Western business executives are expected to sing or boogie for employees at company events; it’s ‘fun to watch your boss dance.’

Too funny. Musk does not have the moves, others are worse.

When Jensen Huang, the Taiwan-born American chief executive of Nvidia, the trillion-dollar Silicon Valley chip company, visited local employees in Shanghai last month, cheering staffers summoned him onto stage to participate in a Chinese folk dance.


Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, dancing.
The 60-year-old Huang, who was raised in Oregon and is now among the world’s richest men, had swapped his signature black-leather jacket for a floral-patterned vest. He twirled a red handkerchief in each hand while trying to swing his hips and lift his legs to the rhythm of “The Dearest,” a Chinese song about yearning for one’s home and parents, according to videos, which weren’t released by Nvidia but independently distributed anyway.

The moving parts weren’t exactly in alignment, as they might say back at the office.

“His dance moves were kinda stiff and his legs and arms were uncoordinated,” says David Chen, a Nvidia engineer in Shanghai.


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But he also found Huang’s demeanor appealing, and he says he now feels more connected to the company. For Chen, a corporate leader’s personality sets the tone for the staff.

The invite is coming
Heads up to Western executives visiting China: CEOs are vulnerable to being thrust into the spotlight, especially now when Lunar New Year bashes held for employees tend to involve MCs, lavish prizes and entertainment—possibly you.


And it doesn’t matter if you’re better at giving a keynote than singing on-key.

Dancing and crooning are socially acceptable ways for executives to appear relatable in China, where it is less common for leaders to discuss personal struggles or shortcomings than in the U.S., says Hugo Barra, a Silicon Valley veteran who spent years in the country as vice president of global operations at Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi.

“In China, CEOs are allowed to be dorky,” says Barra, who danced and sang a lot while there, often with other senior Xiaomi leaders, who he says would set aside time from their busy schedules to practice their footwork.

Barra remains thankful that not all of his performances were public, and thus not all searchable online.


In a still image made from a video, attendees watch Hugo Barra, then a vice president at Xiaomi, perform at a launch event in Taiwan. PHOTO: ERICK TSENG
Tesla CEO Elon Musk broke into a dance while he was on stage in China in early 2020, celebrating the first deliveries of Model 3 sedans made at Tesla’s Shanghai plant.

Musk tore off his blazer, and theatrically flung it aside before doing the “walk like an Egyptian” dance and peacocking along in front of a rapturous Chinese crowd.

Later on, he tweeted an 18-second clip of his jig, calling it “NSFW,” meaning not safe for work.

“He only did a few impromptu shakes to the beat. I wouldn’t call it a legit dance,” says Emma Liu, then a marketing manager at Tesla. Musk’s moves reminded her of former president Donald Trump, who would pump his arms back and forth to the Village People’s “YMCA” during campaign rallies.

“He danced like a teenager who went clubbing for the first time,” a Tesla manager recalls of Musk’s techniques. “It was still fun to watch your boss dance. I’m a fan.”

Corporate shuffle
Though less common in the West, American CEOs have shown their moves at home. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak cha-chaed on the competition show “Dancing With The Stars,” as did sleeveless, hip-gyrating billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban. Microsoft founder Bill Gates did the robot in a commercial with Jerry Seinfeld.


Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak mixes it up on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ PHOTO: DISNEY GENERAL ENTERTAINMENT CONTENT/GETTY IMAGES
In China the business-leader-boogie plays a special role. Corporate life tends to be hierarchical and regimented, says Chris Pereira, who founded the business consulting firm iMpact, and has experience helping Chinese and Western companies understand each other’s customs. Thus company parties are an opportunity for leaders to build rapport and show gratitude.

It is common for Chinese bosses to get on stage: Some get dragged up, others go more willingly.

Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma famously wore a black leather jacket with spiked shoulder pads and belted out a Chinese rock anthem to 60,000 employees in a stadium to celebrate his retirement and Alibaba’s 20th anniversary in 2019.

Dancy footwork
Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, made his first trip to China in four years last month and found himself on stage at Nvidia’s Lunar New Year party. His employees wanted him to learn steps to the Yangge, a festive dance popular in northern China.

Huang took on a difficult challenge by tackling the folk dance, since it requires a lot of practice and understanding of the music to get the body coordination right, noted Beijing-based dance instructor Fan Xiao after watching the footage.


Jack Ma performs at Alibaba’s 20th anniversary event that also marked his retirement in 2019. PHOTO: ALIBABA

Robin Li, the chairman of Chinese search-engine and artificial intelligence company Baidu, plays the drums at a company party. PHOTO: BAIDU
“We usually have to teach the moves of arms and legs separately,” Fan says. “It seems that his brain was still digesting the music and the dance while his arms and legs were already moving.”

Still, he adds, Huang “learned pretty fast.”

When asked about the dancing, a Nvidia spokeswoman replied that “Jensen is resuming his annual tradition of celebrating Chinese New Year with our local employees.”

Fan says Musk’s walk-like-an-Egyptian move was much simpler: “As long as you don’t have two left feet, it’s basically not that difficult.”

What advice would Fan give a CEO who might be expected to dance before employees? The instructor suggests executives master a go-to move (the ability to circle back or do a paradigm shift doesn’t count).

One option, he says, is the slickback dance, which has gone viral on TikTok and makes the dancer appear to be gliding.

One of the biggest misconceptions first-time visitors to China have about the country is that one cannot have fun there, says business consultant Pereira.

“Dancing and singing may not be common among Western CEOs now,” he says. “But perhaps that’s actually something they can learn from their Chinese counterparts.”

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