Overview

  1. Category

    2. Local Specialties

  2. Description of Our Community

    3. ||-President Chiang visited Daxi



    ||-Daxi Old Street

    Although our school is in Taoyuan District, there are some students who lived in Daxi District or other districts in Taoyuan City. We choose Daxi as the community for this project because it is close to our school, and it is a place with historical sites and beautiful scenery. We get to know our community based on the history by interviewing the dried bean curd (alternative term: ‘dried tofu’, these two can be used interchangeably) store owners and some information from the Internet.

    Due to the expansion of tourism and the innovation of dried bean curd, Daxi Dried Bean Curd has become well-known in Taiwan. Thanks to tourism, dried bean curd has become popular and the demand of this food item has increased. In 1964, Shimen Reservoir was built and our government turned it into a tourist spot. As a result, more and more tourists came to Daxi. In 1975, President Chiang Kai-Shek passed away, and his coffin was put in Daxi Cihu mausoleum. There have been thousands of people paying homage to the late President Chiang in Daxi every day. From then on, Cihu, Daxi Old Street and Shimen Reservoir have remained tourist attractions. In addition, former President Chiang Ching-kuo visited Daxi Old Street many times and was frequently interviewed by reporters during his stay here, which could be one of the factors that led to Daxi Dried Bean Curd becoming more popular with more and more people visiting here.


    ||-black dried bean curd



    ||-caramel marinade tanks


     With the booming tourism, dried bean curd business owners have diversified their products to meet the customers’ needs. Using the original black dried bean curd as the basis, dried bean curd manufacturers continue generating more products with various flavors. Meanwhile, they actively participate in the development of the Daxi community, thus mutually benefiting the bean curd industry and local cultural activities. In addition, Daxi Old Street is a famous tourist attraction and also a region where the local industrial culture is intensively developed. In the Old Street, there exist buildings of the Baroque style along with buildings of local cultural features. Therefore, Daxi Old Street has been the representative of the local architecture in its long history. Visitors are attracted by the unique taste of the dried bean curd in each store. They can also find some traditional toys and/or snacks when shopping in the Old Street. In short, it is worth visiting Daxi, a nice place with rich cultural resources.

    The unique flavor and texture of Daxi Dried Bean Curd has been famous for a long time, mainly because of its good water quality and cleanliness. It is a comfort food item for those who left Daxi to work in other cities, and it is an ‘exotic’ item for tourists to try. The excellent quality of the dried bean curd and the booming tourism has led to the fame of Daxi Dried Bean Curd. The dried bean curd stores continue to develop new and unique flavors, offering a variety of choices to the consumers. People can buy the products in the stores in Daxi or through on-line stores. Thus, Daxi Dried Bean Curd has become a kind of national food.

  3. Summary of Our Project

    4. ||-investigation in Daxi



    ||-interview in Huang Ri-Xing

    Our project goal is to promote the dried bean curd industry and culture in Daxi. We want to not only make Taiwanese nationals know more about Daxi Dried Bean Curd, but also have foreigners or international friends experience our Taiwanese local food. Moreover, foreigners could have further understanding about Daxi. While tasting the delicious dried bean curd, people can gain some knowledge about it and also learn more about historical origins and cultural heritage of it and Daxi District. Furthermore, we interviewed several foreigners in Taiwan and asked them about their thoughts and acceptance of Daxi Dried Bean Curd. We have found that most of them are willing to recommend it to their relatives and friends. They are looking forward to tasting dried bean curd abroad in the future. We hope that we can successfully promote Daxi Dried Bean Curd to the international market and make it well known to the world just like Pearl Milk Tea.

  4. Our Access to Computer and Internet

    5. Computers and the Internet have become important and essential to our generation. We use Asus or Dell laptops at school. The Internet Server we use is TANET. Our school upgraded it last October. By using the new Internet, we can search for information much faster and more efficiently.

  5. Problems We Had to Overcome
    6. Problem & Solution
    Issue content solution
    Webpage production Making web pages was not an easy job for us, so we were worried that the webpages would not be completed as scheduled. We asked Teacher Chang Chun Hui to teach us how to make the webpages. He also helped build the website.
    Time management Deciding the time for shop-visiting and interviewing was difficult for us because some of us needed to go to cram school on weekends. We also had to make an appointment with the interviewees in advance. We decided to use the holiday makeup day to visit and interview the dried bean curd shop owners. We also made the appointment with them successfully.
    Teamwork Because the team members are not in the same class, it was difficult to find time for discussion and task allocations. We used some nap time to discuss about the tasks and each of us picked preferred tasks in an orderly manner. Our teachers also helped pass along messages to each team member, so we could collaborate with one another.
    Data processing It is not easy to remember all interview contents, so we were afraid that we would be unable to take notes as fast as the pace of the speaking. We prepared a recording pen to record the interview. Afterwards, we listened to the recording and wrote down the contents. The contents of all our interviews are important information for our project.
    Interview the store owners and important individuals in Daxi We had no idea how to contact dried bean curd store owners or important individuals in Daxi. We were also worried that our interview requests could be rejected. Our teachers assisted us in coordinating the interview and visiting time with the store owners and important individuals. We also asked our parents to help find resources.
    Visiting experience It was our first time to visit the shops as interviewers, so we felt a bit nervous and weren’t sure about the interview process. We came up with a list of our questions beforehand and arranged adequate time for each interview. We remained polite during the interview process.
    Issue the questionnaire When we intended to give out the questionnaires to the tourists on Daxi Old Street, most of us were rejected. It was difficult to find someone who would take the time to help us fill out the questionnaires. Instead of giving out questionnaires only to strangers, we asked our teachers, classmates, family and friends to help fill out the questionnaires.
    Interview foreigners We planned to interview some foreigners to collect the international perspective. We translated the questionnaire into English. In this English questionnaire, we expanded our topics and successfully completed the interviews.
  6. Our Project Sound Bite 

    7. We choose Daxi Dried Bean Curd as our project because it is famous in Taoyuan. We want to promote it so that more people will know what it is and how it tastes. After our foreign teacher mentioned that he had never heard of Daxi Dried Bean Curd before coming to Taiwan, we determined to also introduce dried bean curd to the world. We have interviewed international volunteers and foreign teachers to obtain information on the popularity of Daxi Dried Bean Curd in the international arena.


    ||-interview with Chief of Village



    ||-interview in Da Fang

    We didn’t know it was difficult to make dried bean curd until we took on this project. We have learned that a delicious dried bean curd is made through a complicated process. The temperature control and soaking time are crucial conditions, which is quite different from what we originally imagined. We have also learned that Daxi is famous for many things, not just dried bean curd. We were surprised when the chairwoman of the Daxi Cultural Association mentioned that dried bean curd was a major food item in Daxi, but it was just one of the local trades. The cultural development of the whole of Daxi actually consists of many features, such as woodenware, agricultural produces, and religious festivals. Dried bean curd is a local specialty of Daxi, and it also helps lift the popularity of Daxi, which is indispensable to the Daxi culture. Through interviews with local people, we understand more about the region we live in. To be ambassadors of Daxi Dried Bean Curd, we are proud of ourselves.