臺灣文學虛擬博物館

๑ Goose Chiang ๑ Mee Ko ๑ Yang Shuang-zi ๑ Chen Yu-liang ๑ Tsai Bi-yin ๑

Tainanese have a natural sweet tooth, with sugar a staple ingredient in the city's most popular snack foods as well as everyday family meals. You could even say that sugar is written into our DNA! Sweetness touches Tainan's cuisine in a myriad of tasteful ways, inspiring passions and fond memories on multiple levels. Over the centuries, cane sugar crystals have helped define the "Tainan experience", and slow-cooked sweetness today defines the flavor of the southern Taiwan. Whether dialed up or dialed down, the sweet taste of Tainan cuisine awaits your discerning palate!

For Tainanese, food is best served with a hint of sweetness. I'm not just referring here to the city's snack foods. Sugar is a staple in many of the dishes that grace family dinner tables. Red-braised fish is the perfect marriage of pan-fried fish and a savory-sweet sauce made of soy sauce, sugar and other ingredients. A dash of sugar perks up veggies stir-fried with bean paste, while summer lunches are best enjoyed with a bowl of room-temperature sweet potato congee topped with pickled ginger and black beans.

Excerpted from "Sugar in the Kitchen - What's the Problem?" The Making of an Ordinary Woman
Author: Goose Chiang
Publisher: China Times Publishing Co. (2021)

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| About the Author |

Goose Chiang primarily writes prose. Her works focus on the workplace observations and perspectives of female office workers, as well as reflections on her own childhood, contemplating the worldly wisdom and marital norms within her memories. Her incisive viewpoints are wrapped in straightforward language, exhibiting a sharp edge of black humor.

After a while … on this midsummer afternoon … I picked a spot under the covered sidewalk with a good view of the theater on the opposite side of the street, sat down, and slowly enjoyed my cup of shaved snow ice topped with red-beans and condensed milk. I felt as if I'd dropped onto the set of an early Hou Hsiao-hsien film. … I mean, of course, in terms of the spirit of summertime and unbridled youth fit perfectly! The New Chienkuo Theater didn't fit at all into his cinematic universe.

Excerpted from "New Chienkuo Theater & Red Bean Shaved Snow Ice: In the Mind's Eye of Hou Hsiao-hsien" Homesick for Tainan
Author: Mee Ko
Publisher: On Books (2012)

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| About the Author |

Mee Ko's creative writing includes discourse, prose, and fiction. Her writing is comprehensive and accessible, with simple yet refined language. Her discourse and prose are based on personal experiences. Her themes encompass writing perspectives, career planning, local and family narratives, food and lifestyle, and social phenomenon observations, all closely related to everyday life.

Gulping down coffee cup after coffee cupful of winter melon tea and starfruit juice from a streetcorner vendor. The purest expression of nature's nectar … Oh, how I adore the flavors of the South!

Excerpted from "Winter Melon Tea" Taiwan Travelogue
Author: Yang Shuang-zi
Publisher: SpringHill Publishing, Ltd. (2020)

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| About the Author |

Yang Shuang-zi's creative writing includes discourse and fiction. Her research focuses on the production of Taiwanese romance novels, exploring their development and the gender politics involved. Her fiction is set in the Japanese colonial period, based on detailed historical research, sorting through Taiwan's historical context and depicting the affection and ambiguities among women.

Distinctively sweet plum aromas wafting in the breeze; the warm sun winnowing moisture into the ambient air. A subtly sweet fragrance invariably greets your every visit to the courtyard out back, gently coaxing forth all those half-remembered, dreamlike memories.

Excerpted from "Gazing at Plums" Award-winning Entries from the 8th Tainan Literature Awards
Author: Chen Yu-liang
Publisher: Cultural Affairs Bureau, Tainan City Government (2018)

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| About the Author |

Chen Yu-liang, awarded an honorable mention in prose in the eighth Tainan Literature Awards for Chinese language.

In this welcome season of intermittent sun and rain
the days are busy making traditional herbal rice cake and sugar syrup.
I and my sister friends on the east side of town
venture out to enjoy spring's gifts and pray at Wufei Temple.

Excerpted from "Taiyang Zhuzi Poems" (4th of five poems) Classical Poetry of Taiwan, Vol. 26
Author: Tsai Bi-yin Publisher: National Museum of Taiwan Literature (2012)

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| Appreciation |

This poem is framed around the tradition in the Tainan area during the Qing Period (1683-1895) of female friends going on outings together during the Qingming Festival in spring. The poem opens with a description of the author busily preparing temple offerings and springtime delicacies (herbal rice cake and sugar syrup) and ends with her inviting friends to join her on an outing to Wufei Temple. This poem describes eloquently the young author's excitement while preparing food and making springtime excursion plans.

| About the Author |

Tsai Bi-yin, also known as Yeh Shi (maiden name) and nicknamed Lady Chihkan, hails from Dong'an Fang in Taiwan County (now Tainan City). From a young age, Tsai Bi-yin was taught by her parents and excelled in poetry and calligraphy, especially skilled in the Liu-style regular script. Tsai Bi-yin's life works were never compiled and published, but they have been collated and edited from collections in newspapers and periodicals like "Taiwan Daily Newspaper," "Tainan News," "Poetry News," and "Taiwanese Poetry Pearls."