Young woman from China’s Zhejiang turns bamboo into prosperous industry

A young woman in Ningbo city, east China’s Zhejiang Province has made the bamboo product brand of her family’s company famous around the world, helping an increasing number of bamboo farmers pad their income.

Photo shows Wang Xiaoqing at the Bo’ao International Plastic Ban Industry Forum in south China’s Hainan Province in December 2020. (Photo courtesy of the interviewee)

Wang Xiaoqing, born in the 1990s, found that Chinese bamboo products were popular among customers in the US and Europe when she studied in the US, but many of them carried foreign brands, despite China being dubbed the “kingdom of bamboos.” She decided to return to China and help her father build a bamboo product brand after finishing her education abroad in 2013.

In 2018, a bamboo table produced by Ningbo Shilin Arts & Crafts Co., Ltd., the company of Wang’s family, shined at the first Global Bamboo and Rattan Congress. Wang attended the congress, showcasing China’s profound bamboo culture to the world.

Chinese bamboo culture has a long history, which provides a sound foundation for the global expansion of China’s bamboo industry, Wang said.

However, overseas orders for bamboo products received by Wang’s company slumped in early 2020 due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic. Back then, her business partner suggested cutting down on staff, but Wang refused to and prepared for the future delivery of bamboo products.

Her company is currently engaged in the design, development, manufacturing, and sales of bamboo products. It produces over 10 million bamboo products each year, 85 percent of which are sold to global markets, including Europe and the US, accounting for over 50 percent of the exports of bamboo products in Ningbo city. The company has also made efforts to promote the deep processing of bamboo.

Wang invested over 18 million yuan ($2.6 million) to upgrade production equipment and improve the automation level into a low-carbon and green development model.

In recent years, Wang and her team have boosted farmers’ incomes by purchasing their bamboo and offering them jobs. Her company has also supported the coordination of more than 10 bamboo processing companies in and out of Zhejiang Province.

Serving as vice president of the entrepreneurship promotion association for returned overseas students in Fenghua district of Ningbo city, Wang plans to contribute more to rural vitalization together with more returned overseas students.

“It’s the mission of China’s youth in the new era to help vitalize rural areas. I hope that we can turn villages into more beautiful places and make villagers get richer,” Wang said.