In the April issue of Jia Ren magazine, there was an interesting topic: female auctioneers.
Two auctioneers, Chen Liangling and Guo Xinyi, are from Christie's, a century-old auction house.
(Left: Chen Liangling Right: Guo Xinyi)
Chen Liangling "went out of the circle" once last year.
Her auction video was screened on social networks and was ridiculed by netizens as "the taste of money when you raise your hand".
Her colleague Guo Xinyi was the first Chinese female auctioneer in an international auction house, a pioneer in the industry.
The most dynamic female auctioneer is undoubtedly The chairman of Christie's China, Yang Yuancao.
In June last year, her documentary "The Wonderful Egg" had just been broadcast, and at the end of the month, it was "officially announced" by Christie's, stepping from the media industry into the auction circle.
Originally the "mother of the voice", there is a famous husband Li Ruigang, foreign media called this Rebecca Yang "TV Queen", and Uncle Li was named: China's Murdoch (China Murdoch).
Auctions belong to a niche industry, and the "women of the auction house" can only come out by selling the most expensive things in the world to a small group of people at the tip of the pyramid.
This is doomed: they must be gifted students with academic qualifications, masters of resource integration, and long-sleeved dancers.
Auction houses welcome cross-border talents, but they also need core competitiveness
Many of the female auctioneers who go to the front of the stage are "cross-border players".
For example, Li Xin, the global non-executive vice chairman of Christie's, was trained as a basketball athlete since childhood, went on the catwalk at the age of 19, and went to Paris at the age of 20 to develop, becoming the first generation of Chinese supermodels.
She was discovered by Picasso's granddaughter Diana Picasso, and her auction debut was Chang Yu's Lotus and Goldfish, which sold for 36.5 million Hong Kong dollars.
Subsequent achievements include: Zao Wou-Ki with 22.6 million Hong Kong dollars, Matisse with 80.75 million US dollars...
(Li Xin, wearing Gianvito Rossi high heels, can vaguely see the expressiveness of the (former) supermodel)
Guo Xinyi, the first Chinese female auctioneer, volunteered to be a writer and teacher when she was a child.
After graduating from Harvard in 2002, he took the "from Harvard to Wall Street" route and became a securities analyst at Goldman Sachs.
After only a year at Goldman Sachs, she decided to make art a career and went to work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
(Image source see watermark)
The "treasure hunting" vision cultivated by the collection of 3 million pieces, coupled with the continued further education of the University of London, are adding bricks and tiles to the strength.
In 2009, Guo Xinyi raised the hammer for the first time at the South Kensington Small Auction in London and auctioned 40 pieces. After that, we start with furniture, watches, and wine, and slowly accumulate experience.
At Christie's Hong Kong Autumn Auction 2018, she sold Su Shi's "Wood and Stone Drawings" for HK$463.6 million, setting a record for Christie's asia's highest-priced art auction.
This highlight moment has been 11 years since she entered Christie's and 16 years since she worked at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
With Christie's experience, Guo Xinyi joined gallery giant Hauser & Wirth as managing partner last month, which is also a matter of course.
Chen Liangling, an "internet celebrity auctioneer", is officially the vice president of Christie's Hong Kong, and she is studying biological sciences at university, which cannot be beaten with the auction industry.
But, some things are carved into the genes.
Chen Liangling's mother loves antiques, art and museums. Drink tea at home with Yixing purple sand pot, while tasting tea while listening to Teresa Teng's records. The things used in the home are clean, simple and neat.
This kind of edification will subtly affect the aesthetics and even life choices of children.
Taking advantage of the "gap year" of graduating from university and not thinking about what to do, Chen Liangling volunteered for a year at the National Palace Museum in Taipei, just in time for the special exhibition of the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the hospital.
Get up close and personal with Fan Kuan's "Journey to Xishan", Su Shi's "Cold Food Post", And Ru Kiln Boutique... She made up her mind to enter christie's Academy of Fine Arts in London, where she studied for a master's degree in Chinese art history and joined Christie's China Porcelain and Art Department in 2010.
Compared with these peers who have some artistic feelings, family roots, and museum experience, Yang Yuancao is a bit of a mistake.
This name is often compared with the good voice and Li Ruigang.
In 2011, Yang Yuancao bought out the exclusive distribution rights of "The Voice" in China from the Netherlands, giving birth to "The Voice of China".
The naming fee for the first three seasons of "The Voice" soared from 60 million to 200 million, all the way to 250 million, attracting the attention of "China Murdoch" Li Ruigang, who decided to invest in Yang Yuancao and her IPCN.
To this girl who is 11 years younger than himself, Uncle Li praised her high-profile, from her investor to her husband.
Before taking over as Christie's, Yang Yuancao had just become a mother and made "Wonderful Egg Birth".
Christie's, a global auction leader and has a history of 255 years, has been in secret contact with Yang Yuancao for several months.
In the end, the "Queen of Chinese Entertainment" became Christie's first "post-80s" Chinese speaker.
The beautiful woman in the cheongsam with wisdom will also be spat at by netizens
Christie's has 54 auctioneers worldwide, of which 26 are women, nearly half of them.
From Li Xin, Chen Liangling, Guo Xinyi to Yang Yuancao, it can be seen:
The more cutting-edge the industry, the less gender biased there are, and the hero does not ask for provenance;
Women can stand out on their own by virtue of their ability.
This is especially evident in Yang Yuancao.
When she returned from the United Kingdom to start a business, Yang Yuancao was poor and white, in her own words: no background, no dry father, no connections, the only thing that is talented and posture.
Yang Yuancao took the trouble to recommend programs and ideas to customers, and people had no patience to deal with the unknown people.
When customers are clubbing, they think of "that beautiful girl during the day" and ask her to go out for two drinks.
Yang Yuancao gladly went to the appointment, because she had a concept in the grassroots period:
Everyone has a "kneeling" time, if you don't look down on yourself, and you are not humble enough, after 10 o'clock in the evening, with your own dry goods, you can still get some affirmation.
There may be only one percent chance of the opportunity, but as long as she catches it, she will never let it go.
This savage growth force is indeed quite like Deng Wendi's.
Compared with her, Chen Liangling and Guo Xinyi all rely on business, rely on further education, and upgrade upwards.
Chen Liangling's auction video has a maximum of 128,000 plays on Station B.
English/Mandarin switch back and forth, shout out quotations, final hammer, trillions of trading dust settled.
Every time Chen Liangling shouts an offer on the stage, her eyes will turn to the seller holding up the card, plus body language and gestures, so that the seller will have a feeling of being noticed.
In the extreme excitement and pleasure of people, it is easy to be put on the shelf and inevitable, and the lot is more likely to be auctioned at a high price.
This process is intense and exciting, like a competitive game, with good technical content and ornamentality, and what is needed is not a hard-hitting way, but a combination of wisdom, emotional intelligence, adaptability and speaking.
At each auction, Chen Liangling would wear a satin cheongsam with inlaid buckles, which complemented the Chinese porcelain she displayed.
There is already an emphasis on wearing, and in terms of makeup and accessories, choose minimalism.
Every time Before Chen Liangling goes on stage, she will tie her long hair up and rarely wear earrings, because rings will collide with the headset and make a sound.
There are elements of professional women and the pursuit of beauty by ordinary women.
(Image source: "TATLER Shangliu" Weibo)
She is also a big fan of Lin Qingxia and has seen "The Undefeated Rise of the East" 23 times.
Lin Qingxia went to Christie's Hong Kong office to see the preview, and Chen Liangling blushed for a second, and was quipped by her colleagues: You are really ashamed.
Colleagues do not know that Lin Qingxia of "Oriental Undefeated" is heroic and handsome, and there is also oriental charm, which is Chen Liangling's love complex, and later chose to deal with oriental art, and also has a credit to Lin Qingxia.
It is also the highest realm of star chasing.
What do they really look like ordinary women?
In 2013, a magazine asked Yang Yuancao to put on the cover, with the headline "Queen of the Talent Show Wearing High Heels".
The report wrote about Yang Yuancao's dressing style:
Her favorite thing is to wear Jimmy Choo's 10 cm high heels, a YSL white sheer shirt, Cartier's rings and earrings, and delicate makeup to talk to a bunch of big guys.
This elite sense of styling is actually related to the ex.
When a certain boyfriend quarreled with her, he said angrily: You women who are entrepreneurs have become like old witches in the end, suffering and polishing, extremely ugly!
These words suddenly stimulated Yang Yuancao and gave myself a flag: I must be successful and beautiful again!
Eight years later, she joined Christie's, and a Zhongshan suit was worn by her with a bold toughness.
The combination of black and white suits, cool and clean, is very in line with the career positioning.
"Success" and "beauty" are all got.
Some people define her as the category of "marrying well", but the premise of "marrying well" is still: good work.
Before entering the media industry, Yang Yuancao won the BBC Journalism Newcomer Award with the documentary "International Student", and her annual salary was 600,000 yuan as soon as she graduated from college.
She was noticed by Li Ruigang because "The Voice" invested 80 million yuan and returned more than 300 million yuan.
In 2015, Li Ruigang acquired TVB and integrated Chinese culture. Two years later, the 37-year-old Yang Yuancao married Uncle Li, and the combination of the two was both a strong alliance and a commercial marriage.
Although auction is another professional field and the threshold is quite high, Yang Yuancao has its own advantages:
First of all, production and auction are essentially the circulation of resources.
To do variety shows, you have to save resources and bring the best directors and teams together to make a hit;
Now the auction is to save experts, buyers and sellers to keep the collection in circulation.
Yang Yuancao is very confident in herself: I have been doing media for more than ten years, not saying the best, but it is definitely one of the better.
Uncle Li's "Chinese Culture" has invested in Station B, Kuaishou, and incubated pear videos... What ordinary people watch and play is Uncle Li's industry.
The auction house that is eager to transform and go out of the circle, please go to Yang Yuancao, which is equivalent to getting a double resource package. This business is too cost-effective.
Secondly, to do business in China, you need a China pass.
Christie's has 10 auction centers around the world, more than 40% of the auction performance comes from Asia, and the Chinese market has the largest growth space.
Compared with the mature European and American markets, to carry out business in China, you need a long-sleeved good dancer, and you can play with capital operations and leverage the market, so the title given to Yang Yuancao is not only the chairman of Christie's China, but also the image ambassador of China.
Yang Yuancao also has her own observations on the domestic market: in addition to the north, Shanghai and Guangzhou, there are also elites in other cities who are interested in art collection, and they are eager to meet the top collections.
Opening up this part of the market is what she wants to do.
In addition, auctions are a highly vertical industry that needs to target the right group of people.
31% of Christie's customers are "millennials", that is, post-80s and post-90s.
Yang Yuancao herself is a post-80s generation, has overseas study experience, knows that the target customers are collectors of "millennials", and there is no shortage of young Chinese leaders from all walks of life.
For them, seeing exhibitions, admiring works of art, collecting watches and fine jewelry... Not to show off your wealth, but to live everyday.
If you want to do business with any kind of people, you must first become that kind of person.
Yang Yuancao has a label that is: "there are children and horses" entrepreneurs.
There are few female polo players in China, and Yang Yuancao not only has her own BMW, Picara, but also often participates in polo competitions.
The cost of raising horses is between 150,000 and 200,000 a year, not including participation, transportation, hiring coaches... fees.
This invisible threshold automatically filters out high-net-worth individuals, which overlaps with potential customers at auction.
She began learning piano at the age of 6, piano level 9, love to travel, fluent in Spanish.
In order to donate to the cancer research cause, I participated in a marathon and ran to the nail cover to fall off.
Charity & marathon is now the most popular hobby of the top people in China, and auctions & charity have always been the ticket to the upper social circle.
Others need to sharpen their heads to climb upwards and cross the circle, Yang Yuancao has been prepared early, and can do a lot at any time.
In this era, women's spiritual totems are not limited to glamorous stars and celebrities who marry into the rich. Female auctioneers who stand on the auction stage and wave their heads have also made their own achievements.
To stand out in the male world, the women of auction houses offer templates to learn from:
Reading is always the most valuable lifelong wealth.
Xinyi Guo received her first degree as a Bachelor of History and Arts degree from Harvard University, followed by a double master's degree from Stanford University Business School and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.
Chen Liangling studied biological sciences at Cornell University in the United States, and then entered the Christie's College of Fine Arts in London to read a master's degree in Chinese art history;
Yang Yuancao first received a bachelor's degree in mass media and sociology from Cardiff University in the United Kingdom, and later a master's degree in advertising and market economy from the Royal College of Arts.
Don't rush to set limits for yourself.
Producers, polytechnic women, Wall Street elites... Women in other industries can also choose their own career direction.
Finally, career & marriage is not a separate relationship, they are all important components of life.
Women can make their careers sound and colorful, and get the respect and love of men with their courage and strength, which is always better than showing weakness and flattery.
When you cut through the thorns with passion, stand on a larger platform, and look at the world with a broader vision, you will only get more and more goodwill, strength and resources.