Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

COMMONLY called jiaozi, dumplings are a year-round favorite for many Chinese people. Whether it’s from restaurants or homemade cooking, the common food is deeply woven into Chinese culture and a bowl of hot dumplings can not only bring warmth, but also contain a lot of love.

On the first floor of the Outpatient and Medical Services Block of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH) in Futian District, there is a special restaurant that sells dumplings made by a special group of employees.

With a 30-square-meter open kitchen that sells handmade dumplings, the dumpling store – “Dumplings R Love” – is the first restaurant in China opened by patients in a hospital’s outpatient building and has sold some 1 million dumplings since the store opened in 2021.

Spreading love

The “Dumplings R Love” dumpling store, as its name suggests, aims to help spread love in the world. Its Chinese name “爱达福” also carries similar meaning, as the three Chinese characters literally translate to “love,” “reach” and “blessing,” according to its founder Sun Yue.

Sun suffers from congenital osteogenesis imperfecta, commonly known as brittle bone disease. It is a rare genetic disorder that causes bones to break very easily, usually without any type of injury.

Sun has experienced over 30 fractures and 10 major operations and usually uses a wheelchair. Ever since she graduated from university, Sun has devoted herself to public welfare, providing support for rare disease patients and raising public awareness about rare diseases.

In early 2019, Sun and her husband Zhang Ze came to Shenzhen from Beijing and established Zero One Rare Bone Foundation in Shenzhen.

Why opening a dumpling store at HKU-SZH? The story began when the foundation’s members started providing services for bone disease patients at the hospital. They often bring self-made dumplings to patients who cannot go home for holidays.

The members also sent the dumplings to Hong Kong doctors who couldn’t go back to the special administrative region due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One day, Lo Chung-mau, then president of HKU-SZH, accidentally saw the dumplings the group sent to other patients. He then proposed to Sun that the hospital could provide a venue for them to open a dumpling store.

With the support of the hospital and society, Sun successfully raised funds to open the store. On the day of the winter solstice in 2021, on which there is a custom of eating dumplings, the store began trial operation.

At the beginning, the business goal was set at 50 servings of dumplings per day. Sales increased gradually following the warm feedback on the dumplings’ taste.

“The dumpling store currently has 20 employees, mainly disabled individuals and their families. Some are brittle disease patients and some are hearing-impaired. There is also one who has spinal injury,” Zhang, the store’s manager, told Shenzhen Daily.

The uniqueness of this store also lies in that it is an experimental site for occupational therapy.

All equipment in the store was installed according to accessibility standards. The specially customized worktop is 10 to 12 centimeters shorter than the usual one. The meat grinder, dough mixer and other equipment are smaller and more convenient for employees with short stature to operate.

“We hope to contribute to society in our own way and spread the positivity,” Zhang said, adding that he truly hopes to impress customers with taste and quality.

An inclusive city

In 2022, the store won the title of five-star high-quality project in the China Public Welfare Project Contest and received a subsidy of 100,000 yuan (US$13,946).

According to Sun, the subsidy and financial support from the Shenzhen Welfare Lottery Public Welfare Fundhelped the store survive in 2022.

Now the store’s monthly revenue exceeds 100,000 yuan, and the average monthly income of full-time staff is above 6,000 yuan.

Since 2012, the China Public Welfare Project Contest has been held annually to award high-quality projects that aim to care for the underprivileged.

Sun hopes her store to be able to create more jobs for patients, encourage them to live actively, and build a bridge for them to integrate into society more quickly.

“I think Shenzhen not only has a beautiful ecological environment, but also is very inclusive and has a great cultural environment,” Zhang said. “It is also very friendly to people with disabilities, aiming to build a barrier-free city.”