ByteDance founder Zhang asks village to remove stone tablet that calls him a ‘spiritual idol’, according to reports

Zhang Yiming, the billionaire founder of TikTok parent ByteDance, has asked a village in his home province to remove a stone tablet that called him a “spiritual idol”, according to local media reports.

Images of a stone tablet dedicated to 40-year-old Zhang began to circulate on Chinese social media platforms this week during the Lunar New Year holiday amid speculation that it had been removed.

According to the image, the tablet was installed at the end of 2022 to commemorate Zhang’s donation of 2 million yuan (US$280,000) to an ancestral temple in Kongfu Village in southeastern Fujian province.

Zhang has maintained a low profile since stepping down as chairman of ByteDance, which also operates TikTok sister app Douyin on the mainland, in November 2021.

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iFeng.cc, a news portal backed by Hong Kong-based Phoenix TV, reported on Thursday that the stone tablet – a traditional Chinese way of recording a major donor’s name and achievements – had been removed. Leiphone.com, a Chinese online technology media outlet, reported on Friday that Zhang had personally requested the village to remove the tablet.

Two Kongfu Village residents told the South China Morning Post via a phone call that they were unaware of the tablet’s existence.

According to an inscription seen in the images circulating on the internet, the tablet records that ByteDance was the first tech company to apply artificial intelligence to the mobile internet and lauds short video app Douyin for blazing a trail in live-streaming commerce.

Zhang’s company is also described as “a rare successful example of combining scientific invention with wealth creation in China”, which makes Zhang “a spiritual idol for billions for young entrepreneurs”.

The tablet also discloses Zhang’s family details, including the names of his parents and grandfather.

The tablet’s removal comes more than two years since Zhang stepped back as CEO and chairman of ByteDance, handing over day-to-day operations to Liang Rubo, his former student roommate at Nankai University.

Zhang has not been in the news since May 2023, when a local education authority disclosed he had donated another 200 million yuan to an education fund in his hometown of Longyan, in Fujian province.

Many tech entrepreneurs have maintained a low profile in recent years, with the industry coming under more stringent scrutiny from regulators.

Collin Huang, the 44-year-old founder of e-commerce giant PDD Holdings, has been out of public sight since he stepped down as CEO in July 2020. Meanwhile, pictures and information about Xu Yangtian, founder of Chinese fast fashion giant Shein, remain scarce even though his company is reported to be preparing for an initial public offering in the US.