I met with Liu Yuemiao in November 2014, in an office building in the CBD area in Changsha’s Wuyi Square. Meicuiyuan Jewelry Company, covering an area of a few hundred square meters, is just one of the companies he founded. In a corner of the store, he made a pot of warm Dahongpao tea, and handed over his bestselling novel Bet Stone”.
A Confucian Businessman of the Time with Huxiang Cultural Character
The staff of Meicuiyuan Jewelry Company wear warm smiles and smart clothes, a testament to Liu’s managerial level. “Enrolling myself in the Department of Chinese Language and Literature of RTVU has equipped me with an entrepreneurial zeal. It has also made me value enterprise culture. All of the companies I own have newspapers available for the staff to study and exchange ideas.” Liu continued,” Loving literature helps you to broaden your knowledge and your mind.”
Huxiang culture (the culture of Hunan Province) goes back to ancient times and it has benefited and influenced many generations. Liu’s grandfather was a teacher at an old-style private school and his father was an undergraduate in the 1950s. This family environment made Liu gentle and cultured. He is quite different from the standard image of a businessman.
“I started as a street vendor in the 1980s. People who love literature always chose to be engaged in a cultural business. At that time I chose to sell books. I would spread a layer of plastic on the ground and put my books on it, but the road was earth and the books got stained easily.” Liu sipped his tea and described his entrepreneurship, “I used my head and an idea came out. I moved over some wood planks and stools and placed the books on them so my consumers could browse books without squatting. This helped to increase my sales a lot. Afterwards, I founded Sanyou Bookstore, the first book store run by an individual in Xinhua County, Hunan Province.”
I first became interested in Liu after reading his brief introduction in Bet Stone: “Liu Yuemiao, pseudonym Yi Zhi, was born during the period of the Great Leap Forward. He worked as a peasant, a worker, an official, and also as a wanderer and a monk. Finally, he decided to give in to the temptation of the business world. He is now Chairman of the Board of a group of companies.”
“The novel Bet Stone” is based on my experiences in the jewelry industry. In the mid-to-late 1980s, I was involved in the trade of jade and bet-stone emeralds in Mandalay and Yangon in Burma.” Liu had acute business sense, “When I came back to my hometown to visit my parents in 1987, I unexpectedly found that my hometown Xinhua County didn’t even have one jewelry store with a complete product line. There was no business for jade, diamond, silver and other jewelry.”
In the beginning of 1988, Liu sold his jewelry store in Mandalay. He rented a counter in Meicheng City Shopping Centre in Xinhua County and opened the County’s first jewelry shop, including gold, jade, diamond, silver and pearls. After half a year, he rented another counter in Daqiao Shopping Mall and opened his second jewelry shop, with the name Jinyutang. After he received a gold business certificate from the Hunan Province People’s Bank of China at the end of 1990, he renamed jewelry shops Jinyutang Gold Jewelry. In the 24 years since, the stores have been a leading enterprise in Xinhua’s jewelry industry. At its peak it grew to three shops.
In his spare time, Liu has carried out research on jewelry theory and culture. He has written dozens of articles, of which seven have been published in state-level jewelry periodicals. Due to his contribution to the jewelry industry and his reputation, he has acted as a member of the China Gold Association for several successive sessions, and as president of the Xinhua Jewelry Industry Association.
A Passion for Reading, a Destiny at the RTVU
“Song Dynasty littérateur Ou Yangxiu said that there are three places for reading: on a horse, on a pillow and on the toilet. That was my answer when I was asked how I fit in time to read while I was giving a speech at a university a couple of years ago.”
The reopening of the college entrance examination in 1977 opened a door for Liu. At that time, he had been sent down to Yaojia Town to live in his grandpa and grandma’s house. In those days his grandpa was paralyzed in bed but his three sons were not staying with him. The responsibility fell on Liu’s shoulders.
“I had to prepare for the exam while serving my grandpa day and night. After entering the exam room, I fell asleep because I was over tired.” Looking back at his two exam experiences, Liu sighed, “During the entrance exam in 1978, I had to take care of my mother in hospital after she had an operation in Changsha. As a result, I once again lost the chance to enter college.”
The early 1980s was a time of cultural, literature and scientific renaissance. At that time, Chinese people were eager to learn. The first session of the Chinese language and literature major of Hunan RTVU began to recruit students in 1982. However, back then there was no RTVU teaching class in Xinhua County. Instead, there was only a spare-time university, where Liu studied.
“After learning that the Chinese language and literature major of Hunan RTVU had begun to recruit students, all my classmates expected to be enrolled in it. The teacher in charge of the spare-time university asked for instructions from the Education Commission in the county to stop running the spare-time university. All students were transferred into a refresher class to prepare for the RTVU entrance exam”, Liu said. “That sort of mass enthusiasm is hard to imagine today. Among the exam candidates, most had been delayed by the Cultural Revolution.
“The RTVU was close to home and adopted a flexible credit system. These were major considerations for student who had a job and a family like me. There was a work-study programme being carried out at the time. During the programme, students went to classes in the morning and work in the afternoon, and returned home at night to take care of their children. Many of the students would bring their baskets of vegetables to study and go straight to the vegetable market after work in the afternoon.” The memories are still fresh in Liu’s mind: “At that time I was doing a measurement job at an urban construction office in Xinhua County. After I finished taking measurements in the mountains, I would recite poems such as “Foreword to Teng Wang Ge Foreword” and “Orange Island” in turn with my classmates, holding weights on our shoulders at the same time. If anyone couldn’t recite them completely he would have to do push-ups or treat the others to a meal. This helped to foster a good learning atmosphere.”
A Glorious Return, Giving Back to his Alma Mater
In 1983, Liu won third prize in a writing competition organized by Hunan RTVU. This encouraged him to step onto the path to literary creativity. In 2014, Liu came back to his Alma after more than 28 years and set up the Yue Miao Award Fund for literary creativity.
“Contributing money to the university is a common action both at home and abroad. I underwent many hardships when I was studying at the RTVU and there are many impoverished students still studying there today. I want to help others who are confronting the same difficulties as me,” Liu said, demonstrating the admirable demeanor of a successful entrepreneur. “I established this fund to help the literature-loving students of Hunan RTVU be recognized for their literary creativity, and give them the impetus to continue writing. I hope that it will produce many writers and many other literary award winners.”
After graduation, he was a teacher for a while before resigning to work in private industry. Since then, he has published more than ten literary works, including the novel Bet Stone, the collection of historic and current prose works “A Mirror through the Ages”, the poetry collection “Realizing Dreams Collection”, the collection of speeches “Cai Gen Tan”, the collection of motivational essays “Dreams and Glory”, and the spiritual prose works “Where is the Coast?”, “Where is the Heart?” and “Where is the Dream?”. Three other prose works, “Act as An Elder”, “The Short Flute and the Long Bamboo Shoot” and “Pile of Brocade Ash”, are currently being published.
Liu’s works are mostly based on the life he sees around him, which is simple and full of character. His abundant life experience and strong moral character are apparent throughout his works. His words are just like him: kind and placid.
The Yue Miao Literary Award is a continuation of my literary dream, since my many companies and properties prevent me from retiring.” When the interview was coming to an end, Liu could be heard repeatedly sighing, “How good it is to love literature!”
By Yu Minsheng from the OUC