On May 21, 2020, Hui Jianlin, vice governor of Jiangsu Province, and his team visited Phoenix Artist Material to investigate the current situation of the foreign trade development in the first half of the year. Accompanied by Huang Lan, Deputy Secretary General of the provincial government, Chen Jian, deputy director of the Provincial Department of human resources and social security, Zhou Xiaoyang, deputy director of the Provincial Department of Commerce, and relevant leaders of Wuxi Economic Development Zone, this is also vice governor Hui Jianlin’s first visit to Wuxi for investigation since he assumed office in March this year.

This year, the COVID-19 is the biggest black swan event that foreign trade enterprises have encountered. Phoenix Artist Material, as a key cultural export enterprise of the country, also felt the cold wave of foreign trade in February and March this year. However, Phoenix people, who are good at looking for opportunities in crisis, stick to their products and markets, and finally ushered in a turnaround in late March, and achieved a good performance of 41% year-on-year growth in foreign trade business from January to April.

Vice governor Hui Jianlin listened carefully to the report of Chen Weihong, chairman of Phoenix Artist Material, and expressed appreciation for the growth of foreign trade of Phoenix Artist Material against the trend. At the same time, he highly affirmed the international development strategy of Phoenix Artist Material to go global earlier and set up factories and distribution centers overseas. He believed that participating in global competition is the way for Chinese enterprises.

Li Jinsong, deputy general manager of Phoenix Artist Material, introduced in detail the causes of our foreign trade growth in the first half of the year: First, thanks to the prevalence of "house culture" in Europe and the United States during the pandemic, painting materials are essential cultural consumables for families in Europe and the United States. During the epidemic period, people generally stay at home, and the demand for painting materials has increased greatly; Second, cross border e-commerce of Phoenix Artist Material was arranged earlier. In 2018, it opened a brand franchise store on Amazon, a famous global shopping website, to face ordinary consumers in Europe and America with its own brand, making Phoenix Artist Material a famous brand in North America.

Governor Hui said, “Cross-border e-commerce really ushers in a very good opportunity. Under the pandemic, the necessity of online marketing is highlighted. I hope that Phoenix Artist Material will further develop its cross-border e-commerce business in the future, so as to make its own brands more prosperous in overseas markets.”

Behind the rise of the brand is the cultural confidence of the enterprise. Phoenix Artist Material has been adhering to the concept of "everything is art" for many years, promoting Chinese contemporary oil painting art. In the Phoenix Artist Material Gallery, there are masterpieces of Chinese contemporary oil painting masters. Near noon, after visiting the gallery, vice governor Hui Jianlin said in a witty way: after enjoying an art feast, not only did you feast your eyes, but also your stomach!