[China Education Daily] Zhong Chaoqun Gave up Millions of Annual Salary in Shenzhen and Returned to Her Hometown to Save the Traditional Noodle Industry—Golden Phoenix Flying Back to the Village

2019-08-07

■ Focusing on Employment and Entrepreneurship of University Students

Xiushan Town, Taojiang County, Hunan Province, is located on the riverside of Zijiang River, with beautiful mountains and rivers and pleasant scenery. However, Xiushan Town is short of talents and develops poorly as in most rural areas.

Recently, Zhong Chaoqun, a graduate of Hunan University of Technology and Business, gave up millions of annual salary in Shenzhen and returned to her hometown to establish the noodle brand "Xiumeiren", which aroused the hot discussion and praise of the local cadres and masses. Less than two years after returning home, the annual sales volume of the noodle factory of the Zhong Chaoqun family increased from less than 90t to 400t, and the output value reached RMB 5 million.

Chen Yu, Secretary of the Party Committee of Xiushan Town, said that "Chaoqun is the golden phoenix flying back from the first-tier city. Xiushan Town needs such talents."

Crisis: Rural Traditional Industry Is in Urgent Need of Talents

Xiushan Noodle is made from Xiushan spring water with a long history of making. Because of the pure water quality and exquisite technology, the noodles produced are soft in taste, good in color, and fragrant in flavor, which is one of the few traditional industries in the town, and also an important way for Xiushan Town to revitalize the village.

Zhong Chaoqun was born in the family of making noodles. Her father, Zhong Shiming, is the ninth generation descendant of Xiushan Noodle. Her second brother, Zhong Xiaobing, inherits his father's career and is the tenth generation descendant of Xiushan Noodle. For Zhong's family, Xiushan Noodle is not only the source of family life, but also a kind of family spirit inheritance and emotional sustenance.

The market is like a tide. Zhong's family found that their carefully made noodles could not rush out the Yiyang market, even the Taojiang market was also occupied by noodles from other nonlocal large factories.

At that time, Zhong Chaoqun, the youngest daughter of Zhong's family, who was a lawyer in Shenzhen, began to "do her best to" revitalize the traditional industries. "The first thing is to provide the funds. About RMB 500,000 is spent, but there is still no benefit." Zhong Chaoqun gradually realized that talent was more scarce than capital in revitalizing traditional industries.

It is not only the rise and fall of one factory that calls Zhong Chaoqun back home, but also the revitalization and development of the traditional industry of Xiushan Noodle. Based on relevant data, there were no less than 60 Xiushan Noodle manufacturers in 2006, but there were only 11 noodle factories in Xiushan Town by 2016 due to the small scale, uneven quality and poor anti-risk ability, and only one factory had an annual output of more than 200t.

The decline of the industry makes the countryside more desolate. "Although they can work to earn money, children need to spend money to study, and they need to spend money to buy a house in the city. All the money is spent in the city, and there is nothing in the countryside." Talking about why he called his daughter back, 70-year-old Zhong Shiming believed that the talents trained in the countryside had the responsibility to contribute to the countryside.

Turning point: Connect Homeland Feelings with Shenzhen Experience

How to open up a new prospect when talents come back? The task faced by Zhong Chaoqun is almost an impossible task.

As early as 2000, the Party Committee and the government of Xiushan Town set up a town-run noodle factory as a demonstration factory with special personnel to try to promote the development of the whole industry. However, the pace of development was very slow due to the lack of funds and poor sales.

"An enterprise should be competitive and have some feelings." Zhong Chaoqun studied law during the university life. After graduation, she worked as an enterprise legal adviser in a law firm in Shenzhen, providing legal advice and services for more than 100 SMEs in intellectual property, compliance management and project negotiation, etc. With more than 10 years of lawyer experience, she has been trained to be thoughtful and logical, and has a pragmatic and clear understanding of enterprise development.

What they need to do first is to clarify the thinking. What's the advantage of Xiushan Noodle? What's the weakness? How to improve the tiny workshop production? How to create a brand and open a market in the highly competitive market? Zhong Chaoqun shuttled back and forth between Shenzhen and Taojiang in 2016, constantly weighing the risks and solutions of returning home to start a business.

She mortgaged her house in Shenzhen and returned to her hometown with a loan of RMB 2 million and all her savings in Sep. 2017. She took over Hunan Taojiang Shilian Food Co., Ltd. found in 2015, with an investment of more than RMB 4 million. A modern factory covering an area of about 4 mu is built, which is the first sunshine noodle factory in Hunan Province obtaining a food production license (SC license).

Zhong Chaoqun attaches great importance to improving the noodle making process. At present, nine noodle making processes in the factory have obtained the national utility model patent certificate. In terms of brand building, she employed an operation manager from Shenzhen to carry out packaging design and marketing for the products, rebuilt a new brand "Xiumeiren", and re-registered "Zhong Shimin" trademark which has been used for 30 years.

In less than two years, Zhong Chaoqun brought her family's noodle factory to a new life. The annual sales volume increased from less than 90t to 400t; the output value reached RMB 5 million; the profit margin increased from almost zero to 15%.

Outlook: Good Policies Make Entrepreneurship More Confident

Xiaochen is the operation manager invited by Zhong Chaoqun from Guangdong, and also her business partner. "I was shaken several times and almost went back to Shenzhen. But good policies of the country gave me reassurance, so I decided to settle down and work here".

Zhong Chaoqun said that NPC and CPPCC in 2018 proposed to make agriculture a leading industry and let talents show their strength on the rural stage, which inspired her. Taojiang County, as the second batch of national all-for-one tourism demonstration units, has incorporated Xiushan Noodle into the development planning of "ten-billion industry", and point-to-point policy and financial supporting in landmark declaration, e-commerce promotion and land demand, etc. were provided, so that Zhong Chaoqun had the impetus to overcome difficulties.

From the beginning, Zhong Chaoqun thought that we could not rely on a small enterprise in case we want to build up the brand of Xiushan Noodle. She turned her attention to the whole noodle industry in Xiushan Town after her family's factory improved a little. She actively communicated with the government to include the Xiushan Noodle project in the government's plan to develop the rural economy, which received the government's policy support. Xiushan Town established a Noodle Association at the end of 2018, including 11 enterprises, and she was elected as the President of the Association. For the healthy development of the whole industry, she also suggested applying Xiushan Noodle, a century-old brand, as a national geographical indication product. With the strong support of Xiushan Town government, the Noodle Association of Xiushan Town was as the application unit to officially apply for landmark.

Zhong Chaoqun told journalists that she planned to make "Xiumenren" famous in the industry within 5 years; build an Xiushan Noodle Industrial Park in another 5 years, to build a new industry with heritage and quality.