At the beginning of the Year of the Dragon, Caoxian County in Heze, Shandong Province became popular again. Topics such as "Caoxian Horse Face Skirts sold for more than 300 million yuan during the Chinese New Year are still in short supply" and "College students return to Caoxian County to start a business" were frequently searched. So what exactly is the charm of Hanfu in Caoxian County? Let’s start with the entrepreneurial experience of Wei Pingan and his wife Wang Qingqing. The couple are college students who returned to Caoxian County in 2019 to start a business. Last year, the turnover from selling horse-faced skirts reached tens of millions.
How the horse-faced skirt became a sought-after "New Year shirt"
During the Spring Festival this year, sales of Hanfu, mainly horse-faced skirts, in Cao County exceeded 300 million yuan. Almost all Hanfu manufacturers in Caoxian County are operating at full capacity, and Wei Ping'an and his employees are working overtime day and night. This time, the two dragon-patterned horse-faced skirts produced by Wei Ping'an have become hits.
Wei Ping'an: Because this year's Chinese New Year is the Year of the Dragon, we specially designed two more beautiful horse-faced skirts with dragon patterns. Unexpectedly, both of them became popular. This one is more straightforward. It has a big dragon embroidered with some dragon patterns, and some flowers, peonies and the like.
These two dragon-patterned horse-faced skirts have brought huge profits to Wei Ping'an.
The horse-faced skirt originated in the Song Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It was the main skirt style for women in ancient China. The horse-faced skirt produced by Wei Ping'an is called the "New Year's greeting dress for the Year of the Dragon" by young people because of the dragon pattern added, and they have been placing orders one after another.
Wei Ping'an: They came to rush the goods. Our workers were stepping on the sewing machines, and the sewing machines started to smoke.
On the 28th of the twelfth lunar month, Wei Pingan had time to calculate the revenue for the year. And he couldn't be happier with the results.
Wei Pingan: Our turnover this year has exceeded 10 million.
Reporter: How do you feel?
Wei Ping'an: At that time, we didn't expect that we would grow so much this year. Later, the popularity became really high. Everyone wears Hanfu, especially during the peak tourist season. Everyone likes to wear horse-faced skirts when going out.
Wei Ping'an's wife Wang Qingqing: In the later stages of horse-faced skirts, what you make will never be enough to sell.
Young couples follow the "Hanfu trend" and return to their hometown to start a business
According to statistics, in 2023, Caoxian Hanfu will occupy 40% of the national market share. Five years ago, Wei Pingan and Wang Qingqing, who sensed the popularity of Hanfu, left their children in Dongying City, gave up their stable jobs, and resolutely returned to Wei Pingan's hometown, Caoxian County, to start a Hanfu business.
Wei Pingan said that the complete industrial chain was one of the important reasons that attracted him to return to his hometown to start a business. He suggested that we go to the fabric and accessories street. He said that we could make a Hanfu by walking 5 kilometers here empty-handed. And now this is still where he purchases fabrics and accessories.
In 2019, Wei Pingan invested 350,000 yuan to start his business. Here, he launched the first horse-face skirt, which made him earn his first pot of gold. However, as the number of orders increased, funds were stretched. At this time, the government's preferential loan of 800,000 yuan became a timely blessing for them.
Hanfu entrepreneurship is on the right track, driving neighbors to get rich together
The process of starting a business for the couple was not smooth sailing. In 2020, the three products they launched with great care were all unsaleable. At that time, paying off the loan as soon as possible was the couple's only wish. But when their careers were in trouble, the two did not give up. They worked harder to polish their products. While on an outing, the couple suddenly heard a ding-dong call from the online store on their mobile phones calling for customer service. Their big order for Hanfu had finally arrived.
In that month, they made 200,000. This huge order put their business on the right track. In order to speed up production and ensure quality, Wei Pingan and his uncle invested in a partnership to open their own embroidery factory. As orders continued to increase, they could no longer take on customer service duties, so they formed their own customer service team.
Reporter: What would you like to do if you started a business?
Customer Service Chen Luan: Maybe it’s performance clothes or Hanfu.
Reporter: Will working here help you start a business in the future?
Customer Service Chen Luan: Yes, you can learn a lot because our boss knows everything.
Among the young people who used to work as customer service here,Now two of them have resigned and started their own businesses.
Wei Ping'an's cousin is a young man born in the 2000s. With his encouragement, he also joined the army of Hanfu entrepreneurs.
Today, Wei Ping'an has become the "Encyclopedia of Hanfu Entrepreneurship", and many acquaintances want to "learn lessons" from him. The person who came to visit today is Wei Ping'an's college classmate. He also plans to give up his stable job in Dongying and return to Caoxian to start a business.
In the past two years, more than 20 young people have been led by Wei Pingan to join the Hanfu entrepreneurial industry. Wei Ping'an is experienced and willing to help others, so young people in the village are willing to stay with him and learn more.
Reporter: Don’t you think they will have an extra competitor when they start their own business after learning?
Wei Pingan: No, because what we think is that because of Caoxian Hanfu, we are still relatively united, and we hope that everyone will work together to make Caoxian Hanfu bigger and stronger. One person cannot make it big, only a group of people can make it big.
Hanfu "breaks the circle" and drives the industry to "expand the circle"
With the efforts of a group of original Hanfu entrepreneurs like Wei Ping'an, Cao County has slowly turned into an original Hanfu production base. Today, there are more than 2,280 Hanfu companies in Cao County and about 14,000 online stores. The number of original Hanfu processing companies has exceeded 90%. And the changes these young people have made to the Hanfu industry in Caoxian County don’t stop there. Wei Ping'an and the others are always therePlanning the next step of development.
Wei Pingan has his own plans for future development. This is the new factory he just rented last year. It is 600 square meters in size and has two floors. This is the most important part of his future planning.
Wei Pingan: We just rented a place after the Chinese New Year this spring. We plan to transform this place into our own supply chain system.
Compared with the old factory building, the new factory building is spacious and bright. It can be seen that Wei Pingan is full of confidence in the future development of the Hanfu industry.
A few days ago, I heard that an original Hanfu design team came to Caoxian County. Wei Pingan came here specially to contact them, hoping for the possibility of cooperation in the future.
The designer is a graduate student at Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology and is currently preparing to take the Ph.D. exam. Her main research direction is traditional Chinese costume design.
Wei Ping'an: If you have any questions about the pattern, you can ask her. For example, if we want to develop a new pattern, whether it is a complete restoration or an improved one, you may have a better understanding after consulting her.
Hanfu designer Xu Youwen: There are many mature brands abroad that are based on their own excellent culture, so I think this is the direction I want to pursue in the future.
Nowadays, more and more young people are returning to their hometowns to start businesses. In order to help these young entrepreneurs grow rapidly, the Cao County Government organizes training and exchanges every once in a while. On this day, Caoxian County's Hometown Entrepreneurship Office organized a Hanfu industry exchange meeting, inviting Wei Ping'an and several other successful people in the industry to teach everyone their experience.
This exchange covered everything from bringing goods in the live broadcast room to short video marketing. How to sell Hanfu in a way that young people like, this is what these young people who are preparing to start a business need to learn.
Zhang Longfei, Director of Caoxian County E-Commerce Service Center: Our online sales in 2023, Hanfu alone, exceeded 7.2 billion. Including our offline experience stores, we have about 181 Hanfu offline experience stores in Caoxian County. There has been a good harvest both online and offline, and the entire online retail sales have surged.It broke 10 billion.
Nowadays, more and more young people like Wei Pingan and his wife are returning to their hometown. They bring new ideas and new ideas. While they realize their self-worth by starting a business, they are also driving the vigorous development of the Hanfu industry in Cao County.
