Ewa Trading Company
Meet the owners of this Manhattan Chinatown tea and Chinese medicine and herb shop.
Ewa 4Welcome to Chinatown
Meet Zhou Rui Xian (周瑞賢)
Mr. Zhou owns and runs Ewa Trading Company along with his wife. Ewa Trading has served a wide range of customers from Chinatown and beyond with their health and well-being.
"I’ve been running Ewa Trading Company for about 20 years. The business predates us - it was “Ewa Trading” then too. My wife started working with the previous owner when she immigrated to the United States in the 1980s. I came to the United States in 1991, and started working here in 1997. Back then, it was the owner and four or five employees. The previous owner eventually decided to retire and we took over, and it’s just been us two since."
Customer care
When customers come in not knowing what they want, Mr. and Mrs. Zhou will ask about symptoms and make a recommendation: explaining each ingredient, and what combinations to use to make a soup or tea.
"At home, we use it all! We often make soups: four ingredients soup (四物湯), astragalus root soup (北芪湯), and so on. Every week we have a different soup, most importantly ginseng soup. It’s good for respiratory health and expelling yeet hay (熱氣). "
Diverse customers
Ewa Trading's customers are diverse in every aspect: race, ethnicity, age etc. Tourists will often come in for gifts too.
Ewa 1Welcome to Chinatown
Why Chinatown?
"Chinatown has a special character, being amongst a large group of Chinese people. Coming to this neighborhood, it almost feels like home, like family. And the food! Chinese barbeque is my favorite, and dim sum." - Mr. Zhou
Hope for Chinatown's future
"I hope that Chinatown in New York will develop and expand forever. One element of Chinatown's legacy and spirit that I hope to never lose is the hard work, strength, and discipline the community has put in to support and stand up their own businesses." - Mr. Zhou
"Because my industry can help customers solve their health and wellness problems and make customers happy, I regard it as a treasure. I hope that ten or twenty years from now, this industry will continue to be passed on to serve the community." - Mr. Zhou
Ewa 3Welcome to Chinatown
Learn more:
Read the full interview: welcometochinatown.com/news/business-spotlight-ewa-trading-company|
And stop by Ewa Trading at 80 Mulberry!
Photos courtesy of Derick Marquez and the Zhou family
Interview by Dominic Sonkowksy
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