Beyond food: How dumplings helped people come together

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CGTN

It’s a normal restaurant, except that you're both the customer and the cook; and you choose the amount you'd like to pay. A business like this seems a bit unbelievable.

Yet Wu Meizhu has turned it into a reality, and found her ideal lifestyle in it.

Photo from Sohu.

Wu used to lead a normal life like many others.

She left her hometown for college, and found a job in the city. "I seldom had my parents around in my childhood. They left as migrant workers, and I only got to see them during summer vacations."

So, Wu spent most of her time with her grandparents at her hometown, in a rural area.

CGTN Photo

Because of her childhood experience, Wu constantly asked herself: "What is the most important thing in one's life?"

When Wu's grandmother passed away in 2003, she failed to go back and see her grandmother at the last moment. As time went by, she found it harder to bid farewell to those who had been close to her. And that came out a turning point in her life.

" Is it really worthy as people spend their lifetime working for a job and salary, at the cost of walking away from their lives' most important part?"

So she started to practice yoga and became a vegetarian, trying to find the true connection between humans and the world. She quit her job and became a certified yoga instructor, which allowed her to travel around while giving yoga instructions. In her spare time, she volunteered to distribute humanitarian supplies in war-torn regions in the world and help impoverished children.

Photo from Sohu.

Over the years, she has witnessed death and famine. She has also been touched when some refugees in the worst conditions repay volunteers with the best thing they have, be it a flower or a tiny handicraft.

These experiences made Wu think about how to share the inspiration and return the kindness she received from other people: "I want to get people connected together."

CGTN Photo

In 2013, she opened a dumpling restaurant, with only one table in an alley in the east Chinese city of Xiamen. "Sitting around the big table, the strangers can make and eat dumplings like a family."

The small restaurant is carefully decorated with wooden furniture and warm lighting. Neatly written on a blackboard are the 24 solar terms. The style feels more like a café for gathering and relaxing.

The ingredients are all freshly purchased from the market every day. Wu learns to make dumplings even from the customers. The dough is dyed with vegetable juice, so the dumplings are colorful and more attractive, of course more tasty.

CGTN Photo

Once in a while, the restaurant holds community activities that encourages everyone to prepare and eat dumplings together. "The customers help each other like a family. No one has ever complained about waiting for the food."

People pay as much as they think is appropriate. Many people pay more than they should. The restaurant’s budget is balanced so far. Wu says: "I think trust is far more valuable than any sum I could earn." For her, the restaurant is a symbol of happiness for many including herself.

Photo from Sohu.

"Living in this society, we have to help and love each other," she says. "Although a very common food, it is the symbol of reunion and inclusiveness. Many beautiful things beyond food happen here every day. I feel so blessed,” says Wu.

The story is one in The 1.3 Billion series exploring the diverse lives that make up China.