Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: August 31, 2003
Article Type: Journal

Small, boyish-looking, ever-smiling, Ha Yi Qi (pronounced Ha Eechee), of Beijing, hardly presents as a tycoon, but that is exactly what the renowned kitemaker is. A fourth generation craftsman, “Mr. Ha,” as he is widely known in the West, runs a factory employing well over 100 people and brings in serious money to his country from his exports to a dozen countries, mainly the U.S. and Japan. He travels widely and finds obtaining an exit visa from his country much easier than most, a tribute to his economic contribution.

Famous for his kites, those his factory turns out and particularly those he himself makes, paints, and signs, particularly the swallows that are the traditional kite of the capital city of China, his factory also turns out a run of goods mostly of the tourist variety—— paintings, lanterns, weavings, objects of bamboo. Right now, business is booming.

In a recent interview at the Sunderland kite festival in England’s Tyne and Wear area in the northeast area of the country, near Newcastle, with a Mandarin-speaking translator bridging the language barrier, Mr. Ha said that the family business was begun in the mid-19th century by a great-grandfather. In typical Chinese fashion, the business was passed down to male heirs, with Mr. Ha taking over when his father, Ha Kuiming, died in l993 at age 79. The present Mr. Ha is 49. His wife helps him run the company, Beijing Yimeng Tourism Products Co.

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