As regards the origin of string noodle, since this business blossoms everywhere, there is no definite indication about it, but most of the people consider that Taiwan string noodle was introduced from Fujian, in that as the nearest area from Taiwan, Fujian has the geometric advantage and many Fijianese moved to Taiwan, including some string noodle makers, who relied on their manual crafts to earn their bread and inevitably passed the craft on to some natives.

Mr. Pan Jian-Zhong, a resident of Kaohsiung who moved to Taiwan in 1965, should be one of the youngest string noodle masters in Taiwan. He no only inherited his family business but also studied on the origin of Taiwan string noodles on account of his relation with and interest in string noodles. After inquiring of the relevant old masters and collating the relevant information, he concludes that Taiwan string noodles may be divided into two categories, namely, native string noodles and Fuzhou string noodles. He considers that in the history of immigration, the immigrants from Zhangzhou and Quanzhou for the most part settled down in West Taiwan in the earlier years, and their produces are classified as the native string noodles, whereas the immigrants from Fuzhou for the most part settled down south of Chiayi much later, and their produces are classified as Fuzhou string noodles. Mr. Pan indicates that Fuzhou string noodles are different from native string noodles not only in production areas but also in mixture of raw materials in that unlike Fuzhou string noodles, rice bran is added to prevent the noodles from adhering to each other in production of native string noodles.

In Mr. Pan’s opinion, Mucha string noodles shall be classified as “native string noodles”. However, when we visited the handmade string noodle workshops, we did not notice any rice bran but corn starch was used instead to prevent adhesion. In addition, the products in a string noodle workshop are also divided into ordinary string noodles and Fuzhou string noodles according to their size, the latter being thinner.

We then contacted Mr. Zhu-Hao Xu of the Mucha Literature and History Studio, who responded to our inquiries through e-mail as he was then away in Mainland China, saying that “it is said that the craft was brought to Mucha by an old master with the surname of Cai not many years ago, and the business reached the height of prosperity in 1960s, when there were a dozen or score of handmade string noodle workshops in the peak of its boom. However, Mr. Xu’s father, Mr. Xu Jin-Cai, who also works at the Mucha Literature and History Studio, believes that this viewpoint on the origin of Mucha string noodle is nothing more than hearsay, since in spite of the recallable history, this viewpoint is not grounded in solid evidence but in vague memories of the aged masters who made string noodles in the early years. All our knowledge about the origin is from their statement, but due to the problems of their memories, the aged masters feel uncertain about many things they dictated.

When we visited the boss of Xie Chang Noodle Factory, Mr. Gang-Ming Chang, who is also the Chairman of Taipei Noodle Producers Trade Association and whose family has lived in Mucha for generations, we asked about the origin of Mucha string noodle and Mr. Chang was pretty sure that the origin of Mucha string noodle should come from Master Cai, who was from Fuzhou and died at the age of nineties not long ago. At that time, to make a living, Master Cai moved to Mucha and started string noodle business at the place behind the now standing Wenshan Administrative Centre, and then, due to his booming business here, he took in some prentices, who later become old masters. According to Mr. Liu Qin-Xian, an old master of handmade string noodles, at that time, they were only kids who wanted to learn some crafts and were interested in pulling string noodles, so they learnt from their master. By now, the craft have been handed down to the third generation.

We may roughly infer from these dictations that Mucha string noodle originated from Fujian and probably from the Fuzhouese makers, but the original craft of making noodles may be improved in response to the actual demands. The prosperity of that time is partly owing to inheritance of craft from the Fuzhouese masters and partly to the fact that Mucha was then an undeveloped region as compared with other regions of Taipei, with vast farmlands that were suitable for drying noodles and building workshops, thus providing more development spaces than the region around the developed Dihua Street.

Our gratitude goes to the following experts for their information and advices.

• Mr. Pan Jian-Zhong, Kaohsiung Pan-Shun-Long Fuzhou Handmade String noodles Factory
• Mr. Xu Zhu-Hao, Mr. Xu Jin-Cai, the Mucha Literature and History Studio
• Mr. Chang Gang-Ming, Chairman of Taipei Noodle Producers Trade Association
• Liu Qin-Xian, Liu Xie Chang Noodles Factory