Chen Guifang: A Contemporary Hua Mulan on the Road to Prosperity

    "Who says women are inferior to men? As long as we learn science and understand technology, we can equally shoulder heavy responsibilities." This is what Chen Guifang, a young woman living in Pinggu District, said, and this is also what she did. For several years, one could often see a woman bustling about: not tall in stature, slightly plump, dignified in manner, her eyes sparkling with wisdom, her delicate face always beaming with a confident smile. She proved this point through her own practical actions. Relying on her own courage and faith, she worked hard to forge a path to prosperity through science and technology, and has become a leader on the road to prosperity for the broad masses of rural women, composing with her own hands and heart a moving anthem leading women out of poverty toward prosperity and a moderately comfortable life. 

Chen Guifang is from Dongshuangying Village, Machangying Town, Pinggu District, and is 39 years old. There are five people in her family: her parents-in-law, both over seventy, and a lively and lovely daughter. She and her husband went to work with peace of mind every day. Although life was not wealthy, it was harmonious and happy.

In recent years, her parents-in-law fell ill one after another. Her mother-in-law, who could manage household chores and look after the child, became bedridden and also required long-term medication. Misfortunes never come singly. In March 2001, because her work unit was performing poorly, she was laid off. The heavy burden of the family suddenly fell upon her, making the already modest household even more financially strained.

The strong-willed Chen Guifang was not intimidated by these difficulties. Instead, she began a continuous journey of seeking her own path to prosperity.

Although the cultivation and sale of flowers had long been a mature industry in big cities, in rural areas it was still a sunrise industry just getting started. In January 2002, she attended a flower cultivation training course organized by the town's family planning office. Through learning, she was deeply inspired, feeling that devoting herself to the flower industry would offer great market space and substantial profits, and therefore came up with the idea of growing flowers in greenhouses. At the same time, this idea received strong support from her family. That spring, she contracted ten mu of land and, with the strong support of the town government's family planning office and the village committee, built two modern greenhouse sheds. She planted 3,000 rose bushes, 1,000 cyclamen plants and 6,000 Chinese rose plants, along with more than ten other flower varieties, with a total investment of over 60,000 yuan. 

In the process of growing flowers, she continuously participated in learning. She was always diligent in thinking, good at summarizing, and brave in innovating, never fussing over personal gains and losses. She improved her cultural knowledge, devoted herself to studying cultivation and management techniques, and committed herself to the testing, demonstration, research and promotion of new agricultural technologies. She actively participated in the women's training courses organized by the town's women's federation, never missing a single session. In the training courses she listened attentively, took careful notes, and asked whenever she did not understand. In order to master scientific cultivation techniques and market information, she also bought many books on flower cultivation and subscribed to quite a few newspapers and periodicals popularizing rural scientific and technological knowledge. She successfully developed a set of flower-growing experiences, dedicating her wisdom to "agriculture, rural areas and farmers."

Time and facts proved that her original decision was correct. In the years that followed, the production and sale of specialized flowers gradually flourished along with economic development. Activities such as weddings and funerals, visiting the sick, congratulating someone on a move, and holiday visits all depended on the demand for flowers. During some major holidays, there was even a hot scene of supply falling short of demand and both purchasing and sales thriving. A minute of cultivation brings a minute of harvest. By the end of the year, her flower sales reached over 40,000 yuan. Faced with this achievement, she was not satisfied. Instead, she calmly analyzed the situation. She discovered that because enormous market potential was attracting more and more people into the flower cultivation and sales industry, this was to a certain extent impacting Chen Guifang's market share. In order to work hard on the novelty and distinctiveness of her flowers, she conducted a comprehensive understanding of market conditions. After detailed market verification, in early 2003, with the village committee and town family planning office helping her raise 80,000 yuan from various sources, she built two more greenhouse sheds, expanded the planting area, and introduced new flower varieties, thereby opening up market channels, with annual profits reaching 70,000 yuan.

Over the years, in order to adapt to market demand, she continuously expanded her production area and renewed her varieties, following a "snowballing" development path. She became a well-known specialized flower grower far and wide. She also became a truly prosperous household in the village.

One flower blooming alone is not spring; a hundred flowers blooming together fill the garden with spring. Chen Guifang walked toward prosperity through her own hard work and wisdom. But she did not forget her fellow villagers. She encouraged women to walk the road to prosperity, passed on her experience, and answered their questions. To her sisters' requests, she always responded whenever asked. Many times she could not even eat a meal; as long as the phone rang, she would come whenever called, and her mobile phone was on 24 hours a day. To relieve her sisters' worries and give them peace of mind, for places they could not understand or follow, she would explain them repeatedly, and wrote out every question raised one by one on white paper. She also summarized the common disease prevention and treatment methods and solutions in the flower cultivation process into easy-to-understand mnemonics to help everyone remember, truly and sincerely doing good deeds and practical things for rural women. Under her leadership and help, some families in the village walked the road to prosperity. Under her influence, many people in Dongshuangying Village also began to take action, transforming their thinking and changing their approach. They changed from the previous single-crop farming model to a model of joint development in multiple forms. The planting varieties in the village were no longer uniform. In addition to the previously grown wheat and corn, they developed to today's joint development of soybeans, walnuts, shiitake mushrooms and more. Per capita income grew from more than 4,000 yuan a year previously to more than 8,500 yuan now.