China's second-generation factory owners go digital to combat challenges

Second-generation factory owners in China, like Robyn Qiu, leverage digital skills to revitalize manufacturing amid rising challenges.

Robyn Qiu (29) cut an incongruous figure in her parents' dusty, hangar-like metal hardware factory in eastern China as she gestured excitedly while an assistant filmed her on a smartphone.

The 29-year-old is one of many second-generation factory owners fighting to elevate the country's manufacturing sector, pitting digital native skillsets against the rising costs and geopolitical tensions pushing clients abroad.

Qiu said she grew up with "the noise of machines running day and night", but working in manufacturing was not always her first choice. When Qiu was a child, her parents encouraged her to aim for a white-collar office job far from the dust and din of the factory floor.

"Even when they were starting the factory, their goal for me, their expectation for me is to really get a good education and break out of the cycle of farmers," Qiu said of her parents, who come from agricultural communities.

But after years spent working in consulting, the Yale-educated Qiu now feels she has "this very strong responsibility to give back to manufacturing".

Qiu has set up a marketing business that directly connects factories with foreign audiences, through videos posted on Instagram and TikTok, which in China can only be accessed using a VPN.

It's a stark contrast from the way earlier generations conducted business, often with many middlemen and at the mercy of major buyers.