The "Oscar" of the brand figures world celebrated its 20th anniversary, gathering wisdom and strength for Chinese brands! The 2025 (20th) China Brand Figures Annual Conference opened on December 29th in Shenzhen. Centered on the theme "Who Wins Respect for China," this grand event brought together over two thousand elites from government, business, industry, academia, and media to collectively review the glorious journey of Chinese brand development and explore new trends and opportunities in future brand building. Zhang Qinhua delivered a keynote speech titled "Let the Flame of Growth Illuminate the Brand's Future," recounting his personal growth journey and how he built an influential enterprise and brand through a spirit of relentless effort and perseverance. Among the many business leaders present at the annual conference, Zhang Qinhua (nickname: Zhang Wuji), founder of Lingxi Practical School, stood out. He brought not just a methodology, but a compelling entrepreneurial story of rebirth from the brink of despair.
Setting Sail in Adversity: Assuming Responsibility Amid Family Hardship "Many say I started from scratch, but in truth, I started by repaying my father's debts," Zhang Qinhua shared at the beginning of his speech. Following a major family incident where his father incurred massive debts from a car accident, this young man, barely an adult, resolutely shouldered the family's burden. He cleared all the debts within just a year and a half by setting up street stalls and working as a private tutor. "During my most intense period, I tutored 800 students in one summer," Zhang Qinhua recalled. "Charging 400 yuan per child, I eventually earned over 300,000 yuan, all used to settle my father's debts." This experience earned him the title of "One of Shaanxi Province's Top Ten Filial Piety Exemplars" and laid a solid foundation for his future entrepreneurial path. However, his entrepreneurial journey was far from smooth. Zhang Qinhua once founded over a dozen chain tutoring institutions, making his first million, but encountered significant setbacks during expansion, at one point accumulating debts of ten million yuan. At 26, while becoming the youngest high school principal and helping thousands of students improve their grades, the lack of "guidance from mentors and support from benefactors" led him down many detours in his career development. Breaking Through and Rebirth: Wisdom Accumulated Through Four Entrepreneurial Pivots Zhang Qinhua's entrepreneurial history can be considered a textbook case of breaking through constraints and achieving rebirth. His serial entrepreneurship across multiple sectors has endowed him with rich, hands-on experience.
His first pivot was the leap from tutoring to establishing a private school. He helped thousands of students improve their academic performance, even setting a national record for score improvement of over 400 points in a single year. The second pivot involved venturing into the new retail and night economy sectors. He opened a self-select craft beer tavern in Xi'an's most popular tourist area, becoming one of the first entrepreneurs in China to pioneer the bar-supermarket category. A store of just over 300 square meters achieved the industry miracle of generating over 100,000 yuan in daily revenue during peak periods. The third pivot occurred after moving to Hangzhou in 2023, where he founded Lingxi Media and, within three months, secured and began operating a 30,000-square-meter live-streaming base in Binjiang District, expanding into short videos, knowledge payment, and AI+education sectors. The fourth pivot was the establishment of Lingxi Practical School, dedicated to building a comprehensive enterprise group that empowers the growth of more small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Growing Upwards: The Wisdom of Building a High-Level Network "When climbing upwards and encountering bottlenecks, without reliable backing, it's impossible to establish some major collaborations," Zhang Qinhua shared with deep feeling. Through proactive networking with senior figures, Zhang Qinhua has connected with business and academic leaders including Dong Mingzhu, Chairperson of Gree Electric Appliances; Zhou Yunjie, Chairman of Haier Group; Huang Hongsheng, founder of Skyworth Group; renowned director Zhang Jizhong; and Shi Yigong, President of Westlake University.
Dong Mingzhu presented Zhang Qinhua with a certificate appointing him as a member of the presidium of the China Brand Festival.
Zhang Qinhua specifically showcased photos of his interactions with various elites at the event, ranging from former German President Christian Wulff to former presidents of Georgia, from Yan Jiehe of Pacific Construction to Cao Dewang of Fuyao Group, and from Alibaba-affiliated executives to internet celebrity influencers, demonstrating his carefully constructed cross-border resource network. "I want to bring all these forces together, so everyone can huddle for warmth in this era of intense competition."
Zhang Qinhua with former German President Christian Wulff.
Lingxi Practical School: Holding an Umbrella for Entrepreneurs Driven by his own firsthand experiences during his entrepreneurial journey, Zhang Qinhua founded Lingxi Practical School. He said emotionally, "Many friends tell me, 'Mr. Zhang, having been caught in the rain yourself, you now want to hold an umbrella for others.' Yes, that is precisely the mission of our Lingxi Practical School." Zhang Qinhua admitted that during his entrepreneurial ascent, he encountered many sticking points. It was these very experiences that solidified his resolve to integrate resources and energy to empower more SMEs. Lingxi Practical School not only invites experienced mentors like Savio Kwan, former COO of Alibaba, to share their expertise but has also developed the "Qiankun Great Shift" enterprise-wide growth system.
In the very first class of Lingxi Practical School, Savio Kwan deeply shared practical experiences on how Alibaba survived its early startup winter. He particularly emphasized the importance of Alibaba's "Century-Old Grand Plan" training system and how corporate values were translated from the "Nine Swords of Solitude" into the actionable, measurable behavioral guidelines of the "Six Vein Divine Sword." Through specific case studies, Kwan detailed how the Alibaba Iron Army built a powerful sales system and how to find opportunities within crises. These precious firsthand insights proved immensely beneficial to the entrepreneurs present.
"We pay homage to the Lakeside, inherit its legacy, and, more importantly, aim to carry it forward," Zhang Qinhua stated. Lingxi Practical School is committed to helping entrepreneurs avoid detours, get straight to the essence, and enable resources from top-tier circles to radiate outwards to the broader SME community. Brand Insight: Walking with the Wise, Resonating with the Times Following his speech, Zhang Qinhua engaged in an in-depth exchange with Song Zhiping, President of the China Association for Public Companies. As the former Chairman of both China National Building Materials Group and Sinopharm Group, who led both central SOEs into the Fortune Global 500, Song is hailed as "China's Kazuo Inamori." During this exchange, Song Zhiping not only shared wisdom on enterprise management with Zhang Qinhua but also personally signed and gifted him books, reflecting the recognition and support senior entrepreneurs have for the new generation.
Zhang Qinhua's story affirms a fundamental truth: brand growth requires both individual struggle and the leverage of platforms, walking alongside the wise. From repaying his father's debts to founding an empowerment platform, his journey illustrates how commercial wisdom builds resilience through inheritance and showcases the responsibility and vision expected of entrepreneurs in the new era. Conclusion: The Flame of Growth Illuminates the Brand's Future In this era brimming with challenges and opportunities, Zhang Qinhua and his Lingxi Practical School are demonstrating through concrete action that the flame of growth can indeed illuminate a brand's future, and that truly outstanding brands are forever rooted in unwavering perseverance and dedication to their original aspirations. Zhang Qinhua's journey validates the core of his message: the value of both life and brand lies in never giving up during adversity and never forgetting one's roots during prosperity. Through the platform of Lingxi Practical School, he aims to transmit this belief to more entrepreneurs.
Introduction to Lingxi Practical School: Lingxi Practical School pays homage to, inherits from, and aims to carry forward the legacy of the 'Lakeside' (Alibaba's early ethos). Zhang Qinhua (nickname: Zhang Wuji), embodying the 'New Lakeside Spirit,' invites Alibaba veterans and senior executives, along with top domestic business leaders, to serve as mentors at the business institute. It focuses on empowering change-makers with business wisdom, inheriting Alibaba's entrepreneurial spirit, and building a platform for holistic enterprise empowerment. Lingxi Practical School goes beyond theory, offering practical, down-to-earth, and highly applicable courses taught personally by Alibaba veterans, executives, and seasoned entrepreneurial founders. These are combined with immersive learning experiences like study tours to leading global enterprises. The curriculum is designed to empower business evolution and drive value creation amid commercial transformation, covering enterprise operations, management, strategy, and finance. It also collaborates with renowned independent content creators to offer courses on IP building, enterprise traffic, and AI empowerment, alongside founder Zhang Qinhua's unique, end-to-end system for enterprise-wide growth—from building founder influence and IP incubation to public domain customer acquisition, private domain sales conversion, and AI empowerment. This comprehensive methodology is termed the "Qiankun Great Shift." Beyond teaching, Lingxi Practical School provides multi-dimensional empowerment models for enterprises, including consulting, management accompaniment, corporate training, investment and financing, marketing策划, full-scale brand solutions, resource对接, founder influence building, and IP incubation. The platform also adopts a tiered model to offer more accessible entrepreneurship courses, allowing premium resources from top circles to benefit a wider entrepreneurial community. Founder Zhang Qinhua, having started from grassroots beginnings, deeply understands the development bottlenecks faced by SMEs. Leveraging his current resources within the China Brand Festival circles and the support of Alibaba's founding veterans, he aims to clear upward pathways for SMEs, discover the next generation of great entrepreneurs, build a precise super private domain traffic ecosystem, and create a highly commercially valuable platform for entrepreneur growth in China.