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Jack Ma or Ma Yun, chairman of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, attends the forum of “Business Leaders Dialogue: New Economy in Internet Era” during the fourth World Internet Conference (WIC), also known as Wuzhen Summit, in Wuzhen town, Tongxiang city, Jiaxing city, east China’s Zhejiang province, Dec. 5, 2017. Photo by Reuters |
“She has always believed in me when no one else did,” he says.
Zhang, 59, met Ma, 61, in the early 1980s at Hangzhou Normal University, where both were students. She stood out for her looks, intelligence and academic excellence, attracting many admirers. On one occasion a male student famously stood in the rain outside her dorm on her birthday, cementing her “legendary” status among peers.
Ma was average in height and academic performance, but was drawn to Zhang’s personality. Through their interactions, he discovered she was thoughtful, thrifty and intelligent, and spoke in a way that left a strong impression. Gradually he fell in love with her, though she initially rejected him.
“A man’s appearance has a negative correlation with his intelligence,” Ma once told Zhang.
His confidence impressed her, and she also noticed his exceptional English skills: he was occasionally working as a tour guide for foreign visitors at the time.
“He can do things that handsome men cannot,” she later said.
The couple married in 1988, when they were both working as English teachers.
When Ma decided in 1995 to leave his stable teaching job and start his own business, Zhang supported him fully. She invested her family’s savings and stood by him even when his first venture China Pages, an early e-commerce platform, was accused of being a scam.
When Alibaba was founded in 1999, Zhang was among the first to participate, managing its administrative and logistical operations. Though not a shareholder, she balanced family responsibilities with supporting the company by handling payroll, cooking and motivating both her husband and the founding team during challenging times.
Ma described her as the “political commissar” of the team, providing stability and reassurance when faced with difficulties.
In 2002 Zhang quit as general manager of Alibaba’s headquarters in China to help their 10-year-old son overcome his addiction to electronic games. She guided him away from spending excessive time in internet cafés and helped improve his academic performance and character.
Though rarely in the public eye, Zhang remains a symbol of resilience, humility and quiet sacrifice.
As of Nov. 2025 Ma has a net worth of US$31 billion, making him the eighth wealthiest in China, according to Forbes.
