Huawei's remarkable growth over the past few years has been a great example for ethnic high-tech companies worldwide. As a founder, Ren Zhengfei, who prefers to stay out of the spotlight, seldom makes public appearances. Despite being less involved in day-to-day operations, whenever he does appear, his words carry significant weight and inspire employees. He is indeed a spiritual leader for Huawei.
According to a report by C114, Ren Zhengfei recently gave a heartfelt speech at a new employee training forum. Drawing from the story of Chinese character reform, he encouraged all new hires to embrace openness and build upon the achievements of their predecessors. Even the smallest advancement, like moving forward by just a millimeter, counts as a major accomplishment.
At the same time, he emphasized seriously, "Starting from scratch repeatedly will only waste the company's resources and should be avoided."
Here is a summary of Ren Zhengfei's speech:
Ren Zhengfei's Speech at the New Employee Training Forum
Everyone asked me to speak. I’m not sure what to say to new employees. If I discuss principles, everyone might think I'm preaching. So, besides preaching, what else can I do? After much thought, I decided to tell a story! Let’s talk about the reform of Chinese characters.
I heard this story many years ago. If there are any inaccuracies, please forgive me. If correct, you should share this with the younger generation and rediscover it yourselves.
Some parts of the story might sound exaggerated, as I haven’t had the time to verify everything.
First, let’s talk about Zhou Youguang, known as the "Father of Chinese Pinyin."
Earlier this year, Professor Zhou Youguang of Fudan University passed away. He lived to be 112 and passed away on his 113th birthday. Reading several books about him left a deep impression on me. Let’s begin with Zhou Youguang’s contribution to the reform of Chinese characters.
Zhou Youguang was a renowned linguist in China. Initially, he studied economics, but later transitioned into linguistics when he was nearly 50 years old. During the War of Resistance against Japan, he struggled financially. To make ends meet, he wrote manuscripts for newspapers along his commute home. The more he wrote, the more interested he became in language studies.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Zhou Youguang was sent to work in Europe by the Xinhua Bank. There, he noticed the emphasis Europeans placed on studying alphabets, so he purchased numerous books on the subject and studied during his free time.
Upon the founding of New China, Zhou Youguang was invited to serve on the Hanyu Pinyin Project Committee. He played a crucial role in the development of the Hanyu Pinyin system and was hailed as the "Father of Hanyu Pinyin."
Some people question whether one person deserves such recognition. For thousands of years, countless scholars have attempted to unify Chinese characters with pronunciation, giving Chinese characters a voice. Modern efforts have developed phonetic scripts and adopted international phonetic transcriptions, yet Hanyu Pinyin remains the most concise and practical.
Don't think of "father" as the sole contributor. You can also consider Zhou Youguang the "grandfather, uncle, or sister" of Hanyu Pinyin. Many have made significant contributions, but Zhou Youguang achieved the ultimate goal.
Similarly, some debate whether Yuan Longping should be called the "Father of Hybrid Rice," pointing out that the concept of hybrid rice originated from an American named Henry Beachell. They argue that China's research on hybrid rice isn't solely the work of one scientific team and that others were ahead of him. They claim the key breakthrough—the discovery of male sterile plants—was made by his students. So why should he be called the "Father of Hybrid Rice"?
Because Yuan Longping studied crop cultivation in his research and successfully developed seed production techniques, producing abundant food for China. From a grain production perspective, he deserves the title of "Father of Hybrid Rice."
This is how human society progresses, exploring amidst confusion. Many scientists in history, even those with modest achievements, deserve respect.
We shouldn’t seek original inventions or independent innovations. Standing on the shoulders of our predecessors and achieving something is already remarkable. Your intelligence today is thanks to the wisdom passed down by your ancestors.
Tu Youyou extracted artemisinin from plants and was the first to discover the new antimalarial drug artemisinin, winning the Nobel Prize. This wasn’t her original invention; she mentioned it was inspired by an ancient book.
She led a scientific team to systematically review ancient medical texts and herbal remedies, compiling over 2,000 prescriptions into a "Malaria Prescription Compilation." From these, they selected 200 prescriptions, tested them with modern scientific methods, and extracted artemisinin using ethanol. After improvements, they discovered artemisinin in 1971.
Thus, the terms "original invention" and "independent innovation" are philosophically limited. We hope new employees will adopt an open mindset and build on the work of their predecessors. Even a small advancement is significant. Starting from scratch repeatedly will only waste the company's resources and should be discouraged.
Secondly, let’s discuss the two crises faced by Chinese characters.
The first crisis occurred during the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, a period of modern societal transition. During the semi-feudal and semi-colonial era, people's thoughts were backward. If someone took photos of peasants, they might get hit with a stick, believing it would take away their souls. After the failure of the Self-Strengthening Movement, intellectuals began reflecting on the complexity of classical Chinese and its inability to reach the masses.
The rise of Shakespearean literature, music, and art in Europe was actually a philosophical awakening for Europe. Through unified understanding, European culture improved, propelling the success of the Industrial Revolution.
During Catherine the Great's reign in Russia, many Western paintings, music, dance, and philosophy were introduced, challenging old traditions and bringing liberation. Consequently, Russia industrialized earlier and developed faster than the Qing Dynasty under Empress Dowager Cixi.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Reform Movement consciously advocated for vernacular language and created "vernacular classical language," known as "new style." At the beginning of the 20th century, the slogan of the "literary revolution" was proposed. The characteristics of new literature include the use of vernacular language, promoting modern industrial development.
Of course, we use vernacular language without negating classical Chinese. Directness and realism are the primary advantages of vernacular Chinese, reflecting scientific, technological, and social progress more swiftly. How do you describe "blue lean mushrooms" and "Xidapu Ben" in classical Chinese? Otherwise, we wouldn’t be able to describe modern progress in classical Chinese. Small nations and ethnic groups' progress is slow, but their languages and vocabulary can't keep up with societal advancements.
At that time, China's economy, military, and technology were backward. The intellectual lag was due to economic backwardness. The economy was backward because education was backward, and education was backward because Chinese characters were "difficult"—hard to recognize, remember, and write. Naturally, people assumed English was easy to learn. Learning it required little time and effort, whereas Chinese characters were too difficult. Hence, there were many illiterates in China.
The solution was to reform Chinese characters. Numerous programs were proposed at the time. Some focused on character encoding and sketches, while more emphasized pinyinization programs, essentially abolishing Chinese characters.
In Lu Xun's private correspondence, he even said, "If Chinese characters don’t die, China will." Until the early 1950s, the mainstream view was still pinyinization. Not only did text reform occur, but speech reform was also successful, spreading Mandarin throughout China.
The second crisis arose in the computer age.
In the 1980s, when I first arrived in Shenzhen, I felt immense anxiety about how Chinese characters would adapt to the emerging computer age, as computers were entering the English-speaking world. What would happen to Chinese characters?
Later, Wang Yongmin invented the "Wang Chao Wubi," which was groundbreaking. It gave us hope for China. Of course, the Chinese character input method has advanced further since then and is another story.
Chinese characters, originally unsuitable for computers, have been resolved through this method. They have evolved to the present day. The Chinese character input method is now simple and scientific. Today, Chinese characters surpass English in terms of information storage, transmission, editing, sorting, and retrieval. In the future, computer scans might even surpass English, as Chinese characters are pictographic and have a lower error rate.
Reflecting on these developments, one can see how Chinese characters have adapted to the information age. This is thanks to the contributions of our predecessors.
China will unify markets, laws, and characters to establish a nationwide trading system. Joining the WTO has accelerated China's economic growth through international trade. Thus, written reforms have been crucial to the country and the nation for hundreds of years.
Thirdly, let’s discuss Chinese character reform and promotion.
When I was young, I was mostly illiterate, and the difficulty of literacy was extreme. Back then, we promoted literacy to the poor by emphasizing that illiteracy leads to being deceived when reading banknotes. Of course, if you're illiterate, you might mistake 100 yuan for 10 cents.
We were 11 or 12 years old and taught people to read in the countryside every night. Over the centuries, many devoted individuals and benefactors have dedicated themselves to language and script reforms to eradicate illiteracy. Replacing Chinese characters with Latin was once a rallying cry of the times. How many leaders urgently advocated Latinization to enable ordinary people to speak and write together, eliminating illiteracy and advancing modernity.
New China was established on October 1, 1949, and a Text Reform Committee was established ten days later. Wu Yuzhang served as the director. The process of writing reform was also complex. For internationalization, Chairman Mao proposed using Latin to unify the script. Revolutionary leaders Li Dazhao and Qu Qiubai were also active promoters of this view.
As for how to transition from Latin to Pinyin later, there is no publicly detailed record. I’ve heard a story: Wu Yuzhang told Chairman Mao that if they were changed to Latin, young people wouldn’t know Chinese characters and wouldn’t understand history. At the 1955 reform conference, it was said that there were more votes than three. Chairman Mao was very democratic and gave up on Latin. (This is hearsay from abroad.)
In the second stage, how can we make people literate? Study simplified Chinese characters and implement the Chinese Pinyin method.
At that time, a general culture teacher in the army invented a new Chinese phonetic transcription, laying the groundwork for literacy. Chairman Mao met him three times. Then, the 1955 Text Reform Conference discussed the use of Latin letters for phonetic transcription. Initially, Beijing dialect was used as the standard, but it had one extra tone requiring 29 letters.
Wu Yuzhang accompanied Chairman Mao to the meeting room and spoke to him in the car. If 29 letters were used, 50 million overseas Chinese wouldn’t understand it in the future. Chairman Mao agreed to use 26 Roman alphabets for phonetic transcription. This is the foundation of Putonghua.
In the third stage, the Chinese Pinyin program should become an international standard.
If the reform of written language is only within China and doesn’t enter international standards, there’s a problem with the Chinese language. During the Cultural Revolution, the country basically didn’t participate in international conferences.
In 1979, the International Standards Committee sent a letter inviting Zhou Youguang to attend the ISO in Paris. He initially refused, saying his clothes were worn out. The country provided him with new coats, shoes, and socks, and he returned home before going abroad. He didn’t take a single renminbi or dollar; he went to an international conference empty-handed. Because it was a foreign invitation, it wasn’t publicly sent abroad, so no 30 US dollars were issued; renminbi was under foreign exchange control and couldn’t be brought abroad, so he traveled empty-handed.
At this meeting, he introduced China’s views on the Hanyu Pinyin program, making it possible for the international community to see the reform of our writing and doing a basic job of extensive publicity. But at the time, many countries boycotted them because changing their national library books would cost tens of millions of dollars.
The second Warsaw International Conference accepted the international standard for spelling Chinese with the Chinese Pinyin Scheme. However, the meeting proposed that China should have a positive lexicon system. This is very difficult to achieve. China hasn’t even had a conjunction.
The third international conference proposed holding a meeting in China. Zhou Youguang reported to the state. In 1981, he had just opened up reforms. Deng Xiaoping agreed and held a meeting in a Nanjing air force guesthouse.
The meeting was very successful. Zhou Youguang persuaded everyone to accept the Chinese alphabet with 26 letters, and the Chinese Pinyin Scheme became an international standard.
Having endured so much suffering and pain, Chinese characters have finally come to this path that suits China’s development. In our written reform, everything is for internationalization.
For example, previously, Chinese characters were arranged vertically (from right to left), and later changed to horizontal (from left to right), conforming to people’s eyesight and writing convenience, playing a significant role in the internationalization of Chinese characters. Everyone should not mock their predecessors. They were all feeling their way and crossing the river.
Five thousand years from now, people may laugh at our group of "fools" at Huawei, but five thousand years from now, things won’t come out of thin air. They will be the result of our step-by-step efforts.
Fourth, take a look and make an appointment, thick and thin hair
Zhou Youguang worked in New York when he was young. His classmates taught in Princeton and introduced him to chat with Einstein because Einstein was too lonely. Einstein talked about physical gravitational waves and the like. Zhou Youguang spoke about the international economy. In the "earth book" of the situation, they only had one sentence in common—"The greatness of life is in the amateur."
When new employees join the company, they should actively strengthen communication, make full preparations, and fully utilize their talents.
It is hoped that young people will focus on productive food production and enhancing soil fertility. They shouldn’t limit themselves to their respective professions and should communicate across departments and fields. Huawei’s previous tradition was “happy and omnivorous eating.†A group of people communicated with each other, supported each other, and complained less.
If we channel the energy of complaints into “ground-shaving,†I believe there will be no complaints when the results are reaped, wages rise, and opportunities arise.
The community is open to voices, and all criticisms of our posts will not be censored, and the privacy of the posters will be protected. If you don’t suffer from depression after finishing, we’re also contributing.
However, simple praise is unnecessary; attacking without reason is undesirable; especially personal attacks are even less desirable. We can also distinguish between constructive opinions in the community and draw reasonable nutrition from them.
I saw a message in the community saying that I hate learning philosophy. As a grassroots employee, learning philosophy isn’t important as long as you work hard, earn more food, more bonuses, and live and work happily.
However, cadres at middle and high levels must learn a bit of philosophy because philosophy is the compass of life. You see, it’s impossible to grow tulips on the Gobi Desert. This shows that there’s no philosophy of the northeastern black soil on the Gobi Desert.
Tsinghua Wang Guowei once said to the Westernization Movement that opening mines or setting up factories isn’t important. China must popularize philosophy. Only when the entire nation improves its quality and raises the logical concepts between things can innovation flourish. Taking a step higher and breaking rigid dogma is philosophy.
We don’t require new employees to study philosophy. In the future, they’ll learn more after being promoted. They’ll use strategies and tactics and have a scientific “scalpel†for dissecting the world and analyzing organizations. As the company undergoes structural adjustments, many documents are open to all employees, and it’s suggested that you read more company documents and understand the company more deeply.
Books are the best teachers. All wisdom can be found in books. Some are direct answers, and more are those who read. General employees do one thing well, but the work of leading cadres is multifaceted. In particular, dealing with people requires a profound understanding of people and things. Philosophy is the study of people’s knowledge.
Fortunately for history, we’ve not only preserved traditional Chinese language but also successfully promoted Putonghua nationwide. What a great contribution this is! What a great foundation for the rise of the great motherland and the realization of modernization! We pay tribute to the reformers who have fought for text reform for hundreds of years!
We also need to add bricks and tiles to history. Hope is pinned on you.
[Image description: A photo of a historic moment related to the topic]
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