When I told Vivian Wang I was hot on the hunt for social entrepreneurs in China, she pulled out her phone and introduced me to Calvin Chin. Chin is the founder and president of Qifang, a micro-lending site that provides an alternative way for students to pay for their education. We weren’t able to meet in person, so caught up via email. Calvin brings insight about the educational system and challenges in China, and how his generation is bridging the gap and developing alternatives for youth to afford college in China.
Leah Lamb: How did you develop the concept of Qifang?
Calvin Chin: Qifang really came out of two places. First, it’s quite palpable here in China that not everyone has the same economic and life opportunities. I’ve met really smart, hard-working people who didn’t get a chance to go to college, so they are building up small businesses, they are working as nannies while teaching themselves English, they are doing everything they can to get ahead. This point about opportunity hit home doubly when I was trying to do my master’s degree and found my choices in program limited by my own ability to finance the cost of my degree. The second place, was from hearing first about Grameen Bank, but later about Kiva and ways that technology could empower and leverage the impact of social businesses. We also were excited to see the ways tech companies like Prosper.com were using these ideas in other contexts too.
LL: Can you speak about how your generation relates to social entrepreneurship?
CC: I think there’s been a tremendous movement towards social entrepreneurship and civic engagement in general. Some people cite the Olympics and the recent major natural disasters, especially the Sichuan earthquake, as watershed moments where awareness about our connectedness and what was possible met with national pride and concern for fellow citizens. But I think a lot of young people had already been reacting to the decades of material wealth and financial success by searching for deeper meaning and purpose in their lives. After seeing friends and family work themselves near to death to get expensive houses, cars, or toys, a lot of people have decided they want something else. In China, we have less of a legacy of large, local, non-profits, and the government has a much clearer understanding of new companies (versus new NGOs), so a lot of that energy has been focused in social entrepreneurship and social innovation.
LL: Can you explain what happens if this service isn’t available?
CC: The Chinese government estimates that about 60% of college students have difficulty paying for school, and need access to financing options. Only about 15% of these students are served by the national student loan program. The remaining students scramble for formal or informal lending to close the gap. We’ve heard anecdotally about students and their families borrowing from extended family, from classmates, from co-workers, loan sharks, anyone who can help them pay for school. The alternative is to not have the money to pay off tuition bills and not get your diploma.
LL: How is the concept of micofinance being received?
CC: Microfinance in China is finally gaining a lot of momentum, but most of it is actually focused on larger and more mature businesses than where microfinance has been utilized elsewhere in the world. We’ve heard from regulators that the microcredit company licensing has seen significant growth in extending loans in sizes of 30,000 – 300,000 RMB which is about $4,400 – $44,000 USD. This is serving a need in that these are loans that the commercial banks aren’t typically doing, but they do less for rural development and poverty alleviation.
For Qifang, using microfinance for education, we’ve been really well received. The cultural predilection for investing in education helps, and because our typical loan sizes are only a few thousand RMB, with 8-12 different lenders syndicating the sponsorship of the student, we’re finding that microfinance really resonates with people. It’s really moving to realize that for just about the cost of a cup of coffee here in Shanghai, you can help someone in Qinghai afford their education.
What other social entrepreneur initiative do you want to see developed in China?
Since most every problem in China is at a massive scale given the population and the geography, there’s a lot of work to be done – education, clean energy, gender equity, and more. Personally though, with two small kids, I’d love to see more work in food safety and air quality. Asthma is on the rise in China and we’re certainly all risking our long term health by breathing in pollution at incredibly high levels. Speaking of which, limiting second hand smoke with a health education campaign and limits on where people can smoke would be great too! Ack, ack, it’s terrible getting into an elevator or a taxi and smelling that someone had just had a cigarette there!
Want more? You can follow Calvin on Twitter.
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Tags: calvin chin, china, college, education, financing college in china, microfinance, qifang, shanghai, social entrepenuir
