I'm in the county town, and you say I'm a big shot?

Chapter 817, Section 816: Breaking Stereotypes: New Poverty Alleviation Practices in China as Seen by a Hong Kong Journalist

Breaking Stereotypes: New Poverty Alleviation Practices in China as Seen by a Hong Kong Journalist

—Reported by Chen Ziqing, Special Correspondent for the South China Morning Post, Qin Province, Tianhan Area
Before I set off for Tianhan region in Shaanxi Province, overseas discussions about China's poverty alleviation efforts were mostly at two extremes: either questioning the authenticity of the data or criticizing it as a "political show." However, this poverty alleviation inspection tour with Fang Qingye, the founder of ByteDance, showed me a more complex and more realistic picture.

Unexpected pragmatism

"Do they really care about these details?" This was a question I kept asking myself during my visit. In Western media narratives, China's poverty alleviation efforts are often simplified to numbers and political achievements. But here, I saw technology teams working with local farmers to calculate packaging costs, discuss how to reduce logistics expenses, and even argue heatedly about the optimal storage humidity for black rice.

Fang Qingye put it bluntly at an internal meeting: "If we can't help them build a sustainable business model, no matter how good the sales are today, they will still be back to square one tomorrow." This pragmatic attitude is far removed from the "money-spraying" poverty alleviation that outsiders imagine.

Digital Practices of "Teaching a Man to Fish"
What surprised me most was the way the ByteDance team did things. They didn't simply treat live-streaming e-commerce as a panacea, but quietly built a more systematic support architecture: the technology team was developing simple digital tools to enable farmers who were not even very familiar with smartphones to manage their customer base; product managers were helping local areas design product specifications that were more suitable for online sales; and the marketing team was planning how to build "Yangzhou Black Rice" into a real brand.

“What we’re doing isn’t a one-off charity, but helping them build their ‘digital survival skills’,” Zhang Nan, the project leader, told me.

Break my own preconceived notions
As a Hong Kong journalist, I must admit that I also had some preconceived notions when viewing poverty alleviation work in mainland China. But my on-site visits revealed another dimension: the work team members sent by the county to the villages could accurately state every piece of data on local poverty alleviation and were quite professional about the problems faced by impoverished households; local young people began to seriously consider how to revitalize their hometown using new methods; and what moved me most was seeing the farmers' transformation from initial fear of the camera to actively learning live-streaming skills.

Implications of Sustainable Development
On the return flight, I reconsidered the meaning of the word "poverty alleviation." Rather than "poverty alleviation," it's more accurate to describe it as an ongoing "rural industrial upgrading." ByteDance's attempt may not be perfect, but it demonstrates a possibility: how to use market economy methods to both solve poverty and maintain project sustainability.

Fang Qingye once told me, "The power of business lies in its ability to allow the seeds of goodwill to take root and sprout on their own." This statement may explain why this poverty alleviation campaign seems so different—it is not simply about giving, but about building together.

This trip made me realize that to understand China's poverty alleviation efforts, we need to set aside preconceived notions, venture deep into the mountains, into the fields, and see the real stories unfolding there. There, I saw not the political show the outside world imagined, but a group of people earnestly working to solve age-old problems in innovative ways. This is perhaps the other side of China's poverty alleviation efforts that is most worthy of the world's understanding.

Fang Qingye later saw this report on a mainland financial website. After the South China Morning Post published it, it was reprinted by several mainland financial websites. The article was well-written, offering a relatively objective perspective on this large-scale poverty alleviation project.

It was the weekend, and Fang Qingye and her family of three were enjoying their leisure time at Nanxin's nursery. Their son, Yangyang, was almost two years old, lively and active, exploring the garden, sometimes darting into the flowerbeds, sometimes sticking his little bottom out to observe the butterflies. This meant that Bai Ou and the nanny had to keep a close eye on his every move.

A DJI drone was flying low over the nursery, attracting the attention of children who stretched out their little hands and babbled as if they wanted to play with it. It turned out that Fang Fei was operating the drone to record videos, collecting material for her Douyin (TikTok) account.

Fang Fei opened an official account called "Four Seasons Nursery" on Douyin (TikTok), frequently posting videos and pictures related to the nursery. It's said to be quite popular, having already accumulated 100,000 followers. Last year, Fang Qingye resigned from his position as manager of Four Seasons Flower and Seedling Company, handing over the reins to his niece, Fang Fei. In addition, he also resigned from his position as chairman of Huacheng Development Corporation—a position succeeded by General Manager Luo Yan—and from his position as a director of Yuxiang Natural Gas Company. In his words, this was to "free himself up."

Fang Fei's business is doing quite well; she has already monopolized half of the flower and potted plant rental and fresh flower business in Nanxin County, and is still expanding its production scale.

She rented a plot of land of about ten acres in Renyi Village, not far north of the county town—it used to be an orchard.

According to Fang Fei's plan, the existing nursery mainly deals in fresh flowers and some potted plants. Since Fang Qingye often invites friends to have tea here, it has been basically managed into an exquisite garden. A guardhouse has also been set up at the entrance, with security guards on duty day and night to ensure safety.

The actual seedlings and some potted plants business were transferred to the new nursery.

Therefore, the current Four Seasons Nursery is much more beautiful than when Fang Qingye first took over from her grandfather. Especially this spring, the flowers are in full bloom: pansies, petunias, daisies and cinerarias are clustered together; the slightly taller azaleas and camellias have bloomed in large patches and have become the main sales force; in the orchid greenhouse, flower stalks have emerged from among the dark green leaves of Phalaenopsis, Cymbidium, and Dendrobium.

On such a bright spring day, sitting here drinking tea and admiring the flowers is indeed a pleasure. Of course, it's also nice to browse your phone and watch some TikTok videos.

Two days ago, Deng Rong, vice president of Jinghai Yinhai Bank, and Liang Ruibo, chief operating officer of ByteDance, each led their teams to the Tianhan area to communicate and exchange ideas with relevant local departments to implement the three cooperation agreements that Fang Qingye had recently signed.

Currently, ByteDance CTO Li Mo has organized a dedicated team to develop Douyin's live-streaming e-commerce function. They have learned from the experience and lessons of the last live-streaming e-commerce event in Yangzhou and are now in the debugging stage. It is expected to be officially launched in two months.

For ByteDance, there are three main tasks at present: live-streaming e-commerce, the final launch and testing of TikTok (the overseas version of Douyin), and establishing a North American operations center in Los Angeles. Following Fang Qingye's instructions and after repeated discussions, the company's senior management decided to establish five major TikTok operations centers in Los Angeles, Singapore, London, Dublin, and Dubai, respectively covering North America and Latin America, Asia Pacific, Europe and West Africa, and the Middle East.

In addition, Chen Weian's team is secretly in contact with the Musical.ly team to discuss acquisition matters.

Before setting sail, ByteDance, like a giant ship, has readjusted its strategic direction, and the course of history is quietly changing.

As the instigator of all this, Fang Qingye was currently sipping tea, sitting in a recliner and scrolling through his phone. He was carefully reading a seemingly insignificant news item—the "Trial Measures for the Coordination, Registration and Maintenance Management of Satellite Networks" issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

(End of this chapter)