On the afternoon of 14 October 2026, the "Hualei" Female Entrepreneurship Support Programme summary meeting, hosted by the Shaanxi Women's Federation and organised by the Shaanxi Youth Entrepreneurship Mentor Association, was held at the Xi'an High-tech Zone Women and Children Activity Centre. Yuan Duanjiao, founder of Zhengdaming Cultural Industry Group, Shaanxi Provincial Master of Arts and Crafts, and provincial-level inheritor of lacquer techniques, delivered a speech as a female entrepreneur representative and won the "Outstanding Entrepreneurship Project Award".
The "Hualei" Programme: Building Bridges for Female Entrepreneurs
The "Hualei" Female Entrepreneurship Support Programme was launched by the Shaanxi Women's Federation to create a comprehensive platform for female entrepreneurs, connecting policies, resources, mentors and achievements, and helping women-led ventures grow in rural revitalisation, cultural heritage and social services. This summary meeting reviewed the programme's progress and honoured outstanding entrepreneurship projects.
From Intangible-Heritage Lacquer to Entrepreneurship
Yuan Duanjiao shared Zhengdaming's 12-year journey, from returning to her hometown to rooting in the Qinba lacquer forests and building the complete chain of "cultivating lacquer trees → tapping raw lacquer → refining lacquer → lacquering and forming". She noted that lacquer craft is both a national intangible cultural heritage and an Eastern aesthetic that can enter modern life; women entrepreneurs can both preserve craft roots and open market space between cultural inheritance and industrial revitalisation.
Honour: Outstanding Entrepreneurship Project Award
In the award ceremony that followed, Yuan Duanjiao received the "Outstanding Entrepreneurship Project Award". This honour recognises both Zhengdaming's development model of "preserving craft through industrialisation and telling tradition in market language", and the dual role women play in intangible heritage inheritance and entrepreneurship.
A New Starting Point
Zhengdaming Cultural Industry Group traces its roots to the "Zhengdaming" shop founded by lacquer merchant Yuan Yongling in 1925. It has worked in Qinba lacquer for 12 years, with more than 5,000 mu of lacquer tree bases in Ankang, Enshi, Chengkou, Shangluo and Zhuxi. Through a "company + cooperative + farmer" model, it has created employment for more than 600 people and increased per-capita annual income by more than 50,000 yuan. With the brands of Zhengdaming, Longtou National Lacquer, Niuwang National Lacquer and Sui Shi Ji, the group brings lacquerware, lacquer materials, intangible-heritage cultural creativity and master handworks to market, continuously exploring the integration of "intangible heritage + industry + education".
Yuan Duanjiao said the honour is a new starting point. In the future, Zhengdaming will continue to draw on the delicacy and resilience of female entrepreneurs, refining Qinba lacquer techniques and strengthening the lacquer industry, so that more heritage works enter modern homes and more rural artisans gain stable income through the industry chain, keeping the effort to let Chinese lacquer "be seen again" in contemporary life.