Quality transformation

Performance costumes have been made in Daiji for more than three decades. In 2009, with e-commerce platforms rising in popularity, the town's performance costume industry grew rapidly, with almost every household opening an online store.

Locals said that when village girls in Daiji got married, their parents traditionally bought gold and silver jewelry for their dowries. But now, these gold and silver items have made way for online stores.

Promoted by e-commerce platforms, sales of performance costumes in Caoxian, which were mainly produced in Daiji, exceeded 6 billion yuan in 2019, accounting for 70 percent of the sales of such costumes purchased on these platforms.

The performance costume business has since thrived. There are now 2,186 such enterprises in the county, employing more than 100,000 people out of a population of around 1.37 million.

These market players have developed a complete industrial chain covering research and development, design and production, copyright protection, cutting and printing, embroidery printing, accessories, exhibitions, network marketing, logistics, and after-sales service.

However, in 2020, many costumes piled up in factories when performances were canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control measures, forcing numerous makers of such outfits to produce hanfu.

Those running hanfu businesses in Daiji focused on affordable clothing, with prices ranging from 100 yuan to 500 yuan.

Using the long-term development of the e-commerce industry and advanced industrial chain for costumes, business owners in Daiji were quick to introduce a batch of affordable hanfu outfits priced at about 100 yuan on major e-commerce platforms. The clothing not only attracted many young people, but also brought in numerous orders from across the country.

Meng Xiaoxia, director of the Caoxian original design center for hanfu in Daiji, said, "The complete chain of the hanfu industry enables us to reduce costs, so that the hanfu produced in our town is affordable."