Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Appeared At His Retirement Party Dressed As A Rockstar

On September 10, Alibaba founder Jack Ma retired from his position as the company’s Chairman at a gala event with thousands of employees attending. The party was organized at an 80,000-capacity stadium and lasted for four hours with parades with floats, dances, and songs. CEO Daniel Zhang will be the one to take over all the responsibilities of the billionaire entrepreneur.

During his speech to all the guests and company employees, Ma could be seen fighting back his tears, saying,

Photos and videos of the farewell speech were uploaded online, making “Jack Ma has cried” topic trending on Weibo, China’s Twitter.

 Ma, known for his eccentric fashion sense, wore a metal-studded leather jack with a long purple rock star wig as he played the guitar and performed “You Raise Me Up” by Secret Garden.

Ma was not the only one on stage as he was joined by Zhang himself, and Lucy Peng-fellow co-founder, and Wang Jian-Alibaba’s CEO of the technology committee.

Joe Tsai, another co-founder, is said to have dressed as Marilyn Monroe with a blonde wig and a white dress.

The one interesting point is a statement from Alibaba, in which the company wrote that it will “respect the work-life balance decisions of every individual.” The statement went again what Ma’s recent statement where he expressed his support for China’s so-called 996 work culture which imposes a twelve-hour-working time (9 AM-9 PM) on employees six days a week.