Chapter 256 Huating Road and Alarming Xinhua News Agency Reporters

On the phone, Li Xiaofan asked Xu Manli: "Why do these readers want to see me?"

Xu Manli smiled and said: "Many readers want to learn from you, to learn from you how to advertise and do business on the Internet..."

Li Xiaofan smiled secretly. My original intention through this news report was to expand the influence of Yahoo and boost the business of the newly opened Yifan Optical Glasses Store. It is probably not my obligation to guide these Singaporean merchants on how to advertise on the Internet?

"Oh, then I will communicate with these readers next time when I have time. I am a bit busy with the opening of the glasses store recently!"

"Mr. Li, there are two other things to tell you. The first is that another Chinese newspaper "Lianhe Zaobao" under our Singapore Press Holdings SPH saw the report about you in our "Straits Times" and wanted to invite you to do an in-depth interview in the Chinese version. Do you think it is convenient for me to give your contact information to the reporter of Lianhe Zaobao?"

"That's no problem. I welcome the interview of Lianhe Zaobao."

"The second thing is that a friend of mine named Guo Yunyi is a Singapore SME The secretary general of the association also wanted to meet you after seeing your report in our Straits Times. Are you free? "

Li Xiaofan asked curiously: "SME Association, what is it?"

"Oh, sorry, SME is the abbreviation of Small and Medium Enterprises, which is our Singapore Small and Medium Enterprises Association. They want to invite you to join their association, and secondly, they want to invite you to share your experience at their association's activities when you are free."

Xu Manli continued to introduce: "Mr. Li, maybe you don't know much about this I will briefly introduce you to the SME Association of Singapore. The Singapore SME Association is a non-profit organization established in the 1980s. The association is supported by the official government departments of Singapore. Through a wide range of services and programs, it is committed to providing business knowledge and market opportunities to the vast number of SME members in Singapore, helping them to expand their business locally and overseas. The association has two flagship awards: the Singapore Entrepreneur of the Year Award and the Singapore Prestige Brand Award, which are aimed at recognizing successful Singaporean SMEs. Every year, this award ceremony is attended by ministers or higher-level leaders in Singapore..."

After hearing Xu Manli's introduction, and the fact that the secretary-general of the SME Association, Guo Yunyi, is her good friend, Li Xiaofan couldn't refuse, so he agreed: "Ms. Xu, how about I take the time to visit the Singapore SME Association?"

"That's the best, then I will give you Guo Yunyi's contact information now..."

…

Soon after the phone call with Xu Manli, a financial reporter named Yang Meiqian from Lianhe Zaobao, who is also Xu Manli's classmate in the journalism and media major at the National University of Singapore, called Li Xiaofan and made an appointment to interview Li Xiaofan in the afternoon.

Afterwards, Li Xiaofan was interviewed by Yang Meiqian, a financial reporter, in the office of Minghua Holdings on the 36th floor of the OUB Center in Raffles Place, which has a beautiful environment.

Yang Meiqian once studied abroad at the School of Journalism of Fudan University in Shanghai, and just returned to Singapore from Shanghai last year, so her Chinese is quite good, and it was very pleasant to communicate with Li Xiaofan.

After the interview, the two chatted about life in Shanghai, Shanghai, and they had a lot in common.

Yang Meiqian looked at the beautiful scenery of Singapore CBD outside the window, took a sip of coffee and smiled: "Do you know, Mr. Li, when I was studying abroad in Shanghai before, where did my friends like to go to in Shanghai on weekends?"

"Chenghuang Temple, the Bund, Nanjing Road, Huaihai Road?" Li Xiaofan guessed.

"Haha, all wrong. You didn't expect that my favorite place at that time was Huating Road in Shanghai!"

"Haha, Huating Road, I like it too, and you can find famous brands from all over the world there!"

The Huating Road mentioned by Yang Meiqian and Li Xiaofan is located in Xuhui, Shanghai, perpendicular to the middle of Huaihai Middle Road and Changle Road. This road was known as "China's No. 1 Clothing Street" before 2000.

In 1984, the Xuhui Industrial and Commercial Department invested in moving nearly 70 clothing stalls from the green space at the west end of Zhaojiabang Road in Xujiahui and Wuyuan Road to Huating Road, establishing the first individual clothing market in Shanghai. As a result, the quiet little road of Huating Road suddenly became lively.

At the beginning, there were only about 50 stalls on Huating Road, occupying only half of the section from Huaihai Road to Yanqing Road. Although the place was small, it was very popular. The clothing individual businesses on Huating Road introduced and trafficked the popular and fashionable clothing from southern cities to Shanghai at the fastest speed. Some shop owners also took a different approach, looking at the latest fashion styles published in Japanese, European, American and Hong Kong and Taiwan magazines at home, and then choosing fabrics, designing and making clothes by themselves.

Gradually, Huating Road began to become famous. At most, there were more than 400 simple tent-style shops on the Huating Road clothing market street, which was called "Shanghai Little Hong Kong".

At that time, the media once recorded: On Huating Road, which is only more than 700 meters long, there are more than 400 stalls, with more than 100 customers per minute, and about 100,000 people flocking here every day. This is a true portrayal of the "golden age" of Huating Road. White-collar workers, students, tourists from other places, and even foreigners would come here to buy bargains. Many foreign tour groups in Shanghai did not go to the Bund City God Temple, but specifically asked to come to Huating Road first, which shows how well-known it was.

In the 1990s, Huating Road, a small road, always led the fashion trend in Shanghai. Some of the clothes here were leftover products from the processing of exported famous brand clothes, and some were imitations of the latest international fashions. Popular styles from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Europe and the United States will appear on Huating Road in a few months. Tank tops, cultural shirts, hot pants, overalls, platform shoes... countless fashion trends spread from here to the streets and alleys of Shanghai.

In terms of workmanship and texture, the clothing products here are not much different from the genuine brands or counter goods in large shopping malls, but the price is only a fraction of that in the shopping malls. Many young girls who love beauty but are short of money are looking for Like flocking to Huating Road. They look at genuine clothing styles at Nanjing Road, Huaihai Road or Meimei Department Store at the intersection, and they can immediately find similar fakes on Huating Road next to them.

In fact, according to today's terms, Huating Road at that time was Shanghai's largest "brand-name clothing imitation or fake market."

In his previous life, Li Xiaofan recalled that when he returned to China and visited the Huating Road Market in Shanghai in 1998, he found that half of the visitors there were foreigners. These foreigners love Huating Road so much. They can buy dozens of "famous brand" clothes of good quality at very cheap prices and give them back to their country. It's a great deal!

Later, with the advancement of my country's accession to the WTO, domestic awareness of intellectual property protection became stronger and stronger. The Huating Road clothing market was closed in 2000 and the entire market was moved to Xiangyang Road.

In the Xiangyang Road Clothing Market, the industrial and commercial department has begun to crack down on counterfeiting of famous brands. Those merchants can only sell secretly in the corner, and can no longer buy and sell openly as they did before 2000.

After bidding Yang Meiqian farewell, Li Xiaofan thought of the Huating Road Clothing Market we just talked about, and felt that there were many business opportunities there...

Two days later, Singapore’s Lianhe Zaobao published an exclusive interview with Li Xiaofan, executive director of Singapore Yifan Pte Ltd.

Li Xiaofan and his Yifan Company began to become famous in Singapore through successive exclusive interviews with the two largest Chinese and English newspapers in Singapore.

The day after Lianhe Zaobao published an exclusive interview with Li Xiaofan, executive director of Singapore Yifan Pte Ltd, Li Xiaofan unexpectedly received a call from Yang Meiqian.

"Director Li, I have a friend who is a reporter for your mainland Xinhua News Agency in Singapore. After she saw this report I wrote, she wanted to interview you. Is it convenient for you?"