What did China’s internet think of Mark Zuckerberg’s Spring Festival message?

In what’s becoming a bit of a tradition, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a video recently aimed primarily at people who have no access to Facebook: Chinese net users. As in years past, Zuck delivers his holiday message in accented Mandarin, but this year’s video also includes his wife Priscilla and their daughter Max (whose Chinese name, Zuckerberg announces, is Chen Mingyu):

Although most of China’s internet is preoccupied with offline activities (or grabbing digital lucky money) right now, the video has gotten quite a lot of attention.

Unsurprisingly, a lot of netizens commented on Zuck’s Chinese. “Zuckerberg speaks much more fluently than his ethnically Chinese wife,” one Weibo user wrote. That sentiment was echoed by others as well, but netizens didn’t think either of them was perfect. “It’s like listening to two Siris” was a common joke in Weibo comments on the video, playing on the fact that the intonation and rhythm of the speech sounds unnatural. But plenty of users were complimentary and understanding. Many commenters noted that even if his Mandarin wasn’t flawless, it was still heaps better than their own English speaking skills.

Some commenters also took the video as an occasion to criticize China’s censorship of Facebook, and express hopes that the service would soon be available in the Middle Kingdom. Others took the opposite route, criticizing Facebook for censoring pro-China groups while leaving Tibet, Taiwan, and Xinjiang independence groups alone (note: I haven’t seen any evidence this is actually true, but it’s a criticism I saw leveled by numerous Weibo commenters).

But even if they couldn’t agree on the language or the politics behind the video, there was one thing that virtually everybody who watched the video agreed on: cuteness. Comments on the video use that word over and over: the video is cute, the couple is cute, the baby is cute. Overall, it’s safe to say that most Chinese viewers appreciated the video and the sentiment behind it.

But why bother?

Zuckerberg’s continuous efforts to ingratiate himself with Chinese internet users do seem to fly in the face of reason, though. Facebook has been blocked in China since 2009, and with China’s internet growing more tightly controlled, there’s no real reason to think any end is in sight. Zuckerberg has visited China and reportedly met with high level tech industry and government figures several times now, but neither that nor his Chinese-speaking public appearances seem to have touched the cold hearts of China’s censors.

It’s possible Zuckerberg could be hoping that some of Facebook’s side projects will get a warmer welcome in China. In the last year, Facebook acquired VR headset maker Oculus and drone maker Ascenta; both of those companies could ultimately produce products Facebook can sell in the Chinese market even if its core social network remains blocked.

Of course, it’s also possible Zuckerberg is just fond of his wife’s ancestral homeland, and enjoys the opportunity to say hello each year during the holiday. His yearly videos don’t necessarily have ulterior business motives behind them. Perhaps the guy is just being friendly (and this year, showing off his kid).