AuthorA busy workplace employee from central China’s Henan province, fed up with the meals being delivered to him, and “too lazy to cook dinner” himself, got here up with a novel answer for handy, wholesome meals: He signed as much as eat at Xiaofanzhou District, a form of restaurant. An after-school care middle usually utilized by faculty kids.
In China, Xiaofanzhou, which accurately means “small eating desk,” is a singular idea that features facilities the place elementary and center faculty kids can go after faculty. These facilities, which first appeared within the Eighties when increasingly more households had two working mother and father, supply sizzling meals, homework assist, and different providers to fulfill the wants of busy households.
In a viral video shared on the microblogging platform Weibo on Could 1, a resident of Henan Province, who makes use of the username “Xiaoxiongpicha,” entered an area faculty whereas panning his digital camera round a room crammed with desks and bunk beds so college students might relaxation. In the course of the break. .
He ultimately arrives on the canteen, the place he chooses from a wide range of dishes. The video ends with a shot of an empty lunch tray. “My mother would not have to fret about my meals anymore,” he joked within the video, admitting that consuming with college students whose mother and father are the identical age as him is a bit embarrassing.
The renewed curiosity in xiaofanzhuo additionally takes a nostalgic flip for a lot of adults who went to one among these locations as kids. “I used to be 7 years outdated once I final went to Xiaofanzhou. I’m 31 now,” the Weibo consumer stated.
The video resonated with many working adults in China making an attempt to steadiness their busy schedules with wholesome, handy and inexpensive meals choices. Greater than 85% of 1,723 respondents in a Weibo ballot stated they “want” or “urgently want” such a service both as a result of they’re uninterested in consuming takeout meals or as a result of they’re too lazy to cook dinner.
To capitalize on the demand, many have been fast to launch xiaofanzhuo grownup providers. “Most of our prospects are workplace goers,” Gao Yu, who runs one such eating middle in Tianjin, advised Sixth Tone.
Gao costs 30 yuan ($4) per individual for a meal consisting of two meat dishes, two vegetable dishes, and a bowl of rice. Official information present that the common month-to-month disposable earnings in Tianjin through the first quarter of this yr reached 4,666 yuan per individual.
“For our prospects, selecting xiaofanzhuo means they do not have to fret about what they eat each day. They get a wholesome meal as an alternative of fatty and salty meals,” Gao stated.
Editor: Apoorva.
(Banner picture: A Xiao Hongshu Unfold on meals “small eating desk”.)