Against the machine tools and the dust, Robyn Qiu, a 29-year-old influencer in a fashionable suit, stands out: like her, many ultra-connected Chinese film themselves on Tiktok or Instagram to find new opportunities in the family factory.
In the middle of the production lines of metal parts, the young woman speaks happily in English with her foreign subscribers and potential clients. She is one of the children of factory bosses in China who are trying, through the Internet, to support the company in the face of rising costs and geopolitical tensions.
Return what was given
Robyn says she grew up with “the sound of machines running day and night.” But working in this sector was not always his first option. When he was a child, his parents encouraged him to aspire to an office job, away from the noise of the factory located in Nantong (eastern China).
The plan worked: a graduate of the prestigious American University of Yale, she worked for a few years in a consulting company. But Robyn now says she wants to “give back to the manufacturing sector” what it “gave” her. He created a marketing company that directly connects Chinese factories with foreign audiences, through videos on Instagram and TikTok, platforms blocked in China but accessible with a virtual private network (VPN) that many Chinese use.
China Promotion
A way of promoting their products that contrasts with that of their parents’ generation, who had to go through multiple intermediaries, who ate up their margins.
In her videos, Robyn presents China as an ideal manufacturing destination. We see her in front of the assembly lines, explaining the country’s situation in this area, but also on the streets of Shanghai, praising local cuisine.
His parents founded the company in the 1990s, riding the wave of entrepreneurship sweeping China with major economic reforms launched a decade earlier. China then became the factory of the world.
But rising wages and tensions with the United States have made other countries such as Cambodia and Bangladesh increasingly attractive to international clients. Not to mention the weakness of consumption in recent years. Result: The Qiu family lost contracts.
But it has adapted, investing in more modern machinery or manufacturing its own products, rather than simply producing parts for its customers.
“Changerdai”
Like Robyn Qiu, another influencer, Rose Law, daughter of the owner of a cosmetics factory in the province of Guangdong (southern), hopes with her activity to have a “positive influence on the sector.” Responsible for product development for the family business, he also launched his own brand of shampoos.
Many were simple subcontractors and had to fight. But these days, having your own brand means more stable income, he says. Therefore, “being seen” on social networks is “very important,” he emphasizes. According to Robyn Qiu, the 29-year-old influencer, she has been contacted by more than 500 buyers since May and has 150,000 subscribers on Instagram.
These women are what we in China call “changerdai” (“daughters of factory bosses”), an expression reminiscent of another very popular one: “fuerdai” (“daughters of the rich”). Much of the content produced by this young generation has gone viral.
On Instagram, the company LC Sign, from Canton (south), which produces illuminated signs, has gained half a million subscribers with videos in which a young man creates imitations of Donald Trump. On Chinese social media, a short film titled “The Towel Empire,” produced by a towel factory “changerdai,” has racked up billions of views.
Source: BFM TV
