Baidu in Chinese Calligraphy, Seal Script Banner

108cmx35cm 

Calligrapher: Ding Shimei

Creation year: 2011

Baidu Calligraphy Background

Baidu, Inc. (Chinese: 百度; pinyin: Bǎidù, NASDAQ: BIDU), simply known as Baidu and incorporated on January 18, 2000, is a Chinese web services company headquartered in the Baidu Campus in Haidian District, Beijing, People's Republic of China.

Baidu offers many services, including a Chinese search engine for websites, audio files, and images. Baidu offers 57 search and community services including Baidu Baike, an online collaboratively-built encyclopedia, and a searchable keyword-based discussion forum. Baidu was established in 2000 by co-founders, Robin Li and Eric Xu. Both of the co-founders are Chinese nationals who have studied and worked overseas before returning to China. Baidu.com Inc. is registered in the Cayman Islands. In February 2011, Baidu ranked 66th overall in Alexa's internet rankings. During Q4 of 2010 it is estimated that there were 4.02 billion search queries in China of which Baidu had a market share of 56.6%.

In December 2007, Baidu became the first Chinese company to be included in the NASDAQ-100 index.Baidu provides an index of over 740 million web pages, 80 million images, and 10 million multimedia files.[10] Baidu offers multi-media content including MP3 music and movies, and is the first in China to offer WAP and PDA-based mobile search.

Baidu proactively censors its content in line with government regulations.Many of Baidu's services, including ideas and interfaces, are obvious imitation of Google's.

"Many people have asked about the meaning of our name. 'Baidu' was inspired by a poem written more than 800 years ago during the Song Dynasty. The poem compares the search for a retreating beauty amid chaotic glamour with the search for one's dream while confronted by life's many obstacles. '...hundreds and thousands of times, for her I searched in chaos, suddenly, I turned by chance, to where the lights were waning, and there she stood.' Baidu, whose literal meaning is hundreds of times, represents persistent search for the ideal.”—Robin Li

The name "Baidu" is a quote from the last line of Xin Qiji's classical poem "Green Jade Table in The Lantern Festival" saying: "Having searched for her hundreds and thousands of times in the crowd, suddenly turning back by chance, I find her there in the dimmest candlelight."

The context of the poem is that in ancient China, girls had to stay indoors and the Lantern Festival was one of the few times they could come out. In the sea and chaos of lantern lights, they would sneak away to meet their love and exchange promises to meet again next year.

A summary of the entire poem: Flowers bursting into bloom in the sky, stars falling like rain (fireworks/meteor shower), Whole streets filled with perfume, jeweled horses pulling ornate carriages, fish and dragon lanterns dancing throughout the entire night. A body decorated with golden thread and butterfly trinket, laughter that has a subtle fragrance. Having searched for this person until exhaustion, when suddenly turning back by chance, I find her standing lonely in the far end of the street in the waning light.