Dressed in a pristine white knit top, Robyn Qiu cut an incongruous figure in her parents' dusty, hangar-like metal hardware factory in eastern China as she gestured excitedly while an assistant filmed her on a smartphone.
The 29-year-old is one of many second-generation factory owners fighting to elevate the country's manufacturing sector, pitting digital native skillsets against the rising costs and geopolitical tensions pushing clients abroad.
Qiu said she grew up with "the noise of machines running day and night", but working in manufacturing was not always her first choice.
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