Chen Shihui: live-streaming for a better future for others

“Steamed, sliced, boiled…No matter how you prefer to cook, the pork sausage is going to make you go wow!”

Live-streaming to the camera is Chen Shihui, a Tsinghua alumna from the School of Economics and Management.

For Chen, livestreaming is one of her endeavors to help promote special and locally produced products from Gexin Village, a remote underprivileged area in southwest China’s Sichuan province, where she went to support poverty alleviation work.

The village, located 15 kilometers away from downtown Guang'an, has more than 430 households and 1,200 residents. In 2014, there were 24 poverty-stricken households in the village with a per capita annual income of just 1,400 yuan. Chen and her colleagues have been dedicated to improve the local livelihood since their arrival at the village. 



This career path is not exactly what Chen imagined while she was studying at Tsinghua, during which she spent a semester at the London School of Economics and Political Science, prepared interviews for consultancy agencies, and frequently donned tailor-made suits and exquisite high heels.



However, the multitude of diverse activities held on campus also provided her with ample opportunities to explore career alternatives. Things changed when she had an in-depth conversation with her predecessors who supported the development of rural China.

“ I’ve always been fascinated by cross-cultural activities. It made me question why I’ve neglected the nearly 600 million population of 'rural China' and its enchanting cultures.”
—    Chen Shihui


After Chen’s arrival to Gexin Village, she mainly focused on helping to improve the personal income of the locals by boosting the e-commerce market in the mountainous village. Last year, the village's e-commerce sales of agricultural products reached 600,000 yuan.


During the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year, the village’s agricultural products piled up. Chen and her colleagues spared no effort to find outlets, making more than 1,000 phone calls to discuss collaboration with various e-commerce platforms. 

At the same time, she began testing the waters in live-streaming and it worked like a charm. The lotus leaves growing by the river, the bacon sausage hanging from the beam, and the seasonal fruits sleeping on the branches… they all became top hits welcomed by urban dwellers.

So far, the village's e-commerce sales have doubled compared with the sales income of the whole of last year, reaching 1.2 million yuan.

Chen has become accustomed to her new work attire and causal sneakers. She is still in the Gexin Village, packing the harvest, negotiating deals, drawing up contracts, and helping the locals to embrace a better life.

“ It brings me a great sense of achievement after witnessing how the lives of these people have improved.”
—    Chen Shihui