Despite being nestled deep in the mountainous area of Naxi District, in Luzhou, a city in southwest China's Sichuan Province, one rural family's daily life is playing out on camera. In their short videos, Wu Qiuyue, a plainly dressed woman with a ready smile, speaks to her family in the local dialect, while the family digs bamboo shoots, works the fields, and cooks local dishes over a rustic stove. Wu posts the videos of these slices of the family's rural life to Chuanxiang Qiuyue, her Douyin (one of China's popular short-video platforms) account. Her account now has more than 10 million followers. But her journey to achieve that massive following was anything but straightforward.
Rooted in Rural Life
In 2020, after several failed business attempts, Wu decided to root her new venture in rural life — short videos documenting and sharing the unfiltered rhythms of Sichuan's countryside. She got a video camera, drafted her younger brother, nicknamed Wu Erwa, and began filming their family's daily life. They practiced shooting and editing the videos, often late into the night. After a month of trials and errors, Chuanxiang Qiuyue went live.
From the start, Wu knew what she wanted: To tell stories about rural life, draw viewers in with the appeal of Sichuan dishes, and turn viewers' interests into orders for local specialties. That is why she chose Chuanxiang — which literally means Sichuan flavor — as her account's name.
Wu's videos draw viewers into the daily rhythm of her large, close-knit rural family, which includes her parents, uncle and aunt, and younger brother and sister-in-law. The account has attracted followers who find her clips a reminder of home and the countryside. Common comments have included: "What a warm family," "I'd love to join them for a meal," and "This makes me miss my home."
Says Wu: "Life in the city is stressful. Many followers say my videos are comforting, and help ease their homesickness. And, for city dwellers, these clips offer a glimpse of traditional food-making methods they rarely get to see, like smoking meat over pine branches, and pickling radishes by hand. Through my videos, I hope to keep these traditional skills and rural heritage alive."
As her videos began gaining traction, Wu started selling local agricultural products. "Our followers trust us, and we cannot afford to let them down. Through my videos, they can see the entire 'journey' of the products, from raw materials in the field to food on their tables," says Wu.
Her efforts paid off. Her dried radish pickles became a bestseller, with millions of orders. Wu expanded production, by contracting more than 10,000 mu (666.67 hectares) of farmland to grow radishes in Litang County, Garze Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, in Sichuan. That helped more than 100 households boost their incomes.
For Wu, e-commerce is more than simply selling. She hopes to make more people care about the countryside, and she especially wants to inspire people to support rural development. She believes it is the people, the landscape and everyday life, captured in her videos, that give rural e-commerce its lasting appeal.
Paving Way for Villagers
Since rising to fame, Wu has leveraged her online influence to drive sales through livestreaming. That, too, has helped her fellow villagers boost their incomes. To create more jobs, she persuaded her investor (in the dried-radish-pickle factory, in Hejiang County, Luzhou) to open a branch of the processing factory in Naxi. The branch has already hired more than 300 people, allowing them to earn a living in their community.
Wu has also promoted Luzhou's traditional snacks, including scallion pancakes and glutinous rice cakes, through her short videos. As these "flavors" have reached a wider audience, the food processors in the area have created more flexible work opportunities for area women. At the same time, demand for the core ingredients has helped farmers increase their incomes.
"I'm not an Internet celebrity," Wu says. "I'm just a new farmer, who wants to use the Internet to help my fellow villagers improve their lives."
New Journey
In December 2025, Wu began promoting Nanjiang yellow goat, a specialty in Sichuan, with the hope of expanding its reach into the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions. She also plans to introduce Naxi's early spring tea to her national audience.
"I began selling local specialties on my own," Wu says. "Now, I'm leading my fellow villagers in earning more money. The biggest change? I no longer think just about selling products, but setting standards and building a brand. I feel the responsibility to help other villagers increase their incomes."
Wu has mapped out her plans for the future. They include promoting standardized planting of raw ingredients, creating a system to track products from farm to table, and upgrading processing lines, to develop higher-value, ready-to-eat products. She also plans to get into agritourism, so she can attract potential visitors online, and then host them on site, so they can have a taste of rural life.
"During the next five years, I hope to turn Chuanxiang Qiuyue into a nationally recognized, Sichuan-food brand, and to bring Nanjiang yellow goat, dried radishes, cured meats and other local specialties to the whole country. I want to help more farmers benefit from the e-commerce boom, and to help make rural industries more prosperous," Wu concludes.
Photos from Interviewee
(Women of China English Monthly September 2026)
Editor: Wang Shasha
