E-commerce and Livestreaming Drive Rural Vitalisation in Manhe Village

A small, remote, mountainous village in Dongguang Town, Wangqing County, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, Manhe is blessed with fertile black soil and abundant natural resources. Beneficial climatic conditions, such as a large discrepancy between daytime temperatures and those at night and humid air, unique geographical resources, and experience with black fungus cultivation have enabled it to produce high-quality black fungus along with many of the other villages in Wangqing. Designated a "Home of Black Fungus" and a "Black Fungus Cultivation County" by the government, Wangqing produces around 35,000 tons of the crop and generates over RMB3 billion of output value per year as of 2021, and its Wangqing Black Fungus brand has obtained geographical indication certification status.

Issues such as low brand value, limited sales channels, and a lack of say in pricing decisions had hampered development of the county's black fungus industry for a long while until recently, however. The problem was especially serious in Manhe, which suffered from relatively low per capita incomes and living standards before a campaign designed to reduce poverty by boosting sales through e-commerce and livestreaming was launched.

The village did so in 2017 and began achieving greater prosperity soon after. In 2021, Yang Guang, director of Manhe village committee, noted that Jilin Province Ethnic Affairs Commission officials arranged for it to receive RMB10,000's worth of e-commerce equipment in 2017, including computers, printers, digital cameras, and other studio equipment. The village launched Wangqing Bee Garden – its first store on the Taobao e-commerce platform – in January 2018 after engaging in intensive preparations with the help of a poverty alleviation task force that was assisting it at the time, and its residents have been involved with e-commerce ever since.

In 2019, Jiang Fenghai became one of the first people in Manhe to open their own Taobao store when the poverty alleviation task force stationed in it introduced livestreaming to him. His journey to prosperity was not easy at first, however. Few people watched his livestreams in the beginning, and he generated little sales.

Strong and effective planning on the part of Manhe in conjunction with assistance provided by various poverty alleviation officials contributed to the 2019 iteration of Wangqing's annual Black Fungus Festival stimulating greater interest in the village's black fungus, however. Its black fungus retailers began logging a total of around RMB25,400 of sales per month online, and a solid foundation for e-commerce development in the village began to take shape, which made it possible for Jiang to turn the tide. Introducing wood ear products to viewers in his thick northeast accent became part of his daily routine and led to him generating considerable profits and becoming one of the county's e-commerce giants.

Manhe resident Zhou Yuhong has also benefited from livestreaming. Initially sceptical of e-commerce and confused about it, he eventually started spending several hours a day promoting his bee products on livestreaming platforms. The apiculturist did not receive any orders at first but was committed to persevering until he succeeded, which ended up taking more than two months. Turnover later surged to more than RMB2,000 of revenue a day during the 2020 Double 11 (a major shopping festival that takes place on and around November 11) and Double 12 (a similar festival held on and around December 12) periods and helped generate much greater interest in his products.

Once an obscure, lifeless village full of idle farmhouses that natives mostly migrated away from in order to access greater job opportunities, Manhe has evolved into a well-known e-commerce village where livestreaming is stimulating rural development.

Entire agricultural product value chains have been altered and reshaped by e-commerce and livestreaming to some extent in Manhe, which can be seen as a macrocosm of many parts of rural China with regard to online sales and its effects. The village's residents are now able to interact with thousands of consumers, have the say in the ultimate pricing decisions, and receive consumers' feedback and suggestions in a timely manner, which has motivated producers to improve product design and tailor tastes and packaging to consumers' demands.

Providing sufficient leadership and guidance is essential when promoting e-commerce development. Manhe's officials and young people were asked to get involved with the task of helping smartphones function as new agricultural tools, livestreaming become a new type of agricultural work, data be fully harnessed and utilised, and farmers modernise their undertakings, and those born in the 1970s have been encouraged to follow the examples that they set while older people are encouraged to assist in order to drive rural vitalisation.

Every effort has been made to train e-commerce leaders in order to facilitate the above. In July 2020, for example, Manhe officials participated in livestreaming training, which enabled them to, in turn, provide the village's residents with comprehensive hands-on training and inspire enthusiasm for the undertaking.

Thirty-two of the village's households have launched stores on Taobao, 5 of which have received at least one diamond on its one-to-five-diamond system, indicating that they have received a respective minimum of 251 positive feedback comments and even up into the thousands or higher, and 1 of which logs more than RMB100,000's worth of sales a year, as of 2021. More than 10 livestreaming events are held in Manhe every day, and people working for companies based in neighbouring villages have been visiting in order to ask for advice about launching their own Taobao stores. E-commerce has resulted in emerging occupations, such as cloud customer service provider and artificial intelligence trainer, appearing in rural areas, which has caused young people who are from such areas but had relocated to urban areas becoming interested in returning to the countryside and filling them. No longer lacking a concerted vitalisation strategy and relying on chance, Manhe has become a leading Wangqing e-commerce village and is much more prosperous than it was just a few years ago.

For more information, please contact WFP China COE (wfpcn.coe@wfp.org)