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The lighter side of Li Zhongjian

By Hao Zhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-19 16:02

On Oct 7, 2002, Li made a presentation on behalf of Wenzhou's lighter industry at the Euro-China Anti-dumping Forum.

"Tung Fong grew up with China's market economy. Wenzhou's lighters are products of the market economy," he stated. "China is not dumping its lighters in the EU."

After his speech, he received the good news that his company had been granted market economy status by the EU. The EU subsequently began another round of investigations into Tung Fong's production costs.

In September 2003, the EU's lighter manufacturers withdrew their complaints against the Chinese lighter manufacturers, 10 days before the EU was to make a final determination on whether Tung Fong was dumping its lighters.

Tung Fong became the only lighter manufacturer in Wenzhou to acquire market economy status from the EU.

Tung Fong lighters come in a wide array of shapes and styles. Hao Zhou

'Wenzhou's Deng Xiaoping'

Taking out a Tung Fong-brand lighter embedded in his belt buckle, Li lit up a cigarette, looking so much like Deng Xiaoping, that he was once mistaken for the late leader by a local newspaper reporter. Li had given up smoking, but took it up again for his performances.

Following a newspaper story: "A 'Deng Xiaoping' from Wenzhou", and encouragement from friends and Wenzhou's mayor, Li finally decided in 2001 to set his business activities aside and to study acting at the Art Academy of the People's Liberation Army.

He was never late for a lesson. "Once you start, you must try your best to do it well," he said.

Li's first performance as Deng was in a 40-episode TV drama named Yan'an Song, on China's revolutionary history in Yan'an, Shaanxi province. Li charged one yuan for his performance. For another TV play, Deng Xiaoping in Huichang, which Li said was his best performance, he asked for only 100 yuan.

Li also played the role of Deng Xiaoping in Dongfang Hong, in honor of the late leader's 100th birthday. This time, he performed for free and even donated a sum of money to the TV series.

"If there had been no Deng Xiaoping, there would have been no reform and opening of China, and I would not have had success with Tung Fong." Li said.

Performing as Deng taught Li two of the leader's most striking qualities: to be sensitive to change and to be practical. These qualities are crucial both for a successful leader and a successful entrepreneur, Li said.

In the showroom of Tung Fong Light Industrial Co Ltd, thousands of metal lighters are on display. They come in all shapes and can be made to look like a guitar, a gun, a sewing machine, a dice, a beer bottle, a bugle, a watch, a knife, a pen, and so on.

Back to the early 1980s when China was newly opened to the world and Wenzhou was still a backwater, many Wenzhou residents went elsewhere to seek job opportunities. When they came home for the holidays, lighters were popular presents for family members and friends.

"The lighters they brought were usually made in Japan and cost 200 to 300 yuan," Li recalled. "It was expensive. A 30 sq m house only cost 300 yuan at that time." Li said his curiosity was aroused. How could it be so costly?

He took apart a lighter and found that it wasn't as complicated as he had imagined. "I thought that if I could make and sell 200 lighters a day and earn 10 yuan each one, I would make a lot of money," Li recalled.

A lighter has more than 60 smaller parts and components. Li found he did not have to produce all the parts because dozens of businesses had sprung up in Li's wake. He just needed to place the orders.

Now Wenzhou residents bought local lighters as gifts for their overseas friends. Li decided to pilot the international market.

In 1988, Li Zhongfang, Li Zhongjian's older brother, established Tung Fong International Promotion Co Ltd in Hong Kong. "We didn't know whether the international market would accept our lighters," said Li Zhongjian. But after the first batch of 60,000 lighters went through Shenzhen customs and was exported to Hong Kong, Li became more confident.

"Our lighters were sold only at half the price of Japanese and South Korean lighters," Li said. Six months after Tung Fong lighters made their debut in the Hong Kong market, Li began to get wholesale orders from all over the world.

Hundreds of lighter companies mushroomed in Wenzhou in 1990s, and Li Zhongjian's Tung Fong brand was the biggest among them. Li bought about 80 percent of all the lighters made in Wenzhou and then sold them to overseas markets through Hong Kong.

Within several years Wenzhou had developed more than 10,000 kinds of lighters. "Whatever shape you can imagine for lighters, I can make them," Li said.

Now facing shrinking overseas demand, Li's Tung Fong is not losing steam. The company sales increased 20 percent in 2008 to more than 90 million yuan.

"Li Zhongjian is a canny merchant," said Zhou Dewen, head of the Small and Medium-sized Business Association in Wenzhou.

"The brand becomes much more crucial when the entire lighter industry is struggling with overcapacity and a weak market," Zhou said. "performing as Deng Xiaoping has helped Li promote his Tung Fong brand image. The brand helps Li maintain a stable market share in the European and North American markets during the downturn period."

According to Li, "The crisis just swept out some of our less competitive rivals." Before sending his workers back home to celebrate the Spring Festival last month, Li was able to assure them: "Enjoy your holidays. I will be here waiting for you to come back to work."

As for himself, Li said: "I have a little dream that I can hold a lighter expo in Beijing this year to exhibit my lighter artwork in front of world's lighter collectors."

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