“In just three months, he looked like a totally different person after I helped him to do e-commerce livestreaming,” Huang Wei, better known as Viya, one of Chinese top e-commerce live-streamers, shared her stories about getting people in rural areas out of poverty in a recent interview with GDToday.

(Photo provided to Newsgd.com)

“In the beginning, I joined a charity activity by chance, which gave me lots of inspiration to do more charity after more and more fans started to follow me. I would love to do something meaningful with my influence. And then the more charity I did the more it became a part of my life,” Viya told GDToday the reason why she started her career on poverty alleviation.

Teach someone to fish rather than give someone fish.

“All the moments and people I’ve met on my way to do poverty alleviation in rural areas just flashed through my mind like a movie,” said Viya when asked which moment or person impressed her most.

She said that she met a farmer in Shanxi province last year when COVID-19 still rampant in lots of cities in China. The farmer was plagued by dried persimmons stuck in a warehouse. “He burst into tears for 10 minutes long the moment he saw me, because he said I was his last hope and he had been too stressful by those unsold dried persimmons due to pandemic. But just in three months, he looked like a totally different person after I helped him to do livestreaming and sell his products online. He even opened his own e-commerce company and started to buy rural products from other farmers to sell online. That really inspired me to do more valuable things to help others lift out of poverty and benefit the society,” said Viya with emotion.

By teaching skills to support oneself in a long run, Viya has been to many rural areas in Yunnan, Anhui, Hunan, Qinghai, Zhejiang to help farmers know more about e-commerce, how to attract more fans and consumers, and how to operate a brand.

Having done several livestreams to sell products in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Area (GBA), Viya expressed her hope for the further cooperation with GBA, “The products in GBA are very diversified, from fruits to high-tech products. In the next step, I plan to do more on the building of Guangzhou’s IP and dig out more vivid stories behind products.”

Reporter: Rofel

Editor: Keane, Jerry