BEIJING, TMTPost (May 29) The world’s largest e-commerce platform Alibaba’s founder Jack Ma on Friday asked the graduates of NYU Shanghai to take actions in tough times as the world is shaped by the choices of young people.

Thousands of viewers watched the keynote speech, deliverd by Ma in the first-ever online commencement ceremony for the Class of 2020 at NYU Shanghai. 

The de facto ambassador for Chinese businesses called on the students to find “a common path forward, a common path for cooperation” between China and the United States. 

“At this moment in time to graduate, to look for a job, to enter society, you all may feel very unlucky,” the teacher-turned entrepreneur said. “But worries are never useful. We should act instead of worrying.”

“Which direction will the world and our future follow? This is up to you. It will depend on the choices of young people. It will depend on young people’s actions,” stressed Ma.

Ma, who stepped down from the position of Alibaba Board Chair to devote himself to education in 2019, highlighted that NYU Shanghai students had already chosen the path of action, citing the story of a NYU Shanghai student in the Czech Republic mailing masks to a classmate in Wuhan during the initial coronavirus outbreak and that Wuhan student next sending advice from Chinese doctors to the Czech student after the spread of the virus to Europe.

Chancellor Yu Lizhong also praised the graduates for their courage with which they tackled the unexpected crisis, demonstrating “the value and significance of constructing a university dedicated to multi-cultural integration, and to cultivating international, innovative talents with global vision and a sense of social responsibility.”

Noting that the world has changed drastically since the Class of 2020 arrived in Shanghai in the summer of 2016, with both an infectious virus and infectious xenophobia threatening global stability, Vice Chancellor Jeff Lehman exhorted the graduates to be the antidote. “Please be the people that we have come to know and love, people who create and innovate in respectful, productive partnership with others who grew up in different cultures, in different nations,” said Lehman.

“You have the knowledge, skills, and virtues that are needed to sustain our planet, to nurture natural and human environments where every child and every adult can enjoy a fair opportunity to flourish,” he added.

A total of 229 students from 24 countries and regions graduated from NYU Shanghai this year.