Xuping Rabbit, China (Asian SE Cases 8 of 8)

China

Sichuan Rabbit King

The Challenge

Urban landscapes are so different from natural ones in that they have the potential to alter regional and global climate, changing everything from temperature, to rainfall patterns, to the chemistry of the atmosphere. The more humans urbanize the landscape, the greater the possible impacts on climate will be. Since the late 1970s, Sichuan’s urbanization has been developing rapidly creating core cities like Chengdu, the centre of the province’s economy, culture, science and technology and education as well as transportation and communication. Everything is extremely concentrated in Chengdu as it only takes up 2.6% of the province’s landmass but the population and GDP account for 15.48% and 31.64% respectively.

Urbanization is a natural occurrence as individuals and corporates want to reduce expense in commuting and transportation while improving their opportunities for jobs, education, housing, and transportation. Living in cities permits individuals and families to take advantage of the opportunities of proximity, diversity, and marketplace competition. However in recent times as the government allowed greater freedom in the labour market, they no longer took care to ensure full employment and the unemployment rate began to rise. The ones who are affected the most are those who are poorly educated and unskilled workers who would find it increasingly difficult to find new work.

The Entrepreneur and Solution

The owner and founder of the largest and strongest enterprise in animal husbandry business, Sichuan Xuping Rabbit Industrial Corporation (Xuping Rabbit), is Mr. Ren Xuping. He started out with two rabbits when he was 13 years old and they gave birth to eight bunnies. Now at age 40, Mr. Xuping is known as the “Rabbit King of China” because he is an animal specialist, a famous rabbit expert, an educationalist and an entrepreneur.

As Mr. Xuping had been born into a poor farming family, he appreciates the determination of others who are willing to pull themselves out of poverty or simply want to make an honest living. He never stops teaching the rural youths, the poor families, students, retired workers and laid-off workers how to raise rabbits in a scientific way because his teachings have pulled over 300,000 trainees out of poverty already. The Xuping Rabbit Training School usually does not charge the trainees who are from disadvantaged backgrounds including poverty, handicapped, remotely located and converted prisoners.

Of the 300,000 trainees over the past two decades, 80% of these trainees are successful and become rich and 20% become large rabbit raisers with a handful of trainees acquiring substantial wealth. Xuping Rabbit Training School has lead Sichuan to become China’s second largest province in rabbit raising as almost all large rabbit raisers in Sichuan was trained from the school.

With the growing popularity of rabbit raising, Xuping Rabbit is able to help those who are unemployed in the urbanized cities return to the rural parts of the province almost guaranteeing them a stable income. In recent years, Mr. Xuping has trained workers who have been laid off, which has offered them an opportunity to find their way to make a living.