“Good afternoon, this is Nurguli. Today, I wanna recommend you my favourite snacks- Xiangjiang dates and walnuts. I’m obsessed with these dates. They are super sweet because Xinjiang has longer daylight and its temperature varies from day to night,” Nurguli Mamuti was live-streaming at the broadcast room of Jiangguoguo Agriculture Co. LTD (Jiangguoguo), a company located in Shufu, a County of Kashgar Xinjiang Province.

Nurguli is promoting Xinjiang dates and walnuts using live-stream service. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

Nurguli took up this job in May 2019, and now she has up to 100 thousand audiences per day, earning more than 10 thousand yuan per month. Jiangguoguo, the company she is working for, has moved into a new industrial park. It has been equipped with a sterilized workshop and automatic packaging machines, which boosts its daily output to 100’s of thousands.

These changes are brought by the Guangdong aid project which has been actively supporting local agricultural enterprises to expand their businesses through e-commerce.

“The e-commerce and live-streaming models enable people around the country to gain more knowledge about Xinjiang,” said Nurguli. The 25-year old woman has never left Kashgar, but the live-streaming business gives her a purpose to promote the tasty Xinjiang fruits and its indigenous culture, “I’m looking forward to more visitors coming to Xinjiang.”

Nurguli gives a Xinjiang dance performance during her live-streaming. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

Talking about her first trial of live-streaming, Nurguli giggled and said it was a complete “disaster”. “I broadcast outdoor in the Kashgar Old Town with lots of visitors passing by and looking at me. I stared at my cellphone and was too nervous to say anything.”

Since then, Nurguli has been working hard to better her live-streaming skills, learning from Li Jiaqi and Weiya, the best salesman and saleswoman using live-stream services in China. She also reads books about Xinjiang tourist attractions, culture and food out loud during weekends so that she can gain knowledge while improving her mandarin.

“My live-streaming lasts 3 to 4 hours everyday,” said Nurguli, ”I usually start at 5 o’clock in the afternoon. Before that, I have meetings with the R&D and marketing teams on the products that I need to promote everyday, then I have to remember all the product details.”

Apart from selling products, Nurguli considers it’s critical to interact with audience and tighten the emotional bond with them. “My followers love my singing and dancing. I often give a performance every 30 minutes and sometimes have dancing ‘battles’ with other influencers to attract new fans.”

Nurguli is livestreaming in front of a apricot tree. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

Nurguli is live-streaming at a factory showing her followers how the dry dates are being processed after harvesting. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

“I gained lots of inspiration through the interaction with my followers. This is the best part of live-streaming. One of my fans asked me about how the fruits are plant and harvested in Xinjiang, which inspired me to start live-steaming in our farms and factories. I can give them authentic views of Kashgar and enhance their confidence in our products. The soaring sales volume tells me- This works,” Nurguli said proudly.

The relationship with followers is not the only emotional bond Nurguli achieved through live-streaming. She met his fiancée, Feng Zhengwen, at Jiangguoguo. Feng Zhengwen, a young man from Henan province, fell in love with Nurguli at the first sight. Then he sought every chance to talk with Nurguli and support her live-streaming job. “He is honest and reliable. I hope the pandemic could end soon so that we can hold our wedding in the near future,”said Nurguli. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

“Nurguli impressed us with her appearance and fluent mandarin at the interview,” said Zhang Wenjun, General Manager of Jiangguoguo, “the company was at a transition period and urgently looking for an online salesperson to develop the e-commerce business. Although Nurguli is new to this sector, she is rather competitive as there has been few Xinjiang ethnic minorities working as influencers so far.”

“With the help of Guangdong aid project, our company is the first to reach 100 thousand daily output in Shufu,” said Chen Wenjun, “we established in 2015 and met difficulties raising the sales volume. Having known our situation, the aid project encouraged us to move into the industrial park where they provide advantage policies for land rent, taxation and more. They also actively supported us to develop e-commerce.”

Jiangguoguo is located at the Silk Road Economic Cooperation Zone, a Guangdong aid project in Shufu. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

According to Chen Wenjun, the company had its turnover hit 80 million yuan last year and helped increase the income of 4000 local farmers. “We recruit about 150 local employees with an average monthly salary of more than 3 thousand yuan. Some of our best salesmen are Uyghurs and their annual salaries can reach 200 thousand yuan.”

Jiangguoguo creates jobs for local workers. [PhotoNanfang Daily]

Jiangguoguo is one of the many companies supported by the Guangdong aid project. As of today, more than 1,200 exhibition centers, chain stores and retail stores have been set up in Guangdong to promote Xinjiang agricultural products. Kashgar successfully sold more than 280-thousand-ton agricultural products through these stores. The aid project also organized Kashgar companies to attend a series of agricultural expos and helped them seal 181 projects worth 3.578 billion yuan with Guangdong companies.

“I gain huge support from the Guangdong aid project to sell Xinjiang products on live-streaming platforms. I hope I could be a professional influencer in the future,” said Nurguli, “my income has improved the life of my family. I saw the famous Xinjiang actress, Tong Liya, promoted Xinjiang on national TV shows and I would like to do the same. I want to visit places outside Kashgar and introduce my beautiful hometown to more people around the country.”

 

Supervisors: Wang Xiyong, Luo Yanjun

Planners: Zheng Jiaxin, Wu Zhe

Reporters: Peng Lin, Li He, Liu Qiang

Translators: Zhang Ying, Yin Juewen, Jerry Grey 

Interns:Li Yuan, Shen Beifeng

Cameramen: Zhang Di, Li He

Editors: Wan Wenlong

Poster Designers: Tan Wei, Pan Jie