In 1988, the Hainan Province was established, awakening Liu Wenjun's dream of starting his own business. From that moment on, his personal fate was tied to the future of Hainan and to the country's reform and opening-up process.

Liu, who was 22 years old, traveled from the mountainous region of Guizhou Province to Hainan Island in June 1988. The first few years were quite difficult for Liu while he sold DVDs on the street and was homeless. Eight years later, Hainan was in a period of economic recovery after the Chinese Government's macroeconomic regulation, and it was at this time that Liu found his opportunity to start the ZOSE Advertising Company.

With the expansion of business, his company gradually shifted the focus to the cultural industry. With the full support of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Hainan Provincial Committee and the provincial government, Liu made plans to restage the Red Detachment of Women in Hainan. This Chinese ballet, which tells the story of a peasant girl from Hainan, returned to its roots in 2002, after 38 years.

In November 2003, the Hainan ZOSE Culture Communication Co. Ltd. was founded, and with the support of the government, it has introduced more than 300 quality performances to Hainan. In addition, a large number of cultural enterprises were developed to promote Hainan's growing performing arts market. At that time, the average annual growth of the national domestic box office was more than 30 percent, but in Hainan, cinemas were growing at a much slower rate. In 2011, Liu decided to invest in this field as well and three years later, ZOSE Cinemas' box office in Haikou, the capital city of the province, and Sanya, a popular tourist destination in the south of Hainan Island, appeared in the top 50 domestic box offices.

In addition, when Hainan's 12th Five-Year Plan was put forward, ZOSE successfully outputted its brand to the rest of the mainland in 2011, which was a first for island enterprises.

Approved by the State Council in 2012, the number of pilot zones for unlisted companies to transfer shares was increased. On December 31, 2013, the share transfer system began to accept enterprise applications nationwide, and ZOSE Culture Communication Co. Ltd. was fortunate enough to get on board this "first bus." In January 2014, the company became the first Hainan enterprise to be listed on the New Third Board.

"To be honest, without the policy support, there would have been no possibility for me to achieve my goals," Liu said.

Today, the Hainan ZOSE Group ranks 74th on the top 100 enterprises in Hainan, with an annual turnover of nearly 1 billion yuan ($159 million). However, Liu thinks his 30 years of dreaming are just beginning to grow and an even brighter future is on its way.

The story was originally published in Chinese on Hinews.cn

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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