New Story of an Old Street
EVERY Tuesday morning, Lou Jianbo, who runs a printing house, and Muhtar Abudurousuli, who runs a clinic practicing traditional Chinese medicine in Aksu City, Xinjiang, meet at the One Family Restaurant on Wangsan Street to check up on its operating conditions. This restaurant, unlike other restaurants, has 44 pairs of shareholders. Lou, a Han, and Muhtar, a Uygur, the founders of the restaurant, are two of them. From acquaintance to business partners, the two businessmen gradually became good friends in life. Their story started from a social activity in Hongqiao Community in 2016.
Establishing Partnership
In December 2016, 54 commercial tenants on Wangsan Street and Xinglong Street became 27 counterparts under the pairing program carried out by the Hongqiao Community and Aksu Civil Affairs Bureau.
Well-known in southern Xinjiang, Wangsan Street and Xinglong Street are both commercial and pedestrian streets in the city. The difference is that 99 percent of the merchants and practitioners on Wangsan Street are Uygurs or other
ethnic minorities, and 99 percent of the merchants and practitioners on Xinglong Street are Han people. After the twinning, the tenants gather regularly to promote development together, and have successively contributed to ethnic unity in malls, groceries, and stores. The One Family Restaurant was opened in this context.
According to Lou, the twinned pairs frequently communicate and carry out exchanges with each other. Food can narrow the gap, so he and Muhtar thought of opening a restaurant to provide a venue for friendly exchanges and interactions with more friends.
The restaurant was opened by crowdfunding. “This was a bold idea at the time. We had no idea how many people were willing to become shareholders,” Muhtar said, then added how they hoped to use this approach to invite more partners to participate, so as to promote exchanges between businesspeople of different ethnic groups. “It is not easy to run a restaurant,” said Muhtar. “At first, only three people were willing to invest in it.”
Fortunately, local community workers soon learned about the crowdfunding and provided their strong support. “We immediately became confident and actively mobilized friends and relatives, and told them about the restaurant’s business cooperation model and what we plan to do in terms of ethnic unity and poverty alleviation,” said Muhtar. The number of shareholders has since then grown from the initial three to 88, and the restaurant opened in January 2018.
Old Story of the Street
Wangsan Street is the only street named after a person in Aksu, and the story of Wang San is well known to the locals.
During Emperor Guangxu’s reign (1875-1908) in the late Qing Dynasty, a Tianjin businessman named Wang Fucai went to Xinjiang with a trade caravan. He fell from a horse and broke his right leg when he was purchasing Chinese medicinal materials in Aksu. He recuperated for more than a year in the home of a local Uygur man and they became sworn brothers. In order to deepen the brotherhood, the Uygur entrusted one of his twin sons to Wang Fucai as a foster son and changed his name to Wang San. Later, Wang San followed his foster father to Tianjin to learn Chinese medicine and business. When Wang San was 14 years old, Wang Fucai took him back to Aksu to find his relatives, but could not find them, so Wang Fucai built a bazaar on a large area of land over which Wang San’s old family house stood. As time went by, this bazaar slowly evolved into the present-day Wangsan Street.
Today, Wang San’s grandson Maihemaiti Tohti works in the radio and television station in Aksu. Since childhood he has been told his grandfather’s story by his father many times. For many years, he and his father have not forgotten family traditions and actively upheld ethnic unity.
“In order to remember the friendship between the Uygur and Han people, my grandfather specially named my father Wang Shiying, and my father gave me another Han name, Wang Weihan. I also gave my son a Han name Wang Hanqing. We must pass on the tradition from generation to generation and maintain this beautiful and harmonious relationship between the Uygur and Han people.” He and his partner Zhao Qing are shareholders of the One Family Restaurant, and the two families communicate closely. Their children have also become good friends.
New Story of the Street
Avidly listening to Wang San’s story since childhood, Muhtar also wants to do something for ethnic unity.
Muhtar gained admission to the Nanjing College of Traditional Chinese Medicine to study Chinese medicine in 1984. After graduation, he put great effort into his studies and returned to Aksu in 1992 to practice TCM. According to him, Wang San used Chinese medicine to cure many Uygur people’ illnesses while he was there. He was largely influenced by Wang San in his decision to study TCM, and also wants to help others.
The first step is always a challenge. When he first came back, few believed in TCM until he won their trust by curing many locals with superb medical skills. Now, more than 10,000 patients of various ethnicities are treated by him annually. “My friend Lou Jianbo also introduced me to many Han patients. Now my patients are spread all over Xinjiang.”
In 2018, Maihemaiti went to Tianjin to look for the Han kinsfolk of his grandfather Wang San, but due to age, the search ended in vain. “At that time, many Tianjin citizens told me that although you did not find your relatives, all of us in Tianjin are your friends.” Maihemaiti said that every time he thinks of this sentence, he is deeply touched.
The shareholders then had the idea to open a restaurant in Tianjin. They want to tell the story of ethnic unity that happened in Aksu and for it to be passed down from generation to generation in Tianjin more than 3,600 kilometers away.
In recent years, with the continuous advancement of the Uygur-han pairing work, the partners in Aksu are no longer limited to Wangsan Street and Xinglong Street. Ethnic unity promotion associations have been established beyond the city. Now, there are about 400 such pairs using their actions to tell the new story among different ethnicities. C
During the COVID-19 pandemic, resilience has become the primary quality of an entrepreneur. In the male-dominated business world, female entrepreneurs are not only tenacious when facing pressure and risks, but also show strong resilience in the face of changes emerging in a new environment, adept in seeking opportunities in crises, and assume social responsibility as well. The book under review is one that advocates women’s spirit of entrepreneurship and shows the strength of Chinese female entrepreneurs.
The book focuses on the stories of 13 women in business, including Dong Mingzhu, chairperson and president of GREE Electric Appliances, Inc. who created a “manufacturing legend;” He Qiaonü, chairperson of Beijing Orient Landscape Co., Ltd.; Chairwoman of Wanfeng Auto Holding Group Chen Ailian, who is pursuing craftship and intelligent manufacturing; “Queen of TV Drama” Zhao Yifang; Wang Jingbo, founder of Noah Fortune; “Crazy Artist” Wang Chaoge;
Han Xiaohong, president of Ciming Health Checkup Management Group Co., Ltd.; “Fashion Creator” Xia Hua, chairwoman of Eve Group; Mi Wenjuan, founder
and CEO of VIPKID; Liu Wenjing, chairwoman of Bluesail Medical – a Chinese competitor of Johnson & Johnson; Wang Shutong, president of Dhgate.com, who aims to facilitate multinational trading by small and medium companies; Liu Nan, CEO of mia. com – a company that promises to serve infants and children with the safest baby products, and “Industrial Internet Pathfinder” Zhang Hongmei. What life stories and business wisdom can they share, and how do they lead China’s economic trend?
It was when the world economy hit rock bottom in 2009 that Chinese women entrepreneurs shone. While the world was engulfed in the financial crisis triggered by the Lehman Brothers collapse, women rose up to play an important role in leading business recovery. In 2009, Dong Mingzhu had been serving as president of GREE Electric Appliances for two years; Wanfeng Auto Wheel Co., founded by Chen Ailian, had become the world’s largest automatic wheel manufacturer after 15 years of development; Orient Landscape founded by He Qiaonü, and Huace Media founded by Zhao Yifang, successfully went public, with each becoming the first listed company in their sectors. During the following year, Noah Holdings, founded by Wang Jingbo, became China’s first wealth management company listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
Eleven years have passed. Female entrepreneurs have grown into a burgeoning, undeniable, and invaluable force in business. Never have there been so many women among business founders. Statistics from China show that companies registered under a woman’s name only accounted for 10 percent of total registered companies in 1980, but now the proportion has grown to 30 percent. At present, China boasts approximately 30 million companies, and by such estimation, 10 million Chinese companies have women in a founding position. Among the 16,000 new companies incorporated every day, 5,000 are registered by women. Pioneering companies and unicorn companies also do not lack female participants.
He Zhenhong, editor-in-chief of the book, is the president of
magazine and a member of the China Women’s Development Foundation. In 2017, she co-founded the Mulan Academy with He Qiaonü, Chen Ailian, and other outstanding Chinese female entrepreneurs, dedicated to cultivating future-oriented female entrepreneurs. In He’s view, the rise of these businesswomen is a historic change. “Over the 40 years, in the process of reform and opening-up, the rise of Chinese women entrepreneurs has not only profoundly changed the situation of women themselves, but is also shaping and will continue to shape China and, in a broader sense, the rest of the world.”
The business changes mentioned by He have far-reaching significance and influence. While the business landscape has shifted with the rise of women entrepreneurs, so have business operational models, objectives, and pursuits. In a male-dominated business world, women entrepreneurs, with their mix of toughness and flexibility, their resilient and unremitting spirit as well as their diplomatic maneuvering, have demonstrated to the world another way of being – a combination of masculinity and femininity. On the journeys to pursue scale and profit, amid cutthroat competition, women entrepreneurs have the wisdom to reach a balance between earning profits and taking on social responsibility.
Moreover, this is a China-led revolutionary change. Female startup founders in China top the world by a huge margin, in both number and proportion. On the global self-made richest women list, Chinese women continually make up 70 to 80 percent. Women are gifted in identifying their own emotions and those of others, and thus can solve problems in a creative way amid fierce business competition. For example, Peng Lei, who has led Ant Financial to a valuation of US $150 billion in eight years, turned Alipay into one of China’s “four new inventions;” and Hu Weiwei became a pacesetter in the sharing economy by founding Mobike.
Chinese female entrepreneurship is a driving force for societal transformation. Women entrepreneurs are shifting business toward more human dimensions, with respect for women awakened on three levels: from “not counting on anyone else,” to “living the way we want,” and “living in ways so as to create value for the society, the world, and humanity,” thus enabling women to honor their gender, while promoting the idea of “finding your best self.” Clearly, a transformation empowered with these messages will mean more profound value for families, children, society, and broadly speaking, all of humanity. C
MY China adventure began on the heels of the SARS epidemic in 2003 when I arrived at Nanjing University on a college exchange program. I fell in love with the culture, language, food, energy, and excitement of the place and was surprised to feel completely at home here in China.
I can still remember nearly every day of those four months I spent in Nanjing. Biking in the city’s bustling streets, I felt completely invigorated and told myself I had to return one day. Though I returned to the U.S. for a year to complete my studies, I felt like I never really left China. I really only had one goal after graduating and that was to come back and get involved in some way in efforts to protect the environment.
Now, nearly two decades later and on the heels of another epidemic, that “China adventure” has become my daily life, and I feel extremely fortunate to be able to now call China home.
To say the country has changed in the time I’ve been living here is an understatement. The transformations happening in China over the last few decades are unparalleled in human history. And to be able to witness in person and breathe that change on a daily basis has been truly remarkable.
There are so many aspects of China’s transformation that have been exhaus
tively covered, but the one that my entire professional career has been shaped around is China’s efforts over the past two decades to protect wildlife and improve the environment.
China faces some of the most staggering environmental challenges in the world. Securing employment, food, and a high quality of life for its enormous population has always been its national priority. How to do this while also maintaining clean air and water, preventing against natural disasters, and protecting the country’s incredible diversity of wildlife and ecosystems has been a monumental challenge. It’s also one of the most crucial challenges to get right, not just for the health of China but for the rest of the planet as well.
After being on the front lines of these challenges for the last 15 years, I’m increasingly confident that China is finding ways to achieve this balance. Right in front of our eyes, for anyone living in Beijing, is the marked improvement in air quality that has occurred over these last few years. But there has been so much more happening on all fronts to protect the environment, that when added together they culminate in a true green wave of change in the country.
My career has straddled two sides of the environmental protection landscape, both working for the China branches of major international organizations. First at The Nature Conservancy, working on the ground to protect China’s land and waters. Then at Wildaid, working with media to inspire the public to protect wildlife.
These roles have taken me to some of the most unique places on Earth to both witness and be a part of this green transformation. I have helped plant trees as part of the biggest reforestation program in the world in north China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous
After showing great determination and responsibility so far, China is getting closer to achieving this better balance sooner than many imagined possible.
Region. Off the coast of south China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, I watched endangered Chinese white dolphins encircle our little boat in a soon-to-be established marine nature reserve. In the lush mountains of northern Sichuan Province, I found panda poo on the trails at one of China’s first community managed nature reserves. On the island of Hainan I helped release rehabilitated sea turtles back into the ocean as part of a larger effort to restore their numbers in China. Then in Jilin of northeast China, I saw Siberian tiger tracks and claw marks on trees, where a new national park is being established to restore their dwindling numbers.
On the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in Yunnan, I stood at the base of huge glaciers and the ancient forest home to Yunnan snub-nosed monkeys, where China’s first national parks were established over 10 years ago. Down river, in Hubei, I stood on top of the Three Gorges Dam and learned from its operators how they will be adjusting water flows to protect downstream fish. Further down the Yangtze in a quiet wildlife sanctuary, I threw fish in the river to feed the endangered finless porpoise. Then at the river’s mouth I stood in the mud and wetlands at Chongming nature reserve surrounded by a beautiful array of birds, just in the shadows of Shanghai.
These are just a few snapshots of the conservation efforts happening on the ground to protect China’s wildlife, but there are even bigger changes happening in the hearts and minds of people here. Chinese media companies have provided unbelievable support over the years to promote wildlife protection messages, which have led to notable shifts in attitudes toward wildlife. During this time, the consumption of endangered wildlife products such as shark fins, elephant ivory, and tiger bones has decreased dramatically.
Now during the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, the public have shown unprecedented support for ending highrisk wildlife consumption. This has been assisted by China passing some of the world’s most ambitious and admirable laws to better protect public health, and banning the consumption of wildlife as food in the country.
None of these issues are anywhere close to being easy to solve, and there is still a tremendous amount of work to be done in finding a better balance in how we coexist with the natural world. However, after showing great determination and responsibility so far, China is getting closer to achieving this better balance sooner than many imagined possible.
Over these last two decades, China has gone from facing daunting environmental challenges to becoming a muchneeded global leader in green policy, technology, and initiatives. I am so glad that I listened to myself on that bike ride in Nanjing all those years ago and came back to China to experience this green transformation. I am both proud and honored to have been even a small part of it. C