How e-commerce is affecting the lives of China’s villagers
By Pearl Yip, M.A. candidate in East Asian Studies ‘18
E-commerce is an undeniable force that has, in the recent decade, proliferated across China. Becoming an e-commerce seller — or engaging in ancillary services such as logistics, photography, packaging, etc. — is seen as an opportunity to escape poverty and ‘strike it rich’.
Taobao is one such online marketplace that many Chinese people buy and sell on. The emergence of huge waves of people setting up Taobao online shops has led AliResearch to identify some of China’s villages as Taobao villages. These are villages that house sellers with an aggregated high transaction volume on the platform. Guangzhou is home to some of China’s most active Taobao villages — three of which I visited during spring break through a graduate research grant from Stanford Global Studies. The purpose of my trip was to understand how e-commerce has impacted the socio-economic lives of Chinese villagers.
This trip was filled with plenty of memorable moments, but one that I find most hilarious was the time when I was just about to leave Lirendong Village. As there were faeces on the ground, I kept my head low and vigilantly looked down to watch where I was stepping. I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings, and I started to smell something particularly foul. As I walked on, I heard snorting and to my complete shock, I realized that I was walking beside a truck with three live black pigs that were almost twice my size each. One of the pigs had its snout poking through the grills of the van and was looking right at me, only about 15cm away from my face. In complete shock, I jolted sideways and fell into a [thankfully shallow] drain to my right.
Jokes aside, I have gained a whole lot from this trip. From surveying three different Taobao villages — Lirendong, Dayuan and Xiniujiao — I learned about the conditions for success in these villages.
At first, it would depend on having one or two merchants successfully set up a shop, acting as an exemplar for others to follow. Geographical proximity to major transport links and the immediate presence of cheap migrant labour then helps to build an ecosystem. However, becoming a Taobao seller is not a foolproof formula for economic success. Most sellers in the same village tend to sell similar items, making it difficult to differentiate oneself from the pack, and for most small sellers, becoming profitable is a gamble.
The Taobao marketplace is also already very saturated, and rents have increased in these villages as a result. In Lirendong, rents have increased by 20 to 30 times their regular rates over the past 10 years, and income growth has not matched this pace. Hence, sellers work under immensely stressful conditions just to eke out a living.
Because of this trip, I have gained a whole new level of respect for these Taobao merchants, who live in rather unsanitary and unsafe conditions, but continue to work tirelessly. I found one banner in Lirendong village particularly touching; it read: “For our descendants — let’s properly upgrade Lirendong.” This shows that villagers in Lirendong worked hard not just for themselves but also for their children and their entire village at large. This communal mentality towards prosperity carried tinges of capitalism, communism and nationalism, perhaps best encapsulated in the famous description of China’s economy, “socialism with Chinese characteristics.”
Beyond enriching my research findings, through this experience I have developed as an individual and I have learned a few life skills that will no doubt help me in my future endeavours. This trip was truly a test of my independence and my ability to handle unexpected situations. First, I had to organize this trip by myself with no prior local contacts or help. Second, as there were some unforeseen problems with my phone and SIM card, I was unable to use real-time LTE data to navigate my way in the villages, and to and from my accommodation. To make things worse, the Wi-Fi in my hotel was inconsistent and weak at best.
However, I remained calm and composed in those situations and took time to familiarize myself with my surroundings, and navigate by intuition. Being off the grid for a week also meant that I had more time to reflect on my experiences and write-up my research. As I was unable to access any social media, I had nothing to occupy myself with on long commutes or after a long day. While this sounds dreadful to any millennial, it surprisingly gave me a much-needed mental detox.
Going into these villages as a solo female traveller was perhaps the most difficult experience; I was often met with unwelcoming stares. Many men would stare at me not just for a second, but would scan me from top to bottom, walk/ ride past me, and then turn back to stare at me again. This made me highly uncomfortable and at times, I had to leave a village earlier than I had originally planned. Having said this, these experiences have helped me develop a thicker skin, and made me more comfortable with navigating alone. I also learned to be more discerning about my surroundings and not outstay my welcome.
With that, I would like to thank the Stanford’s Global Studies program and Xiao’s student research gift for granting me the opportunity to make such a meaningful and fruitful trip to Guangzhou. Your support has been instrumental to my research findings — I was able to witness, first-hand, the physical perils of staying in a Taobao village. This was an experience no academic paper could provide.
Visit sgs.stanford.edu for more information about SGS graduate student research grants.
