Daxi Tofu: After the River Port Declined, How Black Tofu Carries the Nostalgia of Daxi People Outward

30-Second Overview: Daxi tofu is more than just a souvenir for the historic street. After the decline of Dahan River transport in the late Qing and early Republic of China eras, many Daxi residents went out to make a living. The long-lasting, easy-to-carry tofu followed them out, transforming from a daily food into a package of nostalgia. The black color comes from the sugar-darkening and braising craft, while its fame was reshaped through several turns in mines, tourism, and local branding. Today, Daxi tofu faces a new question: when it is designed as a city brand, can it still allow people to taste that life of leaving home?

Caption: Daxi Historic Street. Photo by lienyuan lee, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported. Image not downloaded; uses Wikimedia Commons file hotlink. ¹

Black Is Not the Starting Point; Portability Is

Under the eaves of old streets on Heping Road in Daxi, tofu signs welcome tourists alongside Baroque-style buildings. These storefronts might lead one to believe that tofu is inherently a tourist commodity, but the local introduction by the Daxi District Office places the story elsewhere: water quality affects the aroma and texture of the tofu, and after the decline of river transport, tofu became a food for those who went out to make a living to soothe their nostalgia. ²

Daxi tofu was first a food that could be taken away, and only later became a famous product that could be brought back. The Dahan River once transported timber, tea, and agricultural products into the river port. When ships no longer docked, tofu continued to move on a smaller scale, packed into luggage, bento boxes, and parcels entrusted to others to bring home. ^{3 4}

📝 Curator’s Note: Local specialties are often written as "the flavor that stays in place." Daxi tofu is the opposite. It became a local memory precisely because it had to leave Daxi to be missed.

Sugar-Darkening Turns Preservation into Identity

Regarding the origin of black tofu, local Daxi materials present two slightly different family narratives. According to the Daxi Historical Neighborhood Rebuilding Association, Lin Rong, who came from Zhangzhou, Fujian, brought the five-spice black tofu technique to Taiwan in the early Republic of China era. He charred brown sugar into "sugar-dark" (táng wū) and added spices for braising. The sugar-dark was described not only as a coloring agent but also as a method to extend shelf life. ⁵

When Liberty Times interviewed local cultural workers and practitioners, it presented both the Lin Rong narrative and the Huang family narrative. The Huang family version places the turning point at a well and a very practical problem: white tofu does not keep well, so it was first preserved with salt, and later colored with caramel, forming the flavor of black tofu. These two versions cannot be forcibly merged into a single answer, as they represent, respectively, the industrial narrative preserved by the local association and the shopkeepers’ family memories of their own technical origins. ⁶

Neither version alone can claim who "invented" black tofu. They jointly point to a craft logic: tofu must first take shape, then moisture is processed, and finally, flavor is infused through sugar-dark, salt, and five-spice broth. The modern process compiled by Taiwan Qilin mentions soaking soybeans, grinding the slurry, coagulating with salt brine into tofu curd, molding and draining, and then repeatedly soaking in caramel and five-spice broth. ³

From Miners’ Bento to Packages of Leaving Home

The first important customers of Daxi tofu were likely not the people holding cameras today walking the historic street. The Taoyuan City Government’s 2025 Tofu Festival news points the early black tofu clientele toward miners, and Taiwan Qilin’s local feature places soy products within the logging camps, coal mines, and worker diets of the Japanese colonial to early post-war period. The small volume and savory richness of tofu, its ability to pair with rice, and its convenience for direct consumption on the go made it part of labor life. ^{3 7}

After the river transport declined, Daxi youth went elsewhere for work. The records of the Daxi Historical Neighborhood Rebuilding Association are specific: some took tofu to their workplaces, others brought it back when returning home, and those who could not return entrusted others to send it back. The word "nostalgia" is insufficient; it is a recurring logistical action that allows food to return home in place of people. ⁵

Thus, the locality of Daxi tofu lies not only in water, beans, broth, or storefronts. It lies in the fact that after a group of people left, they still maintained a connection to their hometown with a small packet of black tofu. This is the most counter-intuitive aspect of Daxi tofu: the more it is taken away, the more it resembles Daxi.

Tourism Puts Tofu Back into Daxi

The second turning point comes from tourism. Liberty Times records that after the opening of the Cihu Mausoleum in 1975 (ROC Year 64), tourists entered Daxi, and tofu sales increased accordingly. Practitioners also expanded from single tofu products to leisure tofu, tofu furu, and soy milk. ⁶

Local curriculum websites place tofu within the teaching context of "understanding Daxi through industry," noting that it has become a common souvenir for Daxi tourism. This transformation means tofu is no longer just food for those who left Daxi, but also something outsiders want to take away when visiting Daxi. The food that originally flowed due to leaving home is pulled back to the streets of its origin due to tourism. ⁸

Caption: Daxi Bridge. Photo by Taiwankengo, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0. Image not downloaded; uses Wikimedia Commons file hotlink. ⁹

📝 Curator’s Note: Tourism did not simply "preserve" Daxi tofu; it also changed how tofu is read. For those who left home, tofu is a message sent from home. For tourists, tofu is proof that they brought it back from Daxi. Two groups buy the same black food, but not the same kind of time.

How Handmade Flavor Enters Factories and Brands

Today, Daxi tofu relies on both handmade methods and machinery. The process recorded by Liberty Times includes cutting, seasoning, stir-frying at 100°C, drying, resting, and packaging. These steps show that old-fashioned flavors can be sustained through equipment. The process originally dependent on the master’s touch is broken down into nodes that can be stably produced. ⁶

Local research also reminds us that historic street industries face pressure for transformation and innovation. Cultural asset research on the Daxi Historic Street District starts from the interactions of local groups, residents, shopkeepers, and the district office, pointing out that industries like woodcraft and tofu cannot rely solely on nostalgia to survive. ⁴ For tofu practitioners, having more products, changing packaging, and raising hygiene standards does not necessarily mean abandoning tradition. The real question is: which flavors and processes still constitute "Daxi tofu," and which are just decorations added for the next tourist?

What Will the Fourth Wave of Growth Look Like?

The Taoyuan City Government’s 2025 official news describes the Daxi Tofu Festival as a local event held for over ten years. This year, it connects tofu, vegetarian food, plant design, and youth design power through "plant feel, craft feel, and texture feel," claiming over 179 practitioners participated. This indicates that Daxi tofu is no longer just competing in food cabinets but is also seeking new languages in festivals, design, and city branding. ⁷

The Taoyuan Tourism Guide website places the Tofu Festival activities around the Daxi Wood Life Museum, placing Daxi Bridge, woodcraft, and tofu on the same strolling route. ¹⁰ This curatorial approach has its benefits: food is no longer left lonely on souvenir shelves but is reconnected to Daxi’s historic streets, riverbanks, and woodcraft industries. The risk lies here too: when every local memory is packaged as an event theme, the labor and stories of leaving home that tofu originally carried might be covered up by beautiful visuals.

What Daxi local industry truly needs is to let consumers know why a piece of tofu goes through soaking, shaping, draining, sugar-darkening, and multiple braising processes, and to know that these processes once responded to needs of preservation, labor, and portability. When industry discusses food safety, common brands, and industrial zones, it is actually discussing how to make this local craft continue to be trusted under new production conditions, rather than sealing tradition in amber. ¹¹

Caption: Daxi Bridge on the Dahan River. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0. Image not downloaded; uses Wikimedia Commons file hotlink. ¹²

📝 Curator’s Note: The future of Daxi tofu is not a binary choice between "ancient methods" and "modernity." What is more worth asking is: can modern equipment clearly articulate the problems that tradition truly solved, rather than just turning tradition into a year on packaging?

The Triangle of Water, Hygiene, and Texture

Local narratives of Daxi tofu often place water quality at the center of flavor stories. The Daxi District Office states that good water quality is a先天 (innate) condition for the aroma and texture of tofu. This statement should be treated as the self-understanding of local industry, rather than directly expanded into an unverified scientific conclusion. A more stable reading is that water, soybeans, coagulants, draining time, and broth jointly form the texture, while local memory writes the hardest-to-see water as the entry point of the story. ²

From the processes compiled by Liberty Times and Taiwan Qilin, the quality of tofu is not determined by a single well alone. Soybeans must be soaked, soy milk separated, tofu curd molded, moisture gradually expelled, and after shaping, it undergoes repeated treatment with caramel and five-spice broth. Each step changes saltiness, hardness, juice absorption, and preservation conditions. ^{6 3} This is why "Daxi flavor" cannot be replicated by simply adding one spice, because flavor hides in the accumulation of time, sequence, and operation.

When tofu moves from shop kitchens to mass production and tourism channels, food safety becomes part of the local brand. The Taoyuan City Government has proposed directions such as certification marks, common brands, shared wastewater treatment, and industrial zones. These policy languages may seem far from the dining table, but they actually directly answer consumers' questions: where is a piece of tofu produced, how is it cleaned, how is it packaged, and who is responsible if problems arise. ¹¹

Therefore, the boundary between tradition and modernity lies not in whether firewood or machines are more authentic, but in whether processes can be clearly explained, hygiene responsibilities traceable, and local names corresponding to real production networks. For Daxi tofu to continue as a local specialty, it must simultaneously allow old customers to taste the familiar savory richness and allow new customers to understand how it is made and managed.

Caption: Daxi Bridge. Photo by Taiwankengo, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0. Image not downloaded; uses Wikimedia Commons file hotlink. ¹³

Caption: Daxi Bridge and riverbank. Photo by CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0. Image not downloaded; uses Wikimedia Commons file hotlink. ¹⁴

Eating to the End, What Remains Is a Path

Today, when buying Daxi tofu, one can choose black tofu, red tofu, leisure tofu, or hot braised dishes. In the process compiled by Taiwan Qilin, black caramel and five-spice broth repeatedly enter the tofu, making the black color not just a surface feature but a result formed jointly by texture, saltiness, and aroma. ³

But if we only understand it as "the best souvenir in Daxi," the story loses half its meaning. Local association and Daxi District Office materials place water, river transport, going out to make a living, and tourism on the same line. ^{2 5} The flavor of tofu moves along a path walked by people. It goes from the river port to the mines, from the home door to outside, and finally back to the historic street from tourists' luggage.

Daxi tofu does not preserve a river port that is forever prosperous. It preserves the ability of people to find ways to carry home with them after the river port declined. Black is just the first part seen. What truly makes it Daxi is that it always reminds people: some places, you must leave once to know that you have always been carrying them.

Further Reading

• Taoyuan City Daxi District Office: Industrial Culture
• Daxi Historical Neighborhood Rebuilding Association: Daxi Specialties
• Liberty Times Recipe Free Match: You Must Buy Tofu in Daxi! Why Is Daxi Tofu So Delicious?
• Taiwan Qilin Leisure Drink Magazine: Lu Jia Lu Kou Jia! The Secret of Daxi Tofu "Lu" Winning Hearts
• Taoyuan City Government News Office: 2025 Plant-Feel Taoyuan Daxi Tofu Festival
• Taoyuan Tourism Guide Website: 2025 Plant-Feel Taoyuan Daxi Tofu Festival
• Taoyuan Localized Curriculum: Exploring Daxi District, Come Together with Daxi
• Airiti Library: Research on the Use and Development of Cultural Assets in Daxi Historic Street District
• Small Place News Network: Daxi Historic Street District: Experience of Participatory Planning

References