A pioneer who’s conquering the Chinese toy market

By Peter Budig

China is probably the largest manufacturer of toys and board game components for the European market. But so far, it’s scarcely been a sales market for high-quality board games, especially for children and families. Since 2018, however, Chinese-born entrepreneur Tianshu Schüler-Yang has made it her mission to change this – with remarkable results.

“Back in 2018,” she recalls, “I started writing a blog for Chinese families. I wanted to persuade them that playing games with children, as a family, was enjoyable. And that it also made sense to foster social learning. Children learn to cope with frustration; they learn that things carry on even if they don’t always win, that you get better, you can create opportunities and have fun in the process.” In the meantime, she has written 315 articles – all of them on the topic of playing – on her blog on “WeChat”, the most used social media platform in China (Photo: Blog on WeChat platform).

Promoter of playfulness

In today’s China, board games only serve one purpose: that of learning. At least, that’s how Schüler-Yang recalls things. For children, playing is just another way to achieve something. The pleasurable and social element is what the 38-year-old woman got to know only when she started playing games with her now 12-year-old daughter in Germany. “There were these games just for children everywhere in Germany. In kindergartens, when you went to see the doctor, when you visited families. And we discovered how great these games were, how much fun it was, even though I nearly always lose against my “big” daughter these days,” she says, breaking out into infectious laughter.

Her family taught her independence

The business administration graduate is well equipped to found a company. She comes from the heartland of Zhejiang province in Southeast China. She grew up there in an entrepreneurial family: her father produced doors. And for Chinese standards, it was quite a large family, with two siblings. “When I left school at 18, I wanted to go to Beijing to study international business at a very respected university. My father, who always supported us all, did some research of his own and discovered a degree course combined with German. The degree programme offered four years of study in China and a three year master’s course in Potsdam. I was immediately won over,” she said. An internship in the area of “sales management” at Volkswagen in Germany during her studies later led to a permanent position in the automotive industry. Her determined way of working, the fact that Chinese was her mother tongue, combined with a very good knowledge of German and her cultural diversity made her a valuable employee.

A desire for new challenges after founding a family

During this time, Ms Yang met Mr Schüler and founded a family; they live near Braunschweig and now have two children. “It was then obvious to me that I was going to stay in Germany. Children here in Germany don’t have such a stressful childhood.” But after the second period of maternity leave after the birth of her son, the entrepreneurial spirit within her started to stir. “I’m not the kind of person who can sit in the same office for 35 years. I’m someone who seeks challenges – it’s in my blood,” she says firmly.

A change is taking place among young families in China

While Schüler-Yang was discovering the world of games with her children, she realised that a change was taking place back in China. “Our parents’ generation just worked; children were raised to achieve things. These days, young, well-educated Chinese families are discovering the joys of family life, too.” But there had long been a dearth of family games on the Chinese markets and she began to take a more systematic look at German and other European publishers and their products in the children and family sector.

Market research and brand building

She was now able put her professional experience to good use; “At Volkswagen, I learnt a lot about how an organisation works and how you can create partnerships.” In 2016, she attended the China Toy Expo, or Shanghai Toys for short, the leading platform in China; she systematically tracked down toy shops, did research online and realised that “this is a branch that isn’t very crowded yet.” In parallel to that, she presented games and rules in her blog – in texts and in videos that she produced herself. This increasingly served the purposed of advertising and consolidating her own brand, “xuleyuan”, which she founded in 2018. “Andor Junior” from KOSMOS and “Spooky Stairs” from Drei Magiere (Three Magicians) were among the first successful games that she was able to place on the Chinese market. In the meantime, she has become the distribution partner of publishers such as KOSMOS, Schmidt Spiele and Zoch. She’s also been able to translate the rules for a good 200 games – and launched them on the Chinese market: “slowly and surely and always with an eye on how well a game is received”.

Ninety per cent of her business is online; and she has warehouses in the north and south of China. In total, three other women work with her; they are all mothers who like playing board games with their own children. “The pandemic was a great help; sales weren’t so good after that. The Chinese economy is slowing down. Everything is running a bit more slowly now,” is how she sees things. “But we’re going to try and swim against the tide.” Her plan is to offer high-quality games with simple, clear rules and a sophisticated design, “because children should get a feel for aesthetics at an early age”. She’s planning the future step by step “We’re still a small niche market,” she says, “but we want to commission our own games for this market from authors next year.” Tianshu Schüler-Yang is already the pioneer for European children’s and family games in China.

About the author

Peter Budig studied Protestant theology, history and political science. He worked as a freelance journalist, headed up the editorial department of a large advertising paper in Nuremberg for ten years and was the editor of Nuremberg’s Abendzeitung newspaper. He has been freelancing again since 2014 as a journalist, book author and copywriter. Storytelling is absolutely his favourite form.