Yan Jiaxin

Many residents of Qiaotuo (a village in Tai'an, a county in Anshan, a city in Northeast China's Liaoning Province) are grateful to Yan Jiaxin, one of the villagers. Why? Yan, a university graduate who returned home to establish Xinyang Crafts Plant (manufacturing toys, knickknacks and handwoven items), during the past few years has put a lot of effort into helping the residents attain wealth by creating handmade products. Given Yan and her employees' efforts to develop their business, an increasing number of rural residents have been living happy, prosperous lives.

Despite the fact Yan is one of the few university graduates in Qiaotuo, the villagers' well-being remains the top concern of Yan. She gave up the opportunity to work in Dalian (another city in Liaoning Province) in 2017, after she graduated from university. Within a short period of time, she returned to her home village to start her own business. With the encouragement of her parents, and the help of the members of both the village's Party committee and the village's committee, Yan set up the crafts plant in her family's courtyard. She was determined to revive her hometown's traditional crafts, and to help residents realize their dreams of getting rich through hard work.

During the first year, Yan made special trips to Yiwu (a city in East China's Zhejiang Province), and other regions of the country, to conduct market surveys on crafts, and to apprentice under skilled craftspeople, so she could improve her craft-making skills.

Yan also visited villagers, to teach them how to create the crafts. Yan's efforts paid off, as an increasing number of villagers went to her plant, to seek employment. Given Yan and her employees' tremendous efforts to develop the enterprise, the plant has generated considerable profits during the past few years.

Yan Jiaxin (L) and a local villager

Many left-behind women (whose husbands have left home to work elsewhere), in Qiaotuo and its neighboring villages, have taken raw materials from Yan's plant, so they could make handwoven items at home, to help their families meet their daily expenses.

During last year's epidemic prevention and control period (to combat novel coronavirus disease), the plant provided employment opportunities to many residents, who could not return to their work posts in other regions of the country.

With Yan's help, nearly 100 impoverished women, from Tai'an's neighboring towns and townships, have escaped poverty by creating crafts during the past few years. Given the sound development of Yan's plant, she has employed nearly 1,000 residents (of Tai'an and its neighboring towns and townships). Their products have sold well in many countries, including Germany and Canada.

Yan is pleased to see her and her employees' efforts have yielded fruitful results; for example, many rural residents have escaped poverty. "I'll make greater efforts to help farmers attain greater wealth by selling their products," says Yan.

Source: Anshan Women's Federation

Photos by Yao Jianfeng

(Women of China English Monthly May 2021 issue)