Jing Xuhua—A Loving Mother Triumphs at Home and in Business

Abstract

Qingdao has always evoked for me images of Bavaria. Although the Germans only occupied this coastal city from 1898 to 1914, there is a surprising amount of German architecture, including the iconic St. Michael’s Cathedral. And Chinese today prize beer from the Tsingdao Brewery, which was started in 1903 as Germania Brewery, and is now China’s No. 2 beer producer.

Qingdao has always evoked for me images of Bavaria. Although the Germans only occupied this coastal city from 1898 to 1914, there is a surprising amount of German architecture, including the iconic St. Michael’s Cathedral. And Chinese today prize beer from the Tsingdao Brewery, which was started in 1903 as Germania Brewery, and is now China’s No. 2 beer producer.

But since July 2019, Qingdao would forever bring to my mind how a widow mother’s love and passion not only helped her save her family but also start a very successful real estate business. She knew nothing about real estate and had to read books to understand buyers’ simplest questions. Today, the 52-year-old entrepreneur has over 200 employees and her next goal is starting schools to help the next generation (Fig. 3.1).

“I came from a common family,” Xuhua said. “They were all railway workers, and my grandfather drove trains for the Japanese when he was young. After graduation from high school in 1986, I was very proud to become a conductor on our local railway and wear the conductor’s uniform and cap. But when I married two years later, I left the railway to have children and take care of my family.”

Xuhua worked for a year at an army guesthouse’s front desk and then sought a job at a new dry-cleaning center. She worked there a couple of years after her training in Nanjing on the new technology. “Life was good,” she said, “until my husband was killed in a car accident and I was left alone with a five-year-old daughter.”

While still reeling from losing her husband, she also lost her job. “Many companies were reducing staff, and since I was taking care of my child, they laid me off.”

Xuhua was completely broke and at her wits end when, as a last resort, she left her beloved five-year-old with her parents and sought work in Japan.

“Life in Japan was so hard,” she said. “I was far from home and missed my daughter so much. The language was very hard, and my Japanese was poor.” In 2001, Xuhua finally returned home, only to discover she could no longer cope with the harsh winters of northeast China, so she moved to Qingdao when a friend told her that its climate and weather were similar to Japan’s.

“It was very hard for an unskilled widow with a child to find a job, so I started my own business. A friend who built houses let me sell them, even though I knew nothing about real estate — not even the most basic sales and technical terms — I read a lot of books, so that people would think that I knew what I was doing.”

“One client asked me about the internal area of a house,” Xuhua said, laughing. “I had no idea what that meant. But I was sincere and honest, and I was careful to tell my clients both the advantages and disadvantages of a property, the location, etc. My sincerity won their trust, and they bought from me. Today, my employees receive professional training from around the country. None are trained in-house. But I’m like the company’s mother and I myself make sure that they learn morals and ethics — how to be humans.”

Xuhua has been doing Qingdao real estate for two decades, and her daughter, now 28, also lives with her. “I started with a team of four sales people,” she said. “And as we made money, I slowly expanded to 20 people, and now have over 200. I’ve come to love this industry — especially once I learned what I was doing! I learned a lot not only from developers and builders but also from my teams’ energetic young people. My life has been hard, but I have had rich experiences.”

“You seem very passionate about real estate,” I said.

“I am,” she said. “In addition to the profits, there are many intangible benefits.”

“What sort of benefits?” I asked.

“Friends, for one thing! I had only one phone contact when I moved here. Today, I have 4,700 people — all of whom have become my friends.”

“Your clients are all friends?”

“Yes, because unlike many other companies, ours is truly family-oriented sales. Our goal is of course to sell as much as we can but not at the expense of our clients’ interest. For example, some clients want to buy many houses in one area but this is very risky. Even though we’d make big profits selling them, we first did a risk assessment before we agreed to sell them. Customers were moved because they saw we didn’t just push sales blindly but tried to protect their interests. Over time these customers have become our friends.”

“It sounds like you have a mother’s heart for your clients too!” I said.

“Yes,” Xuhua said. “Although we are not as professional as some large companies, we are studying hard. We have a unique sales concept, which is family love. This is why I fell in love with this industry. We’ve made some small achievements, but money cannot buy such joy, and the longer I do this, the more I like it.”

“Over the past 20 years, China has changed a lot, and you’ve changed with it. What do you think of the future?”

“The future will be even better,” Xuhua said. “Because we keep evolving and expanding. At first we sold only new homes but now we also sell or lease pre-owned homes. Our team is divided into several sections and branches, with more than 230 branches in Huangdao, and we have special teams for real estate planning and marketing.”

“Do you think you will ever go to other places or stay here in Qingdao?” I asked.

“So far, we have more than we can handle right here,” she said. “Qingdao is a tourist city and its rapid development, especially on Huangdao, creates so much business.”

Although Xuhua was optimistic about her economic future, she had some qualms about how China’s newfound wealth had brought about some changes in values, especially among the youths.

“When I was young, we were just ordinary people with a traditional education,” she said. “But we were united and everyone helped each other. Neighbors were very close. If you needed soy sauce while cooking, you could borrow it, or anything else you needed, from a neighbor. When I went abroad, I found that neighbors did not help each other, or even talk to each other.”

“It’s not the same today?” I asked.

Xuhua sighed. “Some families still pass on fine family traditions, but some youths seem more self-absorbed today. They bolt their doors and don’t care about others. But today’s youths are certainly not lazy! Chinese are very energetic and keen for the future. They have a clear vision and work hard to achieve it. They know you reap what you sow (种瓜得瓜). Even the son of a wealthy friend does his own chores instead of letting the maid do it. I asked why and he said, ‘In this fiercely competitive society, I have to learn not to rely on my parents.’”

“Why are Chinese youths so competitive?” I asked.

“Good policies,” she said without hesitation. “If policies are good, hard work pays off and you can improve your life. Even some state-owned companies have changed by giving workers shares in the company to motivate them. In other words, as long as you use your abilities to the full, you can lead a happy life.”

Xuhua paused, and said, “Maybe you think I am preoccupied with money? But for youths today, if their salary increases a little this month, they will be very happy, and next month’s work status will improve. Money is now the economic foundation. The mechanisms and systems have changed, people are motivated to work hard — unlike the iron rice bowl days when everyone received income whether they worked or not. Before the iron rice bowl days, the older generation in northeast China used to say that ‘the bolder people are, the more productive their land!’”

“I’m glad that Chinese youths are so competitive, but what about their lack of concern for those around them? The entire world faces this problem with youths. How do we solve it?”

Xuhua brightened. “Well, one of my dreams is to start a school — and youths need much more than just book knowledge. Parents tend to focus on exams and grades but other things are also important. They need social skills. They need to learn to be human before they can do anything else.”

“How do they learn these skills?” I asked.

“I think the priority is people skills, a great part of which they can even learn from teacher-student interactions,” Xuhua said. “And learning about Chinese traditional culture. We must improve education, so that it imparts more than just theory, which can stilt a child’s growth. For example, a book can only portray an abstract concept of politeness, but thanks to our Chinese tradition, many people have known since their youths the principle of respecting the old and loving the young, and this has been passed down from generation to generation. I think this is critical.”

“I hope you do start your school,” I said. “It’s interesting that many of my Chinese friends who have risen from poverty to riches are also using much of their money for education. From this perspective, China has not changed in centuries, because Chinese have always valued education.”

Xuhua nodded in agreement. “It’s a big dream to start a school, and I don’t know if I can achieve this, but I’ll do my best. I have spent four years gaining a preliminary understanding of the education industry’s market and statistics. My dream is a school that emphasizes children’s moral education, intellectual education and physical education. And I’m asking my UK friends to help. I’d like to hire UK teachers to share their rich experience here, and by coming here they can better understand China.”

“I hope it works,” I said. “As Xi Jinping said 20 years ago when he was our Fujian governor, ‘We need to do a better job of telling China’s story because Chinese have come to know the world but the world still doesn’t know China.’”

Telling China’s Story to the World.

“I hope to help the world better understand China,” Xuhua said. “When I went to Japan in 1995, even though I was from a very common family, my life had not been as bad as the Japanese imagined. A Japanese showed me a piece of candy, and asked if I’d ever had any, and others asked if we had electricity in our home! They said much of what they learned about China was from CCTV documentaries, many of which were about China’s impoverished and remote areas. They quite naturally assumed all of China was like that. I finally asked my family to mail me some photos, so that Japanese people could see what China was really like. They were surprised to learn that by the 1990s, many families even had TVs and refrigerators. They thought China was still a very poor and dark place.”

“How can we help the world better understand China?” I asked.

Xuhua laughed. “For me, I feel like writing to CCTV to ask why their programs so often show foreigners the darker side of China — the poverty, the need for Hope Schools, etc. We need more programs to reassure the world about such things as Chinese integrity in business.”

“I agree,” I said. “The world needs to see China is changing. But many people are afraid of a prosperous, rapidly changing China?”

“Yes, China’s rapid development frightens many people,” Xuhua said. “Perhaps because their own countries are not changing! I have visited many countries, including the UK, Australia, Canada and so on. Even as a child, I imagined that life in those countries must be good — like heaven — so I was not surprised by what I saw. But when I visited again years later, almost nothing had changed because they were complacent. China is different, though. While foreign countries’ lack of change shocked me, foreigners are shocked by China’s rapid changes. But we enjoy such change because our leaders give priority to improving people’s livelihood. They give us much support, especially in business, and we Chinese seize these opportunities.”

“But should China’s big changes frighten foreigners?” I asked.

“I think there is nothing to be afraid of,” Xuhua said. “Chinese are very friendly and practical. If we become strong, we will help foreigners hand in hand; if foreigners are strong, we will humbly learn from them. Either way, we will work together.”

I agree. And if China continues to produce entrepreneurs like Xuhua, I’m confident that the world will be glad to work hand in hand with Chinese.

Fig. 3.1

Prof. William Brown interviewing entrepreneur Jing Xuhua in Qingdao, Shandong on July 5, 2019. Photo by Zhu Qingfu