Taiwanese Military Family Village Cuisine

30-Second Overview: Around 1.2 million military personnel and civilians from mainland China arrived in Taiwan around 1949, many of whom lived in communities enclosed by bamboo fences (眷村). Dishes from Shandong, Sichuan, Jiangsu/Zhejiang, and Hunan collided and merged within the same community, creating a new flavor that cannot be claimed by any single province in Taiwanese culinary culture.

The Great Migration of 1949 not only changed Taiwan's political landscape but also infused local cuisine with hometown flavors from all over China. Military families who settled in these bamboo-fenced communities rebuilt their lives; the large cakes of Shandong, the chili peppers of Sichuan, the sweet tastes of Jiangsu/Zhejiang, and the pickled vegetables of Hunan—the regional cuisines rubbed against each other in limited spaces, evolving into the Military Family Village Cuisine culture that resists being labeled by a single province.

The Great Taste Migration of 1949

Around 1949, as the Nationalist government relocated to Taiwan, an estimated 1.2 million military personnel and civilians came from mainland China. Figures vary: statistics from 1945 to 1950 cited nearly 2 million, while the 1956 census recorded over 1.2 million non-native residents (外省籍人口).¹² Not all of them lived in military family villages; a 1982 survey by the Women's Federation reported 879 such villages across Taiwan housing approximately 467,000 people, roughly one-third of the non-native population at the time (other data estimates as low as one-sixth).² These people came from all corners of the land, bringing different accents, customs, and the hardest thing to let go of: memories of their hometown flavors.

In that turbulent era, the taste of home provided spiritual comfort. Shandong residents missed the pungent scallion dipping sauce; Sichuan residents longed for spicy twice-cooked pork (回鍋肉); Jiangnan residents missed light steamed chicken (白切雞). These sensory memories were reassembled on foreign soil to form a unique military family village culinary culture.

The newly arrived non-native residents faced difficulties such as language barriers and economic hardship. In the simple kitchens of the military villages, they recreated hometown flavors using limited ingredients. Due to material shortages, original ingredients were replaced by cheaper substitutes, and cooking methods were adjusted according to local circumstances, unintentionally creating many new culinary variations.

The Intersection of Groups on Both Sides of the Bamboo Fence

The story of Military Family Village Cuisine cannot be told solely from the perspective of non-native residents. Relations between native (本省) and non-native residents after 1949 were fraught with tension: the wounds of the 228 Incident remained unhealed, language barriers, differences in resource allocation, and clashes in lifestyle created estrangement. However, food is often the first thing to cross boundaries.

Exchanges between the military villages and surrounding native communities often began at the market and the dining table: local native vendors were familiar with seasonal ingredients from Taiwan, while non-native families introduced noodle-making techniques and seasoning from their respective provinces. This daily exchange is the root of the bidirectional flow characteristic of Military Family Village Cuisine.

The "Taiwanization" of Military Family Village Cuisine stems partly from this interaction and partly from material constraints. The豆瓣醬 (doubanjiang) in Gangshan was made with yellow douban and chili; the郫 County (Píxiàn) douban from Sichuan often used fermented soybean paste (蠶豆瓣), resulting in different flavors.³ Under the influence of Taiwanese ingredients, regional cuisines developed forms that could not be replicated in their original homelands.

Kitchen Wisdom Within the Bamboo Fence

The living space in military villages was small. Taking Zhongzhen New Village in Taoyuan as an example, the average household occupied less than 10 pings (approx. 33 square meters), with only about 4.5 to 5 pings available for shelter.⁴ Under these conditions, the mothers of the military villages developed unique cooking methods.

Making full use of everything was the core of the military village kitchen: bones were boiled for broth, vegetable leaves were stir-fried, and leftover rice was made into fried rice—this frugality spurred many dishes that seem ingenious today.

"Neighborly mutual aid" was another characteristic of the military village kitchen. The Shandong sister-in-law next door shared her scallion pancake recipe; the Sichuan aunt across the way taught secrets to twice-cooked pork. In this small community enclosed by a bamboo fence, techniques from various provinces naturally exchanged and merged.

Gangshan Air Force Military Village and Sichuan-style Braised Beef Noodle Soup (牛肉麵)

When discussing Military Family Village Cuisine, one cannot omit beef noodle soup. Early Taiwanese braised beef noodles were generally divided into two streams: the Shandong style developed from the north, with the earliest known shop being "Liu Shandong Beef Noodle Soup," which opened in 1951. The Sichuan style developed from the south; food historians such as Luo Yaodong (逯耀東) investigated and concluded that Taiwan's so-called Sichuan-style beef noodles actually originated in Taiwan, with Gangshan, Kaohsiung being the location of an Air Force military village.³

According to cultural researcher Liu Tianfu (劉天賦), Gangshan’s spicy doubanjiang came from Air Force NCO Liu Mingde (劉明德): he arrived in Taiwan in 1948 and settled in the Gangshan Air Force military village. Later, to make a living, starting in 1950, he sold homemade spicy doubanjiang in the village—this was "Mingde Doubanjiang."⁵

The "Sichuan flavor" of Sichuan-style beef noodles refers to the use of characteristic Sichuan condiments like doubanjiang. Luo Yaodong's view is that this dish was made by veterans who missed Sichuan flavors while in Taiwan, and it was named after Sichuan because the creator hailed from Sichuan, though Sichuan did not have this dish originally. The earliest known shop serving Sichuan-style beef noodles is "Park Pig Trotter/Beef Noodle Soup" (公園豬腳麵／牛肉麵), which opened in Gangshan, Kaohsiung, in 1962, more than a decade after Liu Mingde started selling doubanjiang.³

The Gangshan origin theory is not absolute. Jiao Tong (焦桐) wrote in Taiwanese Flavors that Luo Yaodong asserted in the inaugural issue of the magazine Cuisine that Sichuan-style braised beef noodles originated from the Gangshan Air Force military village, and he himself was skeptical: he often visited the Gangshan Air Force military village during high school, remembering only the Mingde and Haha doubanjiang, but not recalling any beef noodles in Gangshan at the time.⁶ Regardless of which village the origin lies, "Taiwanese Sichuan flavor" is a hybrid product made in Taiwan.

The Fusion of Regional Cuisines

The unique environment of the military villages promoted unprecedented culinary fusion. Families from different provinces lived side-by-side, and regional food cultures naturally evolved through daily interaction.

The boldness of Shandong cuisine, the refinement of Jiangsu/Zhejiang cuisine, the spiciness of Sichuan cuisine, and the fiery heat of Hunan cuisine coexisted in the military villages, borrowing flavors from each other's tables.

The lightness of Cantonese cuisine and the richness of Northern cuisine also found a balance point within the military villages. Many Military Family Village Cuisines exhibit characteristics of North-South fusion, retaining original regional flavors while adapting to Taiwanese climate and ingredients.

Military Village Demolition, Preservation, and Parks

In 1996, the Act for the Reconstruction of Old Military Villages was enacted, leading to the gradual demolition and reconstruction of old military villages to house relocated veterans, accelerating the disappearance of the physical structures of these old communities. The legislative purpose in Article 1 also included "preserving military village culture."⁷ Some military villages remained due to calls for cultural preservation.

Si-Si Nan Village in Xinyi District, Taipei, is one such example. According to research by the Si-Si Nan Village National Historic Site Promotion Alliance, it was built in 1948 and is considered the first military village built by the government in Taiwan and the first one preserved.⁸ In 2003, it opened as "Xinyi Public Assembly Hall and Military Village Cultural Park," which houses a military village museum.⁹ The F&B brand Heytea (好丘) moved in in 2011, using local Taiwanese produce to make bagels, allowing the former military housing to be reused in a new context. The Xinyi branch of Heytea closed on November 23, 2025.¹⁰

Taoyuan is a county with a high concentration of military villages; reports from 2018 stated that Taoyuan had 86 out of the 888 military villages across Taiwan. The cultural festival organized by the municipal government in 2018 featured a food competition.¹¹ In Zuoying, Kaohsiung, many Navy military villages are located inside and outside the Old City; Mingde, Jianye, and Hequn New Villages were registered as part of the Kaohsiung Cultural Landscape in 2010.¹²

These preserved military village spaces provide tangible landmarks for the inheritance of Military Family Village Cuisine, allowing subsequent generations to see the concrete shape of this immigration history beyond just taste.

A Dual Perspective: Native Views and Second-Generation Identity

Military Family Village Cuisine has long been narrated primarily through the lens of "hometown flavors passed down by non-native mothers," but this is only half the story. From the perspective of native residents, the military villages were suddenly appearing as "strange new neighbors" after the war. Native rural communities, which originally spoke Tâi-gí (Taiwanese) and farmed while worshipping local earth gods, now included families of military personnel who spoke Mandarin and cooked unfamiliar spices. The initial relationship was not idyllic; linguistic barriers and class differences created structural tension both inside and outside the villages. Native residents gradually accepted Military Family Village Cuisine through decades of coexistence and cultural permeation.

The changing identity of the second generation is also an underestimated dimension. The "first-generation" migrants who came to Taiwan in 1949 largely held a temporary mindset of "counter-attacking the mainland," with intense nostalgia for their homeland reflected in their cuisine. However, the second generation born after the 1960s, who grew up speaking Mandarin, eating Taiwanese Military Family Village Cuisine, and growing up alongside native classmates, gradually loosened the binary division between "non-native" and "native." From the third generation onward, they increasingly identified as "Taiwanese," and for them, Military Family Village Cuisine is no longer a carrier of nostalgia; these dishes are the taste of their childhood memories. This shift in identity aligns with Taiwan's overall process of localization.

To understand the complete picture of Military Family Village Cuisine, one must simultaneously see three layers of narrative: the nostalgia of the relocated military families, the acceptance process by native society, and the loosening of second-generation identity, rather than just a single paradigm of "non-native flavor."

The Inheritance of Modern Military Family Village Cuisine

Today, the physical structures of the military villages have largely disappeared in Taiwan, but the influence of Military Family Village Cuisine remains visible. Many everyday dishes made by Taiwanese people bear the imprint of this cuisine; these dishes have become an inseparable part of Taiwanese culinary culture.

New generations of chefs are reinterpreting Military Family Village Cuisine, retaining traditional foundations while using modern techniques and ingredients. Food writers in Taiwan also create textual archives of these flavors. Jiao Tong's Taiwanese Flavors (Eryu Culture, 2009) discusses daily Taiwanese food, and the chapter on "Sichuan-style Braised Beef Noodle Soup" addresses the controversy surrounding the Gangshan military village origin theory.⁶

References

Further Reading

• Taiwanese Military Village History — The entire timeline from bamboo fence to reconstruction act
• National Cultural Memory Repository — A database of local cultural memory from the Ministry of Culture, collecting oral history and artifacts