Ying and Yang, tradition and modernity: Jiang Qiong Er, founder of Shang Xia

“Women hold up half the sky,” declared Chairman Mao Zedong as he unleashed the Cultural Revolution, a chaotic and violent episode in Chinese history that lasted from 1966 to 1976. His message was that women were now required to play their part in the Communist Party’s drive for economic growth and should leave their traditional place in the home to join men in the factories and offices. The message was heard, and probably explains why China has a higher percentage of women in the labor market than other developed nations: 61%, compared to 56% in the United States, or 55% in Germany. A 2019 report by IE University’s China Center shows that 25% of start-ups in China were founded by women, compared to 18% in Europe.

The Cultural Revolution is rarely mentioned in modern China, and I have heard Communist Party officials and business people refer to it in private as an involution rather than a revolution, even if it did achieve greater inclusion in the workplace.

I first met Jiang Qiong Er online during a case study on my Corporate Strategy course of the business she had started, Shang Xia, a strategic alliance with global luxury brand Hermés. I had picked this case for two reasons. Firstly, because it focuses on a company positioned within the premium and luxury industry, which for many westerners may sound counterintuitive, given the association in many people’s minds of China as a source of low-cost, low-quality products. Secondly, because the case featured a very interesting protagonist, a woman who represents a link between East and West, tradition and modernity, emotions and rationality. Qiong Er’s spirit of entrepreneurship empowered her to co-create a joint venture with a centennial family-run corporation with a global presence. She describes Shang Xia’s mission as using “the best craft techniques and knowledge bequeathed by our ancestors as an inspiration and transforming it into contemporary forms, connecting one generation to another.”

My second meeting with Qiong Er was in person at her flagship store in Shanghai, where she shared with my team her business strategy in an exquisitely decorated room over a cup of pu’er tea. Shang Xia’s shop echoes Hermes’ elegant style, but also evokes the sophistication of the finest Chinese craftsmanship.  

Qiong Er is polite, affable, and sophisticated; it’s a pleasure to hear her explain the culture behind her business, and how her products blend modernity and superb manufacturing with the ancestral traditions of China. Among the products that impressed me most were an eggshell porcelain coffee set, elegant, simple and functional, light but resistant; and a hand-made, seamless woman’s cashmere felt coat, pieces that you fall in love with at first sight. 

Qiong Er inherited her passion for traditional Chinese culture and art from her father, Xing Tonghe, the architect who oversaw the renovation of Shanghai’s Bund, the waterfront area built in the 19th and early 20th century, as well as designing the Shanghai Museum, whose form, in the shape of the traditional ding cooking pot, celebrates Chinese culture. Her grandfather, Jiang Xian Yi, was a well-known artist who combined western and oriental traditions, and whose paintings and etchings hang in several galleries, and are rarely seen at western auction houses.  

Qiong Er feels a clear link with her grandfather, who combined western art techniques with traditional Chinese landscapes. Her company is part of this legacy and has a global outlook while applying the highest Chinese standards. Shang Xia acquires its products from artisans that Qiong Er and her team have located in different areas of China, establishing long-term agreements, financing traditional production methods to guarantee manufacturing processes that create unique items, and that require time and resources. Shang Xia has shops in Shanghai, as well as a center where it organizes cultural activities. There is also an outlet in Paris and plans to expand to other cities in China in the coming years. The pioneering strategy of Shang Xia in coupling traditional Chinese culture with the global premium products sector will very likely be followed by other western conglomerates soon.

Qiong Er explains the strategy behind teaming up with Hermès as combining local roots in China with a vocation for international growth, relating tradition and modernity, west with east, past and present, passion and business savvy. She is a fascinating speaker, with the care for the language and analytical mindset common among the cultivated Chinese, and with a multi-dimensional rationale that requires close attention. She explains that the name Shang Xia means above and below, following Taoist tradition, whose ideas are often the result of seemingly opposed concepts, such as Ying and Yang, but that create balance. It brings to mind Christine Gross-Loh and Michael Puett’s book The Path: “The truth is that many Chinese philosophers actually saw the world very differently: as consisting of an endless series of fragmented, messy encounters.”(1)

This equilibrium between two opposites, reason and emotion, is what Qiong Er strives for in leading her company, inculcating in her workforce a devotion for traditional know-how and craftmanship combined with an orientation toward contemporary tastes and design. “At Shang Xia, we believe in bequeathing our heritage from one generation to the next, respecting Chinese culture in the process.”

 When we think about design, we have to consider rationality, function, comfort, and wellbeing, among other elements. On top of that, we ask ourselves what makes an object valuable. We believe that emotion is what makes an object valuable. 

The choice of name for her company was deliberate, and the meaning of the words have deep roots. Qiong cites two expressions as defining its value proposals. In classical Chinese,寄情于物” (jì qíng yú wù) means “to put inner feelings into objects”, in line with the company’s mission, which converts the emotions of the artists or designers of the products. 

At the same time, from the customer’s perspective, who use Shang Xia products, comes the second phrase in classical Chinese: 情由物生 (qíng yóu wù shēng), which means “feelings that have been caused by the objects.” Qiong Er believes that the feeling the artists have put into making the objects are transferred to the customers, which are then transmitted down to subsequent generations. 

 “We want to create objects with our emotions and then those emotions are transmitted to the customer, and our objects become treasures that can be passed on to the next generation.”

Her management style is also very different to those in the west: “It’s not about creating thousands of rules to manage the team; I think it’s more about inspiring the team. When you inspire people, they manage themselves. Of course, it’s a balance: we have basic management rules, but I believe it’s more about inspiring the team.”

When I ask Qiong Er about the changes required to improve diversity and inclusion in business and society, her reply reflects a much slower concept of time than is usual in the west, of a belief that social change should come about slowly, progressively, rather than abruptly, a view I have heard expressed often in China. Her thoughts on social change and time are almost metaphysical: “I do not believe we can change the society we live in, but we can be the master of our own lives. This means that we should work more on ourselves than try to change the world or complain about the system we live under. We live in a world of three dimensions, but we should never forget the fourth dimension. The fourth dimension is about time. If we only live in the three dimensions, we may try to change what we find unfair, or lacking in some way, but we should go beyond the three dimensional mindset and include the fourth dimension.” 

Reflecting her belief for the need for balance, Qioing Er believes we need to see our lives in the broader context of history, which moves at a much slower pace than our own lives.  

 “Our lives move forward quickly, so while change may take place over time, we rarely experience it personally. For this reason, I believe we should focus more on ourselves, on what we, as women, can do; we can master many things. We don’t need to depend on others and can instead rely on ourselves. Globalization means we are now free to create value for society and to do lots of things that we could never do before. But that will only happen by focusing more on what’s inside us, rather than on the world outside. Let’s see what we can do, what we can do with what we have, with the time we have, the energy we have, the knowledge we have. I believe this is how we could change things.”

This sense of how Chinese society changes over time as a the result of personal transformation, and how this internal movement is projected as part of the whole, defines the entrepreneurial talent of Qiong Er, whose vision matches the Confucian idea of personal transformation and its relationship with society. To quote The Path: “Confucius’s ideas focus on overcoming the self through ritual cultivation. He emphasizes the capriciousness of the world, which is why he also encourages us to remember the deep joy that can come from the work of building extraordinary communities at all levels, from those immediately around us to the world at large.”

.My encounters with artists have always stayed with me, a combination of fascination and mystery. These are the same feelings I experienced during my conversations with Qiong Er, enigmatic and with an attractive air of mystery. She brings to mind General de Gaulle’s phrase: “the essence of prestige is mystery.” 

Notes

This article is adapted from Chapter 3 of my book "In An Ideal Business: How The Ideas of 10 Female Philosophers Bring Value into The Workplace"

All quotes in this section follow an interview between Jiang Qiong Er and the author held on September 20th, 2019.

(1)Kindle ed., loc. 330.

(2)Kindle ed. loc. 44.