Former English teacher starts thriving woodwork business

Fang Hong (R3) displays wooden artifacts along with her colleagues. (Photo provided by the interviewee)

"It took me 18 years to get out of this mountainous area. But later, it took me just a few days to make the decision to come back," said Fang Hong, who has been producing exquisite wooden handiworks in her hometown for seven years.

Fang, born in Xiangchang town, Yuexi country, east China's Anhui Province, worked as an English teacher in Shanghai after graduating from university. In 2013, when Fang went to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou on a business trip, she visited the 114th China Import and Export Fair that was being held there out of curiosity.

At the fair, Fang noticed that wooden handicrafts, ranging from cabinets and furniture to trash cans and flower baskets, had gained wide popularity among overseas customers. However, she also found that the raw materials of these wooden handiworks were mostly confined to wicker and rattan, giving them a monotonous appearance.

To tap the market potential, Fang decided to return to Anhui and start a handicraft company, as her hometown has a long tradition of weaving baskets or other farm instruments and is home to more skilled craftsmen.

During her entrepreneurial journey, Fang consulted many wood experts and collected multiple raw materials in an effort to find out the most suitable ones for producing the artware.

"In my eyes, rice straw, Zizania caduciflora straw, paulownia and corn coating are all excellent raw materials for making handicrafts," recalled Fang, who also made use of the tree branches that are pruned locally every year.

Meanwhile, after meticulously studying foreign trade export procedures and identifying what overseas customers wanted, Fang set up a designated design and sales team to optimize her product design. Her efforts finally paid off when she secured an order worth $2.47 million.

In recent years, Fang's team has developed straw, bamboo, wood and rattan products with nearly 3,000 different styles, which have been sold to more than 30 countries and regions, including the U.S., the U.K., Italy, Germany and South Korea.

When talking about her company's future development plans, Fang revealed that she intends to place more emphasis on the domestic market.

"Recently, I have been busy with sales in our domestic market. If I can make a contribution to the revitalization of the rural areas, all my hard work will have been worth it,” she said.