Located in Shawan Ancient Town, the Cow Queen Dessert Shop is one of the must-visit places for tourists visiting Shawan Ancient Town. The antique Xiguan Mansion has a huge plaque hanging on the door - Shawan Cow Queen. Before I entered the door, I smelled the thick smell of milk. There are more than a dozen Cantonese marble round tables and chairs in the house, with blue bricks, foot doors, and sliding doors, exuding a unique Lingnan charm. Wang Xiutian is the owner of this dessert shop, a native of Panyu Shawan, and everyone affectionately calls her Sister Sweet. With the business philosophy of emphasizing quality and keeping credibility, she has created a traditional Shawan buffalo milk snack brand that is well-known in Guangzhou and well-known in the country.
"Shawan Cow Queen" Wang Xiutian
Starting with two cows, she insisted on raising cattle scientifically to ensure food safety
More than 40 years ago, in order to support her family, Wang Xiutian used the family's only savings to buy two dairy cows to raise, and started her first business in life. Because they didn't know how to raise them at first, the two cows became thinner and thinner. Later, she followed the advice of several elderly people in the village and made herbal tea for the cows, and the situation of the cows, who were originally anorexic, continued to improve. Half a year later, two cows gave birth to baby cows. With her persistence and hard work, the number of cows gradually increased. In 1984, she built a dairy farm covering an area of more than 500 square meters and became a large farmer in the village.
The buffalo milk produced by Wang Xiutian Dairy Farm is mainly sold to dessert shops, hotels and the public to buy directly, so she knows the importance of food safety. With the strong support of the Shawan town government, her husband went to Thailand to learn the advanced technology of foreign dairy farming. In addition to regular check-ups and milk testing, the couple also learned from veterinarians about the treatment of cow diseases, and read books on the prevention and treatment of cow diseases whenever they have free time, so as to improve the prevention and control of cow diseases and ensure the healthy milk production of dairy cows. In order to allow guests to drink fresh milk, Wang Xiutian and her family get up in the dark at 4 a.m. every day, feed the cows, milk the cows, sterilize the milk, bottle it, and then deliver it to customers in large quantities; In the middle of the night, Wang Xiutian still did not forget to check the records of the cows observed during the day, fully control the health status of the cows, and ensure the safety of milk.
Today, she raises as many as 200 dairy cows, and the milk is exported to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai and other places, and the products are also certified as "green and organic agricultural products" by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.
After the success of the business, Wang Xiutian led the villagers to get rich together and established the Shawan Buffalo Milk Women's Economic Cooperative to promote the standardized and scientific development of dairy cow breeding, making the Shawan buffalo milk breeding industry a well-known characteristic agricultural industry.
Starting with a bowl of desserts, she insisted on honest management to create a food business card
In Wang Xiutian's heart, there has always been a wish, that is, to carry forward the "Shawan buffalo milk traditional snacks". In December 2011, in the center of Shawan Ancient Town, Wang Xiutian's Shawan Zhixiu (Cow Queen) dessert shop was opened, producing and selling all kinds of Shawan buffalo milk traditional snacks. At the beginning of its opening, the business of the dessert shop was bleak due to its lack of management, and sometimes it was even impossible to pay the rent. But she did not retreat and give up, but continued to investigate the market, adjust ideas, improve products, adhere to the purpose of honesty and quality, insist on the selection of fresh, high-quality buffalo milk, adhere to the use of traditional production skills and technology, and finally produce a milky fragrance, moderate spicy, rich taste of Cantonese dessert ginger buried milk, retaining the authentic traditional Lingnan flavor, deeply loved by people. Later, he launched his own newly developed buffalo milk snack "taro fried milk", which is also popular among tourists.
With excellent product quality, traditional and authentic craftsmanship, and innovative dessert styles, the dessert shop has attracted a large number of tourists and repeat customers. The store's special products such as "Cow Queen Specialty Gift Bag" and "Ginger Buried Milk" were rated as "Top Ten Souvenirs in Guangzhou" and "Gold Medal Famous Snacks" at the China Food Expo, and Zhixiu (Cow Queen) dessert shop has also become a beautiful business card for the promotion of dessert food in Shawan Ancient Town.
The sentence that hangs on her lips the most is: "My dairy business can have today's development and honor thanks to the party and the government." After the success of entrepreneurship and prosperity, Wang Xiutian did not forget her social responsibility. During the epidemic in 2020, Wang Xiutian's company faced crises such as difficulties in resuming work and rising costs, but she not only insisted on not laying off employees or reducing salaries, but also provided food for all employees in view of the inconvenience of employees going home for dinner during the epidemic, reducing their living pressure, not only adhering to the labor contract with employees, but also practicing corporate social responsibility.
Extending from a new store, she insists on quality first and inherits intangible cultural heritage
The delicious desserts attracted many diners from other regions, who were full of praise for the snacks and lamented that the distance was too long to "sigh" from time to time, which gave Wang Xiutian the idea of opening a branch in the center of Guangzhou. In addition, the audience of traditional desserts has always been mainly "Lao Guangzhou", Wang Xiutian, as the inheritor of Guangzhou's intangible cultural heritage of Shawan buffalo milk traditional snack making skills, also hopes to make Shawan buffalo milk snacks loved by more young "new Guangzhou people".
So, in July 2020, she was invited to enter Guangzhou Tianhe Taikoo Hui Super Wenheyou and opened her first branch in 10 years. Although it is a branch, it is mainly in charge of Wang Xiutian's youngest son. The products here are directly delivered to the store by the Shawan main store every day to ensure the same authentic taste as the Shawan main store, and the products are sold out on the same day, and no overnight desserts are sold, and the quality is strictly controlled. This is the first time that the "Queen of Cows in Shawan" has stepped out of Shawan and approached young people, and since the opening of the store, there has been an endless stream of young diners in the store. With the help of the Internet celebrity effect of Super Wenheyou, more young people and "new Guangzhou people" recognized this traditional dessert shop, and also paid more attention to the intangible cultural heritage of Shawan buffalo milk traditional snacks.
In addition, Wang Xiutian is also committed to cultivating intangible cultural heritage inheritors of the traditional snack making skills of Shawan buffalo milk, and since 2018, Wang Xiutian has trained more than 2,000 people in total. It also actively participated in the live broadcast of the 2020 "Cultural and Natural Heritage Day" and Panyu Intangible Cultural Heritage Shopping Festival in Panyu District in June 2020, bringing netizens a wide variety of buffalo milk products. At the event, Wang Xiutian sold live at a price below cost, attracting more than 150,000 online views, and related products were warmly sought after, helping Panyu District to fully resume work and production.
Wang Xiutian participated in the "Pearl Water Golden Sound Cantonese Rhyme and Joy Township" - Lantern Festival activities in the New Era Civilization Practice Center
Wang Xiutian's excellent deeds have attracted the attention and reports of many media. On February 24, 2024, at the Lantern Festival event held at the New Era Civilization Practice Center (Nancun Cultural Center) in Panyu District, the famous actors Zu Qing, Xie Wangyang, Zheng Ziluo, and Huang Huifeng took Wang Xiutian as the prototype and performed the touching sitcom "The Inheritance of the Spirit of Model Workers", by telling the story of the moral model Wang Xiutian, leading everyone to start from "me", starting from the small things around them, practicing the "concept of struggle and happiness", and leading the new trend of civilization. Cultivate and carry forward the core socialist values.
In recent years, Wang Xiutian has successively won the honorable titles of "National Model Worker", "National Rural Science and Technology Rich Female Expert", "Guangdong Provincial Model Worker", "Guangdong Good Man", "The Ninth Guangzhou Moral Model", "Guangzhou 38 Red Flag Bearer", "Rural Revitalization Women's Action", "Most Red Hostess" and "Sister Food" in Guangzhou's Beautiful Rural Tour.
"Do a good job of yourself, make good products, and let diners eat at ease" is the business philosophy that Wang Xiutian has always adhered to. She concentrates on being a fine and beautiful high-quality enterprise, does not blindly pursue scale, adheres to integrity, gives full play to the spirit of craftsmanship, raises "a cow", does a good job of "a bowl of desserts", inherits a good craft, and carries forward an intangible cultural heritage!
Text/photo: Panyu financial media reporter Wu Hongying