by Xinhua writers Cao Kai, Wang Linyuan and Liu Jinhui
ZHENGZHOU, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Xue Rong is an anomaly on Huajiao, the live streaming platform.
Unlike the majority of live-streaming stars who prefer style over content to woo their viewers, the 59-year-old entrepreneur promotes Communist Party of China (CPC) ideals, making her stand out among the usual crowd of youthful live streamers.
Xue, who is the founder and Party secretary of Yuanfang Group, a cleaning company that employs 42,000 people, was initially hesitant when her assistant first proposed that she should try live streaming.
"How can I compete with these pretty upstarts?" said Xue.
To her surprise, her first live streaming on Feb. 22, which explored "How to be a Party member," was watched by 31,000 people. The popularity gave her the courage to continue.
So far, she has hosted 120 episodes of "Secretary Xue's Cloud Party Class," almost one a day. She streams from her office, home, on the train or in the car, or in various auditoriums where she gives speeches.
Xue, who established her cleaning business in 1994 after being made redundant by a state-owned hotel, integrates inspiring personal stories into her Party class. The unusual mix has made her a hit with young viewers, many have said she is an inspiration for budding entrepreneurs.
Each show has racked up an average 100,000 views. Some of her fans give her virtual gifts, such a sedan or a doll that can be exchanged into cash. So far she has collected more than 780,000 huajiao coins, equal to about 111,000 yuan (about 16,000 U.S. dollars).
Often called "Mamma Xue" by her fans, she plans to use the money as seed capital for young entrepreneurs and to help the disabled.
Xue has been busy ahead of July 1, the 96th anniversary of the founding of the CPC. She traveled to seven cites in five provinces in the past week, giving speeches at the invitation of some CPC municipal committees.
Yuanfang Group set up a Party branch in 2002. It currently has 457 Party members, many of whom hold executive posts. Xue joined the Party in 2003 and became the company's Party secretary in 2006.
PARTY BUILDING MAKES DIFFERENCE
The CPC highly values party building, but previously the overwhelming majority of party organizations were at government agencies and state-owned enterprises. Now, the tide has turned and many private sector firms now have Party organizations.
Such a trend was enabled by philosophical changes of the CPC. In November 2002, "The Three Represents" were included in the Party Constitution at the 16th Party Congress, which saw party membership broadened to absorb outstanding personnel from the non-governmental sector, which employs most of China's work force and is the engine of China's economic growth.
There are no exact figures about how many CPC members there are in the millions of private firms across China. A report in July 2016 from the organization department of the CPC Beijing municipal committee shows that about 82 percent of the 103,000 private enterprises in the capital city have CPC branches.
"CPC members come forward bravely in case of difficulties," said Xue, who was accepted as a CPC member in 2003 amid the SARS epidemic.
In the spring of 2003, more than 2,000 Yuanfang employees worked as cleaners and security guards in 82 hospitals, the most high risk zones at that time. Yuanfang's CPC members volunteered to keep working in hospitals.
Xue has been promoting Party building since then and combines it with the company's management as she considers party building key to help unite people together. So far all the general managers of its 39 affiliated companies are CPC members.
Yuanfang is a Party building pioneer. It has a monthly magazine, a website, microblog, a Wechat account and live streaming platform on party building. It even launched a party building institution for NGOs in November and provides one-five day courses.
"In fact, the more than 100,000 people we have trained are all our potential customers," said Xue.
Yuanfang's sales revenue reached 1.2 billion yuan in 2016. Xue plans to build a 1,000-square-meter China Toilet Museum in its new industrial park that is expected to be completed by 2017 with an investment of 200 million yuan.
"No matter how far we go, we need to remember where we started," said Xue.
