Entrepreneur turned into a street vendor at 80 years old and then started a business in 10 years to pay off 20.77 million yuan in debt——"Integrity Grandma" and her big era
[China News reporter Li Tengfei reports] Recently, "92-year-old grandma sells down jackets on the street to repay debts" has become a hot search on Weibo. The protagonist is Chen Jinying, an "honest grandma" from Lishui, Zhejiang.
In the long history of China's reform and opening up, Chen Jinying is a private entrepreneur worth writing about.
After retiring to start a business, the company grew and went bankrupt, and then started a business after he was over eighty years old. He paid off the debt of 20.77 million yuan in 10 years by setting up roadside stalls... After experiencing ups and downs, Chen Jinying's trustworthiness and tenacity won the respect of the world, and won the 2018 The annual "National Top Ten Trustworthy Persons", the 2021 "Zhejiang Proud" person and other honors.
After the last debt was paid off, Chen Jinying started selling down jackets again. She wanted to get rid of the inventory and stop selling it next year.
She said "I want to take a break when I get older", but she plans to take the Chinese medicine certificate next time and continue to serve the society.
"Integrity grandma" Chen Jinying (right) helps customers choose clothes in a clothing store.
(Screenshot of the Douyin account "Beautiful Lishui" video)
Fighting the tide, she became a clothing entrepreneur
On December 4, the official Douyin account and video account "Meili Lishui" of the Lishui Municipal Government Information Office in Zhejiang Province released a video. In just 13 seconds, a hunched Chen Jinying, wearing a red velvet hat, stood Help customers choose clothes in front of a hanger that is about the same height as her.
Tired, she sat down, smiled, and looked at the crowd in the store trying on.
This is an ordinary video that cannot be more ordinary, but when it is accompanied by the title "I'm getting old, I have to rest", the legendary story of this 92-year-old "honest grandma" paying off 20.77 million yuan of debt in 10 years, Stirred people's thoughts again.
Under the video, some netizens left a message, "The old man wants to take a rest. This reminds me of Forrest Gump running to Monument Valley and suddenly stopped, saying that I am very tired and now I want to go home"; others said, "This is An entrepreneurial spirit in its purest form".
In the eyes of the public, this may be the last year that Chen Jinying sells down jackets.
When a spirit is about to freeze at a certain moment, those who follow are a little relieved and a little bit reluctant.
Toggle the reverse clock and turn the years back to 39 years ago.
In 1983, Chen Jinying was 52 years old.
Saying goodbye to more than 20 years of Chinese medicine career, she should have retired, but instead she is full of energy, determined to start a business with great ambition, and is ready to do a big job.
It's just that she didn't expect that this decision would become the butterfly that set off a storm.
With thousands of start-up funds, a few sewing machines, and a few samples brought back from Hangzhou, Wenzhou, and Shaoxing, Chen Jinying started the down jacket business.
At this time, she has unknowingly entered an era of private entrepreneurs fighting the tide.
In the second year of Chen Jinying's business, Deng Xiaoping made his first famous southern tour earlier this year, going to Shenzhen and Zhuhai.
In the same year, Wang Shi established the Shenzhen Modern Scientific and Educational Instrument Exhibition and Sales Center, which became the predecessor of Vanke; Zhang Ruimin was sent to Qingdao to work as the director of an electrical appliance factory that was on the verge of bankruptcy, and later became Haier; Liu Chuanzhi of Beijing founded Lenovo; Li Jingwei from Foshan tossed out Jianlibao... This colorful era also provided Chen Jinying with the possibility to carry his dreams.
Her "Xinghua Down" sold as soon as she made a batch, and her business was booming.
In 2005, Chen Jinying invested more than 16 million yuan in the construction of a new factory building. The number of employees increased from 10 to more than 100, and the turnover exceeded 10 million yuan. She herself became a well-known clothing entrepreneur in Lishui.
This year, China's stock market is as high-spirited as Chen Jinying.
With the help of share reform and other policy dividends, in more than two years, the A-share market soared to the highest level of more than 6,000 points.
However, after a short stay at the peak, the scene after the bubble burst was a catastrophe, with the Shanghai Composite Index falling below 2,000 points.
There is always a crisis hidden behind the aggressive running.
Although Chen Jinying's company is not listed, her career "perfectly" coincides with the trend of A shares at this time.
After rapid expansion, the pressure from various parties such as reduced market demand, outdated styles and poor competitiveness, and company management that cannot keep up have caused problems in the capital chain of Xinghua Down.
The Internet era helped her take a crucial step in repaying her debts
In 2011, Chen Jinying's business became more and more difficult, and the foreign debt owed reached 20.77 million yuan.
At the age of 80, she had to face a thick book made up of more than 80 IOUs.
"I'm 80 years old, how can I pay off this debt?" This time, people around her persuaded her to give up paying the debt, but for Chen Jinying, what she owed was not only money, but also a trust and obligation. "Bank loans are the state's Money, the money borrowed by relatives and friends is their pension money, I have to pay it back.”
In order to repay the debt, Chen Jinying changed hands of the factory, sold two houses, repaid 18 million yuan, and finally left nearly 3 million in arrears.
It is a long road to repay the debt, how many years can I repay it?
Faced with the promises made, Chen Jinying couldn't look up at the timetable and just wanted to bury her head in her work.
She rented a small factory building, took a few old workers with her, borrowed 100,000 yuan, and rented a small shop of 20 square meters... As if returning to the starting point of starting a business back then, Chen Jinying restarted herself In his life, he followed the most primitive way, carrying large and small bags of clothes to set up stalls and sell them along the street.
But at this time, the outside world has changed.
In the year when Chen Jinying started to repay his debts, the scale of China's e-commerce transactions reached 7 trillion yuan.
The vigorous development of the Internet economy seems to have nothing to do with the original workshop of the 80-year-old lady, but it helped her take a crucial step to pay off her debts.
After Chen Jinying's story was reported by the media, it has attracted the attention of all walks of life.
At the end of 2017, the Lishui Civilization Office launched a public welfare activity for "Integrity Granny".
The citizens responded enthusiastically and formed a volunteer team of more than 10,000 people to "bring goods" for Chen Jinying; hundreds of e-commerce sellers posted links on the homepage of their online stores to help Grandma Chen sell her goods.
On March 14, 2018, 88-year-old Chen Jinying came to Hangzhou Alibaba Park to thank the merchants who had helped her but had never met.
At this time, the tens of millions of foreign debts she owed at the beginning have basically been paid off, leaving only about 300,000 yuan in loans from relatives.
On the same day, more than 400,000 merchants interacted with Chen Jinying online, and they all left comments and praises: "Honesty and trustworthiness are the general trend of social development, and grandma is at the forefront of the trend." "I hope the world can be more honest and help."
On the eve of the Spring Festival in 2021, 90-year-old Chen Jinying returned to his hometown of Wuyi County, Jinhua City, handed 70,000 yuan in cash to his nephew Chen Qide, paid off the last loan, and crossed out the last name on the repayment list.
Facing the media camera, she said happily, "The debts are all paid off, so I'm happy. If you can't transfer out in the end, if you can't pay off your debts, it won't be good to be blacklisted."
It's like a big dream, she wants to go back to Chinese medicine
Because her mother has become a news figure, Chen Jinying's daughter Meixian is often interviewed by the media. She feels that the old man's experience is like a big dream.
But for Chen Jinying herself, this dream is multi-layered, mixed with sorrow and joy in the world.
According to many media reports, in 2011, when she owed tens of millions of debts, her husband who had been with her for half a century left her; two children, the eldest son also owed a lot of debts due to business failure, and made a living by sourcing goods. Died of alcohol poisoning.
Looking back on her life in 1992, although Chen Jinying could not control the changes in her destiny, she kept moving forward.
No matter what kind of blow she suffered, she never stopped selling her down jackets, "When you are busy, you don't care about being sad."
Moving forward with Chen Jinying, there is also China's business environment.
In the year when she paid off her debts, on March 1, 2021, the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Personal Bankruptcy Regulations" officially came into effect. This is my country's first personal bankruptcy regulation.
Four months later, 35-year-old Liang Wenjin received a ruling from the Shenzhen Intermediate People's Court, and his personal bankruptcy reorganization plan was approved by the court.
Helping "honest and unfortunate" debtors has become the expectation of the outside world for this law.
In April of this year, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of the Personal Integrity System", which requires speeding up the establishment of personal integrity records, improving personal information security, privacy protection and credit restoration mechanisms, and improving the incentive mechanism for keeping trust and punishing breach of trust.
Benefit the trustworthy and restrict the untrustworthy, and make integrity a common value pursuit and code of conduct for the whole society.
"Although a feather is light, it can carry a thousand catties of trust; it is a long way to pay off debts, and it takes less than ten years to keep walking. Starting from scratch, starting a business at an advanced age, life is like this. Debts must be repaid, and difficulties are faced. Don't forget to be kind and help others. You are tenacious. Write a model, you create a monument with integrity."
This is Chen Jinying's award speech for being named "Zhejiang Pride" Person of the Year 2021.
Started a business at the age of 52, expanded at the age of 74, owed debts at the age of 80, and paid back the money at the age of 91. In the long history of China's reform and opening up, Chen Jinying is a private entrepreneur worth writing about.
Now, she wants to rest.
If you don't sell down jackets, what else can you do?
The answer is in another video released by "Beautiful Lishui".
Chen Jinying said that after selling the clothes, she wants to take the Chinese medicine certificate, become a Chinese medicine doctor, and see a doctor.
Like waking up from a dream, she wanted to change back to the way she was before fighting Shang Hai.
(End) ("China News")