Current location:Culture Crossroad news portal > entertainment
Entrepreneur Hits Big with Embroidery
Culture Crossroad news portal2024-05-09 09:53:01【entertainment】5People have gathered around
IntroductionContact Us HomeNewsHighlightACWF NewsSocietyWom
- Home
- News
- People
- In-depth
- ACWF
Entrepreneur Hits Big with Embroidery
ByFeng Zhiwei and Jiang Chenglong March 8, 2023Shi Jia attends the first session of the 14th National People's Congress in Beijing. [China Daily] |
"Making money for just myself, or making money for myself, my relatives and people in my hometown? That's the obvious difference between the kind of entrepreneurship I did before and the kind I do now."
That was 38-year-old Shi Jia's response when she compared what she did before — running a lucrative engineering company for over a decade — with her current and "much more meaningful" job of helping 1,900 women in her home village prosper by making traditional embroidery that is sold worldwide.
The entrepreneur, who is also a deputy to the 14th National People's Congress, comes from Shilan Town, Hunan Province. Her life changed in 2017 when she finally decided to quit her company, which was netting an annual revenue of around 25 million yuan ($3.6 million) at the time.
"That was definitely a hard decision," Shi said. "But my attitude changed after the town official and my parents repeatedly pushed me to come home, especially my parents. They were among the earliest pioneers of entrepreneurship in our town, but they persuaded me to give up my company and come home to help the other villagers prosper."
She said that her parents told her, "Don't leave your relatives and friends at home behind when you get rich."
So she started her second company making Miao embroidery, a traditional handicraft of the Miao ethnic group in western Hunan. In Shi's eyes, it had a great potential.
She hired four practitioners of Miao embroidery as instructors, and encouraged left-behind women and female migrant workers to join the company.
All received paid training for three months, after which they were able to choose to work at the company or complete orders at home, which would give them the ability to take care of their farms, elderly relatives and children. Presented with the prospect of a stable job, many migrant workers chose to work at Shi's company.
As business expanded, the company set up five more factories in three counties in western Hunan. Shi also set up product design teams and opened both brick-and-mortar and online stores in a number of cities around the country to promote their work.
Nowadays, embroiderers can earn a stable income ranging from a few thousand to 10,000 yuan a month, and are able to live a life "carrying their babies on their backs, embroidering flowers and supporting themselves and their families".
By 2021, the company employed 1,400 people, was helping 1,272 poor families and permitted 300 migrant worker parents, who had been forced to leave their children to find work, to be employed locally.
In terms of the product design, Shi's team has integrated elements of cultural heritage with fashion and has created 300 lines, including clothing, bags and handicrafts, which are becoming popular with the youth domestically as well as with big international brands.
In 2018, Shi arranged an exhibition of Miao embroidery in Paris. A month later, designers from Hermes created 12 Miao embroidery pieces with Shi's company, which were displayed at the Bordeaux Fashion Show.
"I was unaccustomed to rural life when I returned from the city. I was impetuous, like many urbanites, chasing material things," Shi said. "But I was gradually taken in by country life and began to think that the things I had cared about before weren't that important. Rather, it was the simple life that relaxed me."
Shi stressed that she greatly values the notion of everyone working toward the same goal, just as she and her employees are doing.
(Source: China Daily)
32.3KPlease understand that womenofchina.cn,a non-profit, information-communication website, cannot reach every writer before using articles and images. For copyright issues, please contact us by emailing: [email protected]. The articles published and opinions expressed on this website represent the opinions of writers and are not necessarily shared by womenofchina.cn.
Comments
Magazines
Projects
- 2023 Women Science and Technology Innovation Pioneer...
Photos
- People Enjoy Blooming Tulips in Jinan, East...
- Flowers Bloom Across China in Spring
Special Coverage
Address of this article:http://tokelau.fivesixgroup.com/html-73b899876.html
Very good!(2)
Related articles
- EDEN CONFIDENTIAL: US officials sink Prince Harry's 'vague' plan to trademark Sentebale charity
- Randal Gaines defeats Katie Bernhardt to become new chair of Louisiana Democratic Party
- Lloyd Omdahl, a former North Dakota lieutenant governor and newspaper columnist, dies at 93
- China's Han River sees first flood of 2024
- Heartbreak of MasterChef star, 21, whose older sister died with 'no warning'
- Busch Gardens Tampa Bay: Endangered Bornean orangutan born in Florida
- Caitlin Clark selected with No. 1 in the WNBA draft by the Indiana Fever
- Roma's Ndicka discharged from hospital a day after collapsing during game
- Eva Mendes sparkles in head
- Abu Ghraib detainee shares emotional testimony during trial against Virginia military contractor
Popular articles
Recommended
Lawyers' coalition provides new messengers for Black voter engagement
Budimir misses unforgettable last
Marlins' Jake Burger placed on injured list with left intercostal muscle strain
Justin Verlander is likely to make his season debut for the Astros this weekend at Washington
Prada focuses generational transition on artisans, expanding production and workforce in Italy
Bill meant to improve math skills passes as Kentucky lawmakers approach end of legislative session
China's top legislature kick
China expects over 750 mln inter
Links
- People Go out for Various Activities During Dragon Boat Festival Holiday Across China
- Getting Ready for Gaokao
- Organs Safeguard Campus Security
- China's Top Procuratorate Promotes Law's Implementation
- Taikonaut Sparks Enthusiasm for Space As China Celebrates Its Space Day
- Organs Safeguard Campus Security
- China to Provide Trainee Jobs for College Graduates, Young People
- Slogan, Mascots, emblem of Asian Winter Games unveiled
- Green Rural Revival Program Lifts Image of Countryside in China's Zhejiang
- China Opens 382 New Museums in 2022