Pictures show how internet growth helped the little guy

While the recent Fifth World Internet Conference in Wuzhen, East China's Zhejiang province, showed off the world's most cutting-edge online technologies, a photo exhibition, which ran concurrently with the event offered a glimpse into how such developments have benefited the users.

There were 100 photos in total, through the display of which, ordinary people got to step into the spotlight and see how their lives have been changed by technology.

As the name of the exhibition-Warmth-suggested, the pictures, together with the stories behind them warmed the hearts of those hurrying past in the bitter wind and rain of Wuzhen.

So how has the internet exerted influence upon ordinary people's lives over the past two decades?

Of the images used, one was attributed to Zhou Mi, a photographer at the Jiangxi branch of Xinhua News Agency. When he saw the picture at the convention center on Nov 7, he was instantly transported back to the moment when he had pressed the shutter.

In the photo a man can be seen presenting a video clip showing off the wares and produce of his mountain hometown, such as dried bamboo shoots, preserved vegetables and dried beans, to his fans online.

The 40-year-old man, named Jiang Jinchun, is from a remote village in Jiangxi province's Hengfeng county. However, with more than 1 million fans now from all around the country on popular short video and live streaming apps like Kuaishou, he is also an online celebrity.

For 11 years he had his own business in Yiwu, a paradise for small merchandise trade in Zhejiang. However, Jiang said he returned to his hometown in 2011 where he began posting short videos online for a living in 2015.

He sometimes role-plays Lu Zhishen, a warrior monk from classic novel The Water Margin, and often uploads short videos showing the area's landscape, the everyday lives of the local farmers and their agricultural products.

As he became more well known by a growing number of fans, local products, like the ones in the picture, were snapped up by his fans.

Jiang says through the videos, he has helped villagers to sell out more than 900 kilograms of tea, around 300 kg of dried bamboo shoots and more than 600 kg of products made from the root of kudzu vine, a kind of traditional Chinese medicine this year.