Business leaders in China take Ice Bucket Challenge

World Today

Robin Li Ice Bucket ChallengeRobin Li, chairman and founder of the search engine giant Baidu Inc. does Ice Bucket Challenge. Photo from Baidu’s official Sina Weibo account.

The Ice Bucket Challenge has taken off in China following its recent media hype in the U.S., where tech titans Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg recently took the plunge.

In an effort to raise public awareness on ALS (Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), the challenge shows people dumping buckets of ice water over their heads on video, and nominating others to do the same within 24 hours.

The nominated participants will decide whether or not to take on the ice-cold challenge themselves, or donate at least $100 to the ALS Association.

Joining the ALS cause, several tech giants in China have lined up to take the challenge and to donate, including Guo Taiming, renowned Foxconn CEO, Lei Jun, the founder of China’s smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi, Zhou Hongyi,the founder of China’s IT company Qihoo 360 Technology, and Robin Li, chairman and founder of the search engine giant Baidu Inc.

Liu Zuohu, founder of mobile phone maker One Plus, was the first to initiate the challenge on the Chinese mainland.

ALS is a disease characterized by muscle plasticity, rapidly progressive weaknesses and difficulty in speaking, swallowing and breathing.

In severe cases, serious muscle inaction may cause the patient’s body to go into a “frozen” stage, a sensation that the Ice Bucket Challenge is intended to imitate.

As of Monday, the ALS Association has received $22.9 million in donations, compared with $1.9 million from the same time last year (July 29 to August 19).

These donations have come from existing donors as well as 307,598 new donors, according to a statement on its website.

LINK: http://www.alsa.org/fight-als/ice-bucket-challenge.html

Report complied with information from CCTV News and China Daily.