China's 'tobacco king', Chu Shijian, dies aged 91

Chu Shijian, China's "tobacco king" and the founder of Chu Orange, passed away at the age of 91 on Tuesday, but Chu's perseverance and endurance through difficult times still impressed people the most.

Born in Yuxi, Southwest China's Yunnan province, in 1928, Chu became director of the near-bankrupt Yuxi Tobacco Co at the age of 51. Under his leadership, it became China's largest and most profitable cigarette producer during the 1980s and 1990s, known as the Yunnan Hongta Group.

However, in 1999, Chu was arrested on charges of corruption and sentenced to life imprisonment, which was later commuted to 17 years.

After he was released on medical parole in 2002, Chu, at the age of 74, built an orange orchard with his wife, Ma Jingfen, and started growing oranges on 160 hectares of land in the mountains of Yunnan.

In 2006, Chu's orange garden had a total production of 1,000 metric tons of oranges. By 2010, Chu's oranges were already popular in Kunming, the capital city of Yunnan, and in 2012, Chu's creation attracted the attention of leading online food supplier Benlai.com.

The website launched a campaign to promote the oranges, highlighting Chu's legendary life, and consumers flooded to the website to buy the fruit.

In 2013, Chu's garden produced 10,000 tons of oranges with a total production value of 80 million yuan ($11.9 million) and achieved profits of more than 40 million yuan.

Most of Chu's oranges are sold online. In 2014, Chu officially registered the trademark Chu Orange, and Chu was given the nickname of "orange king".

"Chu experienced frustration and ordeals during his life, but we can't erase the spirit he embodied. We can see the spirit of struggle, exploration and innovation," said Zheng Xiaoyun, a researcher at the Yunnan Academy of Social Sciences.

Zheng said that it was this spirit that enabled Chu to turn a near-bankrupt tobacco company into one of the most popular cigarette brands in Asia, and set up a modern agricultural enterprise in his old age.

"The rejuvenation of the Chinese nation needs such spirit, which is why I admire him most," Zheng added.

Chu once said people have good times and difficult times: "When faced with difficult situations, you should not be discouraged, while in good times, you should not be proud."

Many buyers said they favored Chu's oranges because they respected and supported him. "I respect Chu for his hard work and unyielding spirit," said Zhang Nan, a 33-year-old primary schoolteacher. "My husband and I bought his oranges last year through e-commerce platforms. These oranges have thinner peel, more juice, and taste better than any others on sale at Beijing's markets."

Chu was a household name in Yunnan, especially for those who lived through the 1980s - during which Chu transformed Yunnan's tobacco industry with his progressive ideas, said Yang Xiaoxue, an environmental engineer in Yunnan's Daili Bai autonomous prefecture and a deputy to the 13th National People's Congress.

Even his later experience promoting his oranges proved this point. "He industrialized the production of the fruit, something that few people thought of doing at the time," she said.

Cao Lei, head of China's e-commerce research center, attributed the popularity of Chu's oranges to their effective business-to-consumer distribution channel, which cut costs and transportation times, adding that online shopping has become a way of life for young consumers.

(CHINA DAILY)