HANGZHOU, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- It took just 25 seconds for 20,000 woks to be sold.
There was no celebrity endorsement, no countdown livestream and no discount frenzy. The product was a plain stainless steel wok that had vanished from store shelves more than a decade ago, resurrected after a single 15-second video had rippled across China's social media feeds.
In the clip, posted last October on popular short-video app Douyin, a woman from Wenzhou in east China's Zhejiang Province holds up her family's well-worn wok and asks a simple question: "Does the company that made this still exist?"
Bought for only 35 yuan (about 5 U.S. dollars) more than 30 years ago, the wok has been used almost daily ever since, yet is still smooth, largely rust-free and non-stick, said the woman, surnamed Chen.
"I tried replacing it," she said. "Nothing worked as well. So we went back to the old one."
This video struck a nerve. Within days, it had amassed over 1.4 billion views, earning this cookware item an affectionate nickname: "family heirloom wok." Internet users launched a crowdsourced search that ended at the locked gates of Huasheng Fuqiang Stainless Steel Products Factory in Rui'an, a small manufacturing city in Zhejiang.
HAMMERED BEGINNINGS
For Fu Keping, the factory's founder, the sudden whirlwind of fame was a bolt from the blue.
Established in the 1980s, as China's reform and opening up drive gathered pace, the factory began as a family workshop, relying largely on manual hammering for production.
"A flat sheet of stainless steel had to endure hundreds, even thousands, of hammer strikes before taking shape," Fu said, adding that each wok took at least three hours to make, and daily output rarely exceeded six.
With production limited, early sales were confined to local customers. Fu and his younger brother focused on refining their craft, while their father traveled to develop sales channels.
"We believed stainless steel cookware had a future," Fu said. "It is durable, hygienic and does not rust."
Word spread slowly. Orders eventually flowed beyond Wenzhou to wholesale markets in Yiwu, also in Zhejiang. By the early 1990s, demand pushed the factory to opt for mechanized production. Hydraulic presses replaced some of the hammering, lifting monthly output to around 600 units. Fu, who had only a junior high school education, taught himself basic programming and repurposed a discarded robotic arm to automate polishing.
At its peak, Huasheng Fuqiang employed more than 20 workers and produced over 100 woks a day.
Then the market turned.
After 2010, lightweight non-stick pans flooded kitchens across China. They were colorful, fashionable and cheap. The factory's woks, built to last decades, were costly to make and rarely repurchased. By about 2013, production stopped. The workshop pivoted to simpler stainless steel products, like water buckets. The molds, as a consequence, gathered dust.
A SECOND LIFE
That might well have been the end of this story, were it not for that viral video.
Almost overnight, the factory's name resurfaced online, attracting millions of followers. Messages poured in asking when production would resume. Some offered help and others simply shared memories. For Fu, the attention was both gratifying and overwhelming.
"Resuming production was like starting from zero," he said. The factory had been rented out. Equipment sat idle. Skilled workers had scattered.
Assistance arrived quickly. Five days after the video went viral, Chen Haiping, a local official in Rui'an, called Fu to ask whether he wanted to restart production and what support would be needed.
The answer from Fu was yes.
The following day, a multi-department service team was formed to assist with product testing, patent renewals, safety inspections and the launch of official online sales channels. Notably, processes that typically take months were completed in just 10 days.
"The online buzz drew us to the company. Our goal was to help clear its hurdles so that more high-quality homegrown brands could be embraced by consumers," said Chen.
Production resumed under the wok's original brand name, Huishifang, meaning "gathering widespread support," a name that unexpectedly mirrored the crowdsourced revival behind its return.
The revived wok was upgraded using food-grade 304 stainless steel, with the thickness increased from 0.8 millimeters to 1.1 millimeters to better meet modern cooking needs. The price was set at 99 yuan.
Margins were slim, about five yuan per wok, as new molds, stricter quality controls and repeated testing drove up costs. On Nov. 25 last year, the first presale batch of 20,000 woks sold out almost instantly.
Both online and offline sales channels have since opened, while demand continues to outpace supply. From Jan. 22, 2,000 woks have gone on sale daily at 10 a.m., and all have been snapped up in only two seconds.
The wok's revival points to a broader shift in China's consumer landscape. Via hundreds of millions of online shoppers, short-video platforms and livestream sessions, commerce has evolved beyond discount-driven sales into arenas where storytelling, memory and trust shape purchasing decisions.
In the comments section of the original video, users began posting photos of other aging household items that still worked, with this list featuring the likes of hair dryers, fans and microwave ovens. Many were older than their owners, scratched and yellowed, and yet dependable.
A woman in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality shared a photo of a Shancheng wristwatch passed down by her mother. "I wind it up and it still keeps perfect time," she said.
"For this generation of consumers, rediscovering the old is itself a way of creating the new," said Xia Xuemin, a researcher with the Institute for Public Policy of Zhejiang University. "Buying the wok is not just about acquiring a kitchen tool -- it's about reconnecting with a sense of warmth and reliability associated with the brand."
Social media, Xia added, has turned craftsmanship and brand history into powerful narratives, thus giving long-forgotten manufacturers a second chance.
China remains the world's largest online retail market. Last year, the country's online retail sales reached 15.97 trillion yuan, up 8.6 percent year on year.
Recommendations for the formulation of China's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-2030) for national economic and social development called for promoting full integration between the real economy and the digital economy.
For Fu, the current situation presents both opportunity and responsibility. While the renewed attention has opened a path for growth, the factory plans to strengthen cooperation with upstream and downstream partners to stabilize supply, and gradually expand its product lineup in line with market demand, including products such as titanium woks and non-stick pans.
Anchored in the standards that earned it decades of trust, the factory remains steadfast: "No matter how big we grow, quality comes first," Fu said. ■
