Second-generation factory owners in China, like Robyn Qiu, leverage digital skills to revitalize manufacturing amid rising challenges.

Dressed in a pristine white knit top, Robyn Qiu cut an incongruous figure in her parents' dusty, hangar-like metal hardware factory in eastern China as she gestured excitedly while an assistant filmed her on a smartphone. The 29-year-old is one of many second-generation factory owners fighting to elevate the country's…

Dressed in a pristine white knit top, Robyn Qiu cut an incongruous figure in her parents' dusty, hangar-like metal hardware factory in eastern China as she gestured excitedly while an assistant filmed her on a smartphone. When Qiu was a child, her parents encouraged her to aim for a white-collar office job far from the dust and din of the factory floor.

Dressed in a pristine white knit top, Robyn Qiu cut an incongruous figure in her parents' dusty, hangar-like metal hardware factory in eastern China as she gestured excitedly while an assistant filmed her on a smartphone. When Qiu was a child, her parents encouraged her to aim for a white-collar office job far from the dust and din of the factory floor.