Wang Sheng Da Museum in the west of Ningbo City honors a rice business that started four generations ago by a Wang family. A businessman who runs a food company in Ningbo, Wang Liubao had the museum built in 2013 to honor his great grandfather who founded and operated the rice shop and made it a great success.  is now a provincial old-time business brand. The museum not only honors the business but also presents an exhibition of rice products once popular in Ningbo. At the museum, visitors can see how, in good old days, rice grain was processed and how different cakes and dumplings were made for folk festivities all the year round.

Wang Sheng Da was founded by Wang Xingru in 1889. He was a farmer by trade. When farming was not busy, he worked as a fisherman and found a way to catch turtles. This gave him an edge on the fish market. Gradually he accumulated a capital fund and started a rice shop. Wang Xingru knew the customers who bought just a small quantity of rice were usually from poverty-stricken families and he gave these customers an extra quantity just like a baker’s dozen. The rice shop’s policy attracted a large group of customers. The business flourished.

Sheng in the name of the business refers to a very basic weight unit in measuring rice.Da in Chinese means bigness.Wang Sheng Da indicates that Wang’s shop gives a baker’s dozen. Wang Xingru adopted the description given by his customers. The name became a brand and a legend.

The three-story museum gives a vivid presentation on rice-related matters such as rice farming, rice products and tradition. Exhibits come in various kinds: documents, models, photos, sculpture, paintings, and objects. The exhibits on the first floor combine to show the history of the Wang family’s rice business. Also on the display on the first floor are other products Wang Sheng Da sold after it expanded its business: cooking oil, sesame oil, rice wine and grape wine, kitchen seasonings such as MSG, vinegar and soybean sauce.

On the second floor are tools used in rice farming such as wooden plough, wooden waterwheel, millstone, and bellows. The pictures and objects demonstrate every step of rice farming. Also on display are a lot of rhymes about rice farming and rice products. One rhyme names all the special rice cakes and dumplings for festivities month by month from January to December. 

As a member of the Wangs that run rice business, Wang Liubao holds fast to a set of values which has been carried on in the family: generosity, honesty, sincerity, care and frugality, gratitude, respect. The museum exists to highlight these values and gives an education on the importance of food.

The museum even displays a story about rice on a wall of the museum. In the story of several decades ago, Wang Liubao was still a kid. His father brought him to see a doctor at hospital. After the visit to the outpatient department, the father and the son had lunch at a roadside restaurant. After seeing a woman flicked cigarette ash into a bowl of rice she didn’t finish eating, the father felt offended by the waste and said so. The woman flared up and a quarrel broke out. Now Wang Liubao understands his father better. The moral of the story is simple enough: a lot of hard work goes into rice farming before a bowl of rice can be served. It is everybody’s obligation to cherish food.

The museum has a workshop that doubles as a winery and food processing workroom.