handsome as the heroes in the movies at that time. In the protection work of folk art projects of intangible cultural heritage in Zhejiang Province, he also served as the fourth and fifth chairman of Zhejiang Quyi Artists Association.
On September 10, 1964, 25-year-old Malaifa and 20-year-old Cui Wencai gave birth to their child. Because he was born in autumn, his grandfather named the little guy Ma Yun.
Jack Ma's parents
There are 3 brothers and sisters Ma Yun, and the elder brother Ma Ying is now engaged in cultural media, mainly as a strategic investor.
Ma Yun's younger sister is Ma Xue, who once went to the University of Pennsylvania to study, and now returns to China to do charity work.
Malayfa, as a lover of literature and art, originally wanted to cultivate Ma Yun's artistic cells, and often took him to the theater.
Since his grandfather was the security chief of the Kuomintang before liberation, Ma Yun, who grew up during the Cultural Revolution, suffered a lot for this.
But despite his thin stature, Jack Ma has never been reconciled to being bullied. He would clench his fists to protect himself and became the school's "fighting king". He once had 13 stitches for breaking his head.
According to the "Ma Yun Biography", when Ma Yun was a child, because he often fought with his classmates, the police often came to discipline him. This is quite angry.
Ma Yun said that he prefers Jin Yong's martial arts novels. He thinks of being a chivalrous man who fights for justice and helps others when encountering injustice. His favorite is Shi Potian and Feng Qingyang in Jin Yong's novels.
Ma Laifa often worried about Ma Yun fighting. He followed the example of Meng Mu and transferred Ma Yun three times.
In 1976, when Ma Yun was in the sixth grade, a beautiful geography teacher came to the class, and Ma Yun was fascinated by her every move.
Once, the teacher told the story of meeting a group of foreigners by the West Lake and talking to them in English. After Ma Yun heard this, he became very interested in English.
The next day, he started to learn English by himself.
His father, Ma Laifa, gave him a radio capable of listening to BBC broadcasts, which opened the door to the English-speaking world for Jack Ma.
Although at that time he couldn't understand what was being said on the radio, Jack Ma became interested in this strange language. After that, he often went to the West Lake to strike up conversations with foreigners.
The cynical Ma Yun naturally cannot do without the scolding of his parents. Ma Yun puts what he has learned into practice and often retaliates against his father in English.
Ma Yun said: "My father scolded me, and I responded in English. He didn't understand, and it was very enjoyable, so he started to learn, and the more he learned, the more energetic he was." His father Malay said: "You study English hard, and you can learn to speak English as you like. Tell me, it will be fun to scold people like that!"
In 1979, 15-year-old Ma Yun specially sought out foreigners to practice his oral English. For this reason, he went to the only hotel open to foreigners in West Lake, Hangzhou, and gave free tour guides to foreigners, telling about the cultural scene and historical legends of Hangzhou.
On a summer night in 1980, Ma Yun met an Australian kid named David Morley in Lonely Mountain Park, which opened up an exotic relationship that will be widely praised in the future. Who is this Ken Morley? Ken Morley is an electrical engineer from Australia who likes Chinese culture very much. He had just retired at that time, so he traveled to Hangzhou with his wife and three children.
After several contacts, Jack Ma and the Molly family became good friends, and they corresponded for a long time. Ma Yun called David's father, Ken Morley, "father" (father), and Ken came to China every two years to see Ma Yun.
When Ma Yun was studying in university, the Morley family helped Ma Yun save 5-10 Australian dollars a week, and sent Ma Yun a check every six months to cover Ma Yun's college living expenses. Altogether about A$200 was funded. This amount of money was not a small amount at the time, and it helped Ma Yun a lot.
In 1985, the Morley family invited Jack Ma to visit Australia. At that time, it was extremely rare for Chinese individuals to travel abroad for personal reasons. Ma Yun went through hardships and was rejected seven times. Later, the visa officer was moved by the friendship between him and the Morley family, and finally stamped Ma Yun.
Ma Yun stayed in Newcastle, a small Australian city, for 29 days. This trip to Australia has brought Ma Yun a lot of rewards. There, he went to Newcastle University for the first time, the Sydney Opera House, Taronga Zoo,... After returning, he seemed to be a different person. Afterwards, Ma Yun kept saying that Ken Morley opened a door to the world for him.
In 1988, Ma Yun, who had just graduated, planned to enter the palace of marriage with his junior sister, but the newly married house made him worry. Perhaps Ken Morley has long seen that Ma Yun is talented and different from ordinary people. At the critical moment, he generously donated 22,000 Australian dollars and successfully helped him buy a house in Hangzhou. It has to be said that Ken Morley is indeed the first noble person in Jack Ma's life.
Later, when Jack Ma became rich, he brought a lot of money and gifts to the Morley family. After Ken passed away, he donated 20 million US dollars in their joint names to the University of Newcastle in Ken’s hometown, and established the "Ma-Morley Foundation". ", which is the largest donation ever received in the school's history.