Adil Memettur (C) and his business partners Jiang Jinya (R) and Jiang Chunyang pose for photos in their Matang confection workshop in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, May 22, 2014. Adil Memettur is a senior student at Changsha University of Science & Technology. Along with two of his classmates, Jiang Jinya and Jiang Chunyang, the 23-year-old now runs an online business selling the Matang, a Uygur cake-like confection native to northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. In December 2012, a villager in Hunan fought with Uygur street vendors after disputes over the Matang's price. The incident led to a mass online discussion with considerable misconceptions towards the Matang. Adil thought the confection from his hometown could be justified if he started making and selling them himself. With an initial capital of 30,000 yuan (4,800 U.S. dollars), he and his two partners launched their Matang business on Taobao, a Chinese e-commerce platform. Adil was born into a family in Kashgar with a Matang-making tradition, and has learned therefrom a decent set of techniques which include boiling malt syrup, mixing the syrup with walnuts, almonds and raisins, and pouring the mixture into a mould case for further solidification, densification and cooling. His business won support from his parents, who mail fresh Matang ingredients to Changsha, where the three university entrepreneurs make the confections in a rent home. Adil's online business witnessed a sales boom after the Matang was introduced early in May on "A Bite of China", a hit cuisine documentary. In May 3 and 4 alone, the three of them received over 6,000 online orders with the daily sales volume exceeding 100,000 yuan (16,010 U.S. dollars). They even hired extra staff members to keep up with the surging demand. Adil and his partners are now planning on an entity store. He hopes the Matang, once an important energy supply for caravans on the Silk Road, could one day be sold in supermarkets and offer an additional snack choice for customers. (Xinhua/Li Ga)
