ABSTRACT
There is a touch of cosmopolitanism to Taiwanese food cultural soft power. Taiwanese indigenous food and agricultural practices are infused with colonial-era Japanese cuisines, mainland provincial dishes and Italian and American influences. The cultural cross-pollination of global flavors and food influences with domestically-produced agricultural/farm products becomes a foundation for the Taiwanese food cultural industry. Culinary dishes and menus symbolize societal values to others. Cosmopolitan Taiwanese food and agricultural products also appeal to multicultural Singapore. Despite the overhanging presence of a global COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwanese food promotion continued in Singapore unabated. The Kaohsiung City Government and Singapore supermarket operators jointly put together an agricultural products festival to assist Taiwanese farmers and promote their fruits/vegetables in Singapore. The Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs allocated NT$200 million (US$6.7 million) subsidies to guide Taiwanese food producers to expand their businesses in 13 destinations (including Singapore). The Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs worked with Redmart, Singapore’s largest online grocery website, to retail Taiwanese food products and agricultural products. At the height of the pandemic in Singapore, Singaporean foodies and travel fans were able to participate in the Taiwan Food Tour between 4 and 6 November 2022 at Suntec City, featuring more than 100 Taiwanese cuisines.
Keywords: soft power, cosmopolitan, Taiwan, Singapore, fruit
INTRODUCTION
When the second Michelin Guide Taipei was published on 10 April 2019, old-school one-star recipients like Mountain and Sea House and Tainan Tantsumien Seafood Restaurant that made inexpensive and high-quality foods were joined by the likes of famous chef Andre Chiang known for his modern pig blood cake dish (Chien, 2019). With such fusion chefs joining the distinguished list, there is also an element of cosmopolitanism to Taiwanese food cultural soft power. Taiwanese indigenous food and agricultural practices are made more cosmopolitan by the introduction of colonial-era Japanese cuisines and the infusion of mainland provincial dishes brought over to Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) in 1949 and, added to this hybridization process, are even newer Italian and American influences (Chien, 2019).
The cultural cross-pollination of global flavors and food influences with domestically-produced agricultural/farm products form a lodestone for Taiwanese development of its cultural tourism industry (Chien, 2019). The Michelin-starred chefs become the de facto cultural soft power ambassadors both regionally and globally as they utilized domestic farm products to generate uniquely Taiwanese flavor to global foodies (Chien, 2019). More than just food to fill the stomach, some cultural stakeholders argue that culinary dishes represent signs and symbols that present the essence of a culture or civilization to others, e.g. Korean fried chicken in South Korean TV series featuring everyday life in Korea, or the Zen concept embodied in the Japanese traditional multi-course kaiseki-ryori (seafood dishes) (Chien, 2019). Ingredients acquired for making culinary dishes represent the seasons while the cutleries and utensils represent cultural habits, experiences and lifestyles through the generations (Chien, 2019).
Contextualized in this food cultural cosmopolitanism, it is useful to look at how Taiwanese food and agricultural products appeal to a multicultural cosmopolitan society like Singapore. It is also fascinating to find out how this cosmopolitan exchange persevered even through very trying times like a pandemic. Just before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic happened, Taiwanese Food promotion in Singapore was enjoying strong popularity and attention. From 16th January till 9th February 2020 (other than 20, 21 and 22 January 2020), the Ningxia Night Market’s (nicknamed “stomach of Taipei”) chefs and vendors brought their skills to the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival at Siloso Point in Sentosa to introduce authentic Taiwanese cuisines in a mini Ningxia Night Market-like atmosphere (Goh, 2020).
There was also a touch of high-tech in the show as it was an entirely cashless event with stall staff accepting Mastercard, Visa, Wechat Pay, Alipay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and EZ-link card payments with no entry fees for attendance (Goh, 2020). Certainly, social media-worthy products were featured like the colorful green hue of the highly Instagram-able Mint & Lime Mocktail featured in Stall 14/23 of the Jan/Feb 2020 Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival Ningxia Night Market (Goh, 2020). After all, Taiwanese global soft power also emanates from its high technologies (some nicknamed it “an island of technology”) that is well-known for its semiconductors, computers and mobile phone products (Chien, 2019).
The popular night market in Taiwan attracted more than 1.8 million visitors in 2018 (Goh, 2020). Its night market atmosphere was replicated in Singapore with more than 30 food stalls offering 130 dishes like big beef noodles with flavorful noodles and tender chunky beef pieces in “QQ-textured” beef bone-braised broth that was simmered for two days (located at Stall 13: Li Zheng Braised Beef Noodles) (Goh, 2020). At the heart of cultural soft power introduction, the essence and spirit of common working-class Taiwanese food culture embodied in items such as braised pork stew, braised pork on rice and soup noodles was perhaps one of the most effective ways to project Taiwan’s soft power to the rest of the world (Chien, 2019), including the Singapore audience. Singaporean meat lovers were also treated to traditional snacks like the Taiwanese Sausage served with sausage-shaped kneaded Glutinous Rice (Stall 19), the multi-herbal Pork Rib Stew (Stall 4) and the deep-fried Egg-Bombed Scallion crispy pancake (Stall 21) with a runny egg yolk centre with applied sweet sauce permeating the hall with fried spring onion fragrance (Goh, 2020).
For seafood lovers and pescatarians amongst Singaporeans, Taiwanese Oyster Mee Sua (Stall 6) offered fresh oysters stacked on rice noodles (mee sua) served with meaty intestines and spiced up with some vinegar, chilli and white pepper for an authentic taste (Goh, 2020). Other featured dishes were the starchy Oyster Omelette immersed in thick sweet sauce, Stall 4’s freshly fried cuttlefish balls on a skewer and/or the fried fresh and tender whole squid (Stall 12) with spicy powder (Goh, 2020). Even the vegetarians had options for them at this show. A popular dish in this aspect was the pungent fermented crispy smelly tofu with a soft core immersed in a unique sweet sauce from the owner’s own recipe (Stall 8 Liu Hao’s Smelly Tofu, location identifiable by the sense of smell) served with crunchy pickles (Goh, 2020). Perhaps the global icon of Taiwanese soft cultural power is the bubble tea (known as Boba in North America, tapioca drink in Japan and paopaocha by Mandarin-speakers). The Jan/Feb 2020 Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival Ningxia Night Market featured the Brown Sugar Bubble Milk (Stall 11) with handmade brown sugar placed on fresh milk (Goh, 2020).
POLICIES AND INITIATIVES
Given the success of such immediate pre-pandemic food shows, it was not surprising that, despite the unfortunate onset of the pandemic and even in the most adverse of conditions, Taiwanese food promotion continued in Singapore. In July 2021, the Taiwan representative to Singapore Liang Kuo-hsin articulated that the Kaohsiung City Government and Singapore supermarket operators jointly put together an agricultural products festival to assist Taiwanese farmers and their fruits/vegetables to Singapore (Rodriguez, 2021). Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) also worked with the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore for this festival and other events (Rodriguez, 2021).
A year later in 2022, support for Taiwanese food producers increased. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs allocated NT$200 million (US$6.7 million) worth of “Taiwan Food Go to the World” subsidies to assist and provide guidance in marketing/finance to domestic food producers to expand their businesses in 13 destinations in Asia and North America (Liu and Wang, 2022). Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua revealed plans for the authorities to assist Taiwanese food manufacturers market their products in 13 locations (including Singapore). Firms promoting their products online on foreign website would obtain a subsidy of NT$100,000 (US$3,350) while those engaged in promotion activities can apply for a subsidy of NT$200,000 (US$6,700) for individual events (up to a maximum of five in total) (Liu and Wang, 2022).
The Ministry also set up food-related sales/promotion events, activities and exhibitions in Singapore lending support to approximately 2,000 food makers, contributing an additional US$60 million to their combined revenue while diversifying their destination markets and introducing Taiwanese delicacies to more markets in the world (Liu and Wang, 2022). In Singapore, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs worked with Redmart, Singapore’s largest internet-based grocery website, to retail Taiwanese food products, processed Taiwanese food products and agricultural products (Liu and Wang, 2022).
THE LURE OF PROCESSED FOODS
The essence of Taiwanese culinary cultures can be condensed into guided tours where visitors are then introduced to local traditional market and night market cultures with demonstrations of ingredients acquisition for food preparation (Chien, 2019). But, when a pandemic occurred, social distancing, quarantine and border lockdowns made such activities complex and difficult, and, in many cases, impossible. Therefore, the next best thing was to reproduce such tours as authentically and as accurate as possible in other consumer markets.
At the height of the pandemic in Singapore, Singaporeans who are Taiwanese cuisine foodies and Taiwan travel fans were able to participate in the Taiwan Food Tour between 4 and 6 November at Suntec City’s West Wing organized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (Lui, 2022). The Tour covered more than 100 cuisines like instant noodles, aromatic beverages, plant-based meat products, Candy Poppy (Coated Popcorn Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea), Great Day Porridge and Songye Cuisines’ halal healthy snacks like Sweet Red Beans, Sweet Taro Dajia, White Fungus Fragrant Pomelo and Purple Rice & Red Bean Porridge made from domestic agricultural products (Lui, 2022). Candy Poppy is an air-popped non-GMO corn kernel popcorn with flavors like Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea, Chocolate, Strawberry, Truffle and Hot & Spicy (Lui, 2022). Great Day Porridges are instant, healthy, ready-to-eat porridges that come in the following flavors: Great Day Assorted Vegetables Pork Broth Porridge, Great Day Korean Kimchi Beef Broth and Great Day Italian Tomato Chicken Broth Porridge (Lui, 2022).
With attractive soft power projected at a time of extraordinary challenges from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Taiwan Food Tour featured live games and a lucky wheel (like a ‘Wheel of Fortune’-type gimmick) while kids were busy with handicraft classes making bubble tea toys (Lui, 2022). This was not the first time that non-food related activities were bundled with food promotional shows. Back in Jan/Feb 2020, the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival featuring Ningxia Night Market was also designed conceptually for the whole family with Mandopop performances by stars like Wan Weiliang, Tay Kexin, Cold Cut Duo and an arcade area for kids and teenagers (Goh, 2020).
THE FRUIT EXPORTS
The Michelin guide and the Bib Gourmand selections positioned Taiwan on the global gourmet map augmenting the existing image of Taiwan as a food “treasure island” with domestically grown rice, fruit and seafood (Chien, 2019). Therefore, a discussion of the exportation of locally grown fruits may be useful to understand this soft power imagery. Besides processed foods, Taiwan is also exporting its fruits to Singapore for the first time during the pandemic era. Taiwanese agricultural exporters have diversified regionally and looked into pomelo (also known as wendan in Taiwan) exports to Singapore (Wilkinson, 2022). In this aspect, the Agriculture Department of Yunlin County (location of wendan farms) collaborated with Yijiewei Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. to promote its domestic agricultural products overseas to destinations like Singapore (Wilkinson, 2022). In their collaborations with overseas supermarket chains, approximately 290 boxes and 640 gift boxes of pomelos weighing approximately 5.4 tons were exported to Singapore (Wilkinson, 2022).
Besides wendan, Taiwan also exported pineapples to Singapore from July 2021. Towards the end of April 2021, Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) sent 450 boxes of pineapples to Singapore in cold chain temperature tracking storage throughout the shipment’s journey to Singapore where it went through standard operating procedures (SOP) and testing requirements for imported fruits before successfully obtaining the requisite approval (Rodriguez, 2021). Taiwan’s COA advised Taiwanese pineapple suppliers to maintain the fruits at 11 to 13 degrees Celsius during the shipping period until they end up on store shelves as standard operating procedures for cold shipping fruits (Wong, 2021). The pineapples were eventually distributed to Taiwan firms, overseas ethnic Chinese and Singaporean distributors for tasting sessions (Rodriguez, 2021). From 1 March 2021 to 7 April 2021, Singapore imported 25 tons (25,000kg) of pineapples from Taiwan (Wong, 2021). On 5 April 2022, Pingtung County in Taiwan (which makes up 90% of Taiwanese pineapple exports) despatched the first 15 tons of pineapples to Singapore's biggest grocer NTUC FairPrice and 30 tons per week thereafter to NTUC (Focustaiwan.tw, 2022).
In April 2021, Taiwan's Minister of Council of Agriculture (COA) Chen Chi-chung expressed his "deepest gratitude" to importing-destinations like Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong for proactively purchasing pineapples from Taiwan (Wong, 2021). In fact, Taiwanese pineapples had been featured even before the great pineapple pushout in 2021. During the Jan/Feb 2020, the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival Ningxia Night Market already featured a Pineapple Tea (Stall 4) with products made from fresh Taiwanese pineapples and tea leaves from the Alishan region for a balanced flavour (Goh, 2020).
Besides promotional shows and tasting sessions, Singapore's biggest supermarket chain also hosted Kaohsiung’s First Choice Agricultural Products Festival featuring colored peppers and guavas (Rodriguez, 2021). Other local supermarkets organized the 2021 Best of Taiwan Agricultural Products Festival (2021 Best of Taiwan) island-wide featuring Taiwanese guavas, Kyoho grapes, Jinhuang mangoes, Aiwen mangoes (apple mangoes), pears, carrots, coloured peppers, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, etc. (Rodriguez, 2021).
CONCLUSION
Taiwan’s representative to Singapore Liang Kuo-hsin noted that most agricultural products in Singapore are imported and that "Taiwan and Singapore is a complementary market" and, therefore, Liang opined that there are no cultural barriers to importing Taiwanese agricultural products into Singapore if quality and price are right (Rodriguez, 2021). It can also help the two locations understand each other’s cultural, historical and environmental contexts. Tourists entering a Taiwanese restaurant establishment or culinary classroom can experience food, spiritual values and generational cultures overcoming natural challenges in cultivating the ingredients and other struggles in life (Chien, 2019).
REFERENCES
Chien, Yu-yen. Taiwanese cuisine as soft power. Taipei Times. 24 April 2019. Retrieved from https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2019/04/24/2003713924
Focustaiwan.tw, Pingtung pineapples to become available at Singapore's biggest retailer. Fresh Plaza. 8 April 2022. Retrieved from https://www.freshplaza.com/asia/article/9416931/pingtung-pineapples-to-b...
Goh, Jonathan. Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival – Taiwanese Street Food From Ningxia Night Market, Right Here in Singapore! Misstamchiak website. 17 January 2020. Retrieved from https://www.misstamchiak.com/asian-night-market-sentosa-2020/
Liu, Tzu-hsuan and Lisa Wang. Program to boost ailing food producers. Taipei Times. 12 August 2022. Retrieved from https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2022/08/12/2003783373
Lui, Seth. Taiwan Food Tour to be held in Suntec City from 4 to 6 November 2022. Sethlui.com. 30 October 2022. Retrieved from https://sethlui.com/taiwan-food-tour-suntec-singapore-oct-2022/
Wilkinson, Richard. Eurofresh Distribution, "Taiwanese pomelos head for Singapore on maiden voyage". Eurofresh Districution. 25 August 2022. Retrieved from https://www.eurofresh-distribution.com/news/taiwanese-pomelos-head-for-s...
Rodriguez, Raymond and Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network. Supermarkets in Singapore hold "Taiwan Agricultural Products Festival". Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network website. 20 July 2021. Retrieved from https://news.immigration.gov.tw/NewsSection/Detail/a7724eb8-e609-4800-a4..., Raymond and Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network. Supermarkets in Singapore hold "Taiwan Agricultural Products Festival". Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network website. 20 July 2021. Retrieved from https://news.immigration.gov.tw/NewsSection/Detail/a7724eb8-e609-4800-a4...
Wong, Kayla. Taiwan apologises for 'black' pineapples sold to S'pore, will tighten shipping controls to ensure quality. Mothership. 7 April 2021. Retrieved from https://mothership.sg/2021/04/taiwan-black-pineapples-sorry/
Pandemic-era Taiwanese Food Promotion and its Soft Cultural Power Potential in Singapore
ABSTRACT
There is a touch of cosmopolitanism to Taiwanese food cultural soft power. Taiwanese indigenous food and agricultural practices are infused with colonial-era Japanese cuisines, mainland provincial dishes and Italian and American influences. The cultural cross-pollination of global flavors and food influences with domestically-produced agricultural/farm products becomes a foundation for the Taiwanese food cultural industry. Culinary dishes and menus symbolize societal values to others. Cosmopolitan Taiwanese food and agricultural products also appeal to multicultural Singapore. Despite the overhanging presence of a global COVID-19 pandemic, Taiwanese food promotion continued in Singapore unabated. The Kaohsiung City Government and Singapore supermarket operators jointly put together an agricultural products festival to assist Taiwanese farmers and promote their fruits/vegetables in Singapore. The Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs allocated NT$200 million (US$6.7 million) subsidies to guide Taiwanese food producers to expand their businesses in 13 destinations (including Singapore). The Taiwanese Ministry of Economic Affairs worked with Redmart, Singapore’s largest online grocery website, to retail Taiwanese food products and agricultural products. At the height of the pandemic in Singapore, Singaporean foodies and travel fans were able to participate in the Taiwan Food Tour between 4 and 6 November 2022 at Suntec City, featuring more than 100 Taiwanese cuisines.
Keywords: soft power, cosmopolitan, Taiwan, Singapore, fruit
INTRODUCTION
When the second Michelin Guide Taipei was published on 10 April 2019, old-school one-star recipients like Mountain and Sea House and Tainan Tantsumien Seafood Restaurant that made inexpensive and high-quality foods were joined by the likes of famous chef Andre Chiang known for his modern pig blood cake dish (Chien, 2019). With such fusion chefs joining the distinguished list, there is also an element of cosmopolitanism to Taiwanese food cultural soft power. Taiwanese indigenous food and agricultural practices are made more cosmopolitan by the introduction of colonial-era Japanese cuisines and the infusion of mainland provincial dishes brought over to Taiwan by the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT) in 1949 and, added to this hybridization process, are even newer Italian and American influences (Chien, 2019).
The cultural cross-pollination of global flavors and food influences with domestically-produced agricultural/farm products form a lodestone for Taiwanese development of its cultural tourism industry (Chien, 2019). The Michelin-starred chefs become the de facto cultural soft power ambassadors both regionally and globally as they utilized domestic farm products to generate uniquely Taiwanese flavor to global foodies (Chien, 2019). More than just food to fill the stomach, some cultural stakeholders argue that culinary dishes represent signs and symbols that present the essence of a culture or civilization to others, e.g. Korean fried chicken in South Korean TV series featuring everyday life in Korea, or the Zen concept embodied in the Japanese traditional multi-course kaiseki-ryori (seafood dishes) (Chien, 2019). Ingredients acquired for making culinary dishes represent the seasons while the cutleries and utensils represent cultural habits, experiences and lifestyles through the generations (Chien, 2019).
Contextualized in this food cultural cosmopolitanism, it is useful to look at how Taiwanese food and agricultural products appeal to a multicultural cosmopolitan society like Singapore. It is also fascinating to find out how this cosmopolitan exchange persevered even through very trying times like a pandemic. Just before the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic happened, Taiwanese Food promotion in Singapore was enjoying strong popularity and attention. From 16th January till 9th February 2020 (other than 20, 21 and 22 January 2020), the Ningxia Night Market’s (nicknamed “stomach of Taipei”) chefs and vendors brought their skills to the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival at Siloso Point in Sentosa to introduce authentic Taiwanese cuisines in a mini Ningxia Night Market-like atmosphere (Goh, 2020).
There was also a touch of high-tech in the show as it was an entirely cashless event with stall staff accepting Mastercard, Visa, Wechat Pay, Alipay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and EZ-link card payments with no entry fees for attendance (Goh, 2020). Certainly, social media-worthy products were featured like the colorful green hue of the highly Instagram-able Mint & Lime Mocktail featured in Stall 14/23 of the Jan/Feb 2020 Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival Ningxia Night Market (Goh, 2020). After all, Taiwanese global soft power also emanates from its high technologies (some nicknamed it “an island of technology”) that is well-known for its semiconductors, computers and mobile phone products (Chien, 2019).
The popular night market in Taiwan attracted more than 1.8 million visitors in 2018 (Goh, 2020). Its night market atmosphere was replicated in Singapore with more than 30 food stalls offering 130 dishes like big beef noodles with flavorful noodles and tender chunky beef pieces in “QQ-textured” beef bone-braised broth that was simmered for two days (located at Stall 13: Li Zheng Braised Beef Noodles) (Goh, 2020). At the heart of cultural soft power introduction, the essence and spirit of common working-class Taiwanese food culture embodied in items such as braised pork stew, braised pork on rice and soup noodles was perhaps one of the most effective ways to project Taiwan’s soft power to the rest of the world (Chien, 2019), including the Singapore audience. Singaporean meat lovers were also treated to traditional snacks like the Taiwanese Sausage served with sausage-shaped kneaded Glutinous Rice (Stall 19), the multi-herbal Pork Rib Stew (Stall 4) and the deep-fried Egg-Bombed Scallion crispy pancake (Stall 21) with a runny egg yolk centre with applied sweet sauce permeating the hall with fried spring onion fragrance (Goh, 2020).
For seafood lovers and pescatarians amongst Singaporeans, Taiwanese Oyster Mee Sua (Stall 6) offered fresh oysters stacked on rice noodles (mee sua) served with meaty intestines and spiced up with some vinegar, chilli and white pepper for an authentic taste (Goh, 2020). Other featured dishes were the starchy Oyster Omelette immersed in thick sweet sauce, Stall 4’s freshly fried cuttlefish balls on a skewer and/or the fried fresh and tender whole squid (Stall 12) with spicy powder (Goh, 2020). Even the vegetarians had options for them at this show. A popular dish in this aspect was the pungent fermented crispy smelly tofu with a soft core immersed in a unique sweet sauce from the owner’s own recipe (Stall 8 Liu Hao’s Smelly Tofu, location identifiable by the sense of smell) served with crunchy pickles (Goh, 2020). Perhaps the global icon of Taiwanese soft cultural power is the bubble tea (known as Boba in North America, tapioca drink in Japan and paopaocha by Mandarin-speakers). The Jan/Feb 2020 Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival Ningxia Night Market featured the Brown Sugar Bubble Milk (Stall 11) with handmade brown sugar placed on fresh milk (Goh, 2020).
POLICIES AND INITIATIVES
Given the success of such immediate pre-pandemic food shows, it was not surprising that, despite the unfortunate onset of the pandemic and even in the most adverse of conditions, Taiwanese food promotion continued in Singapore. In July 2021, the Taiwan representative to Singapore Liang Kuo-hsin articulated that the Kaohsiung City Government and Singapore supermarket operators jointly put together an agricultural products festival to assist Taiwanese farmers and their fruits/vegetables to Singapore (Rodriguez, 2021). Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) also worked with the Taipei Representative Office in Singapore for this festival and other events (Rodriguez, 2021).
A year later in 2022, support for Taiwanese food producers increased. Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs allocated NT$200 million (US$6.7 million) worth of “Taiwan Food Go to the World” subsidies to assist and provide guidance in marketing/finance to domestic food producers to expand their businesses in 13 destinations in Asia and North America (Liu and Wang, 2022). Minister of Economic Affairs Wang Mei-hua revealed plans for the authorities to assist Taiwanese food manufacturers market their products in 13 locations (including Singapore). Firms promoting their products online on foreign website would obtain a subsidy of NT$100,000 (US$3,350) while those engaged in promotion activities can apply for a subsidy of NT$200,000 (US$6,700) for individual events (up to a maximum of five in total) (Liu and Wang, 2022).
The Ministry also set up food-related sales/promotion events, activities and exhibitions in Singapore lending support to approximately 2,000 food makers, contributing an additional US$60 million to their combined revenue while diversifying their destination markets and introducing Taiwanese delicacies to more markets in the world (Liu and Wang, 2022). In Singapore, Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs worked with Redmart, Singapore’s largest internet-based grocery website, to retail Taiwanese food products, processed Taiwanese food products and agricultural products (Liu and Wang, 2022).
THE LURE OF PROCESSED FOODS
The essence of Taiwanese culinary cultures can be condensed into guided tours where visitors are then introduced to local traditional market and night market cultures with demonstrations of ingredients acquisition for food preparation (Chien, 2019). But, when a pandemic occurred, social distancing, quarantine and border lockdowns made such activities complex and difficult, and, in many cases, impossible. Therefore, the next best thing was to reproduce such tours as authentically and as accurate as possible in other consumer markets.
At the height of the pandemic in Singapore, Singaporeans who are Taiwanese cuisine foodies and Taiwan travel fans were able to participate in the Taiwan Food Tour between 4 and 6 November at Suntec City’s West Wing organized by Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Taiwan External Trade Development Council (Lui, 2022). The Tour covered more than 100 cuisines like instant noodles, aromatic beverages, plant-based meat products, Candy Poppy (Coated Popcorn Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea), Great Day Porridge and Songye Cuisines’ halal healthy snacks like Sweet Red Beans, Sweet Taro Dajia, White Fungus Fragrant Pomelo and Purple Rice & Red Bean Porridge made from domestic agricultural products (Lui, 2022). Candy Poppy is an air-popped non-GMO corn kernel popcorn with flavors like Brown Sugar Bubble Milk Tea, Chocolate, Strawberry, Truffle and Hot & Spicy (Lui, 2022). Great Day Porridges are instant, healthy, ready-to-eat porridges that come in the following flavors: Great Day Assorted Vegetables Pork Broth Porridge, Great Day Korean Kimchi Beef Broth and Great Day Italian Tomato Chicken Broth Porridge (Lui, 2022).
With attractive soft power projected at a time of extraordinary challenges from the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, the Taiwan Food Tour featured live games and a lucky wheel (like a ‘Wheel of Fortune’-type gimmick) while kids were busy with handicraft classes making bubble tea toys (Lui, 2022). This was not the first time that non-food related activities were bundled with food promotional shows. Back in Jan/Feb 2020, the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival featuring Ningxia Night Market was also designed conceptually for the whole family with Mandopop performances by stars like Wan Weiliang, Tay Kexin, Cold Cut Duo and an arcade area for kids and teenagers (Goh, 2020).
THE FRUIT EXPORTS
The Michelin guide and the Bib Gourmand selections positioned Taiwan on the global gourmet map augmenting the existing image of Taiwan as a food “treasure island” with domestically grown rice, fruit and seafood (Chien, 2019). Therefore, a discussion of the exportation of locally grown fruits may be useful to understand this soft power imagery. Besides processed foods, Taiwan is also exporting its fruits to Singapore for the first time during the pandemic era. Taiwanese agricultural exporters have diversified regionally and looked into pomelo (also known as wendan in Taiwan) exports to Singapore (Wilkinson, 2022). In this aspect, the Agriculture Department of Yunlin County (location of wendan farms) collaborated with Yijiewei Agricultural Products Co., Ltd. to promote its domestic agricultural products overseas to destinations like Singapore (Wilkinson, 2022). In their collaborations with overseas supermarket chains, approximately 290 boxes and 640 gift boxes of pomelos weighing approximately 5.4 tons were exported to Singapore (Wilkinson, 2022).
Besides wendan, Taiwan also exported pineapples to Singapore from July 2021. Towards the end of April 2021, Taiwan’s Council of Agriculture (COA) sent 450 boxes of pineapples to Singapore in cold chain temperature tracking storage throughout the shipment’s journey to Singapore where it went through standard operating procedures (SOP) and testing requirements for imported fruits before successfully obtaining the requisite approval (Rodriguez, 2021). Taiwan’s COA advised Taiwanese pineapple suppliers to maintain the fruits at 11 to 13 degrees Celsius during the shipping period until they end up on store shelves as standard operating procedures for cold shipping fruits (Wong, 2021). The pineapples were eventually distributed to Taiwan firms, overseas ethnic Chinese and Singaporean distributors for tasting sessions (Rodriguez, 2021). From 1 March 2021 to 7 April 2021, Singapore imported 25 tons (25,000kg) of pineapples from Taiwan (Wong, 2021). On 5 April 2022, Pingtung County in Taiwan (which makes up 90% of Taiwanese pineapple exports) despatched the first 15 tons of pineapples to Singapore's biggest grocer NTUC FairPrice and 30 tons per week thereafter to NTUC (Focustaiwan.tw, 2022).
In April 2021, Taiwan's Minister of Council of Agriculture (COA) Chen Chi-chung expressed his "deepest gratitude" to importing-destinations like Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong for proactively purchasing pineapples from Taiwan (Wong, 2021). In fact, Taiwanese pineapples had been featured even before the great pineapple pushout in 2021. During the Jan/Feb 2020, the Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival Ningxia Night Market already featured a Pineapple Tea (Stall 4) with products made from fresh Taiwanese pineapples and tea leaves from the Alishan region for a balanced flavour (Goh, 2020).
Besides promotional shows and tasting sessions, Singapore's biggest supermarket chain also hosted Kaohsiung’s First Choice Agricultural Products Festival featuring colored peppers and guavas (Rodriguez, 2021). Other local supermarkets organized the 2021 Best of Taiwan Agricultural Products Festival (2021 Best of Taiwan) island-wide featuring Taiwanese guavas, Kyoho grapes, Jinhuang mangoes, Aiwen mangoes (apple mangoes), pears, carrots, coloured peppers, sweet potatoes, shiitake mushrooms, etc. (Rodriguez, 2021).
CONCLUSION
Taiwan’s representative to Singapore Liang Kuo-hsin noted that most agricultural products in Singapore are imported and that "Taiwan and Singapore is a complementary market" and, therefore, Liang opined that there are no cultural barriers to importing Taiwanese agricultural products into Singapore if quality and price are right (Rodriguez, 2021). It can also help the two locations understand each other’s cultural, historical and environmental contexts. Tourists entering a Taiwanese restaurant establishment or culinary classroom can experience food, spiritual values and generational cultures overcoming natural challenges in cultivating the ingredients and other struggles in life (Chien, 2019).
REFERENCES
Chien, Yu-yen. Taiwanese cuisine as soft power. Taipei Times. 24 April 2019. Retrieved from https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2019/04/24/2003713924
Focustaiwan.tw, Pingtung pineapples to become available at Singapore's biggest retailer. Fresh Plaza. 8 April 2022. Retrieved from https://www.freshplaza.com/asia/article/9416931/pingtung-pineapples-to-b...
Goh, Jonathan. Asian Night Market: Taiwan Food Festival – Taiwanese Street Food From Ningxia Night Market, Right Here in Singapore! Misstamchiak website. 17 January 2020. Retrieved from https://www.misstamchiak.com/asian-night-market-sentosa-2020/
Liu, Tzu-hsuan and Lisa Wang. Program to boost ailing food producers. Taipei Times. 12 August 2022. Retrieved from https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/archives/2022/08/12/2003783373
Lui, Seth. Taiwan Food Tour to be held in Suntec City from 4 to 6 November 2022. Sethlui.com. 30 October 2022. Retrieved from https://sethlui.com/taiwan-food-tour-suntec-singapore-oct-2022/
Wilkinson, Richard. Eurofresh Distribution, "Taiwanese pomelos head for Singapore on maiden voyage". Eurofresh Districution. 25 August 2022. Retrieved from https://www.eurofresh-distribution.com/news/taiwanese-pomelos-head-for-s...
Rodriguez, Raymond and Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network. Supermarkets in Singapore hold "Taiwan Agricultural Products Festival". Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network website. 20 July 2021. Retrieved from https://news.immigration.gov.tw/NewsSection/Detail/a7724eb8-e609-4800-a4..., Raymond and Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network. Supermarkets in Singapore hold "Taiwan Agricultural Products Festival". Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network website. 20 July 2021. Retrieved from https://news.immigration.gov.tw/NewsSection/Detail/a7724eb8-e609-4800-a4...
Wong, Kayla. Taiwan apologises for 'black' pineapples sold to S'pore, will tighten shipping controls to ensure quality. Mothership. 7 April 2021. Retrieved from https://mothership.sg/2021/04/taiwan-black-pineapples-sorry/