| Abstract |
Milk was barely consumed in Taiwan and the dairy industry was not established until the early 20th century, following the significant advance in nutrition science and the expansion of international dairy business. This paper examines the setup of dairy industry and its consumption in Taiwan during the Japanese colonial period, analyzing how Taiwanese people absorbed and practiced the nutrition knowledge developed in “the West” with the case of dairy consumption. This study shows that the practice of nutrition science was not merely the imitation of the West modernity; rather, it was influenced by the forces of colonialism and transnational dairy enterprises. On the one hand, the dairy industry in Taiwan was founded by the Japanese colonial power aiming to strengthen the Japanese empire as well as to earn commercial profits. Japanese dairy enterprises acquired cheap sugar from Taiwan to produce condensed milk, while Taiwan was also a major market of Japanese condensed milk. On the other hand, the nutrition science approving of the high nutritional values of milk served as the strongest advertisement of dairy products, encouraging its consumption in Taiwan. However, the hierarchy of dairy consumption under the colonial rule was evident. While the fresh milk was mainly consumed by the Japanese, most of the Taiwanese people could only have condensed milk as valuable nutrients during the colonial period. Despite of the limits of acquiring milk, nutrition knowledge and the expectation for dairy products among the Taiwanese both formed the basis of increasing milk consumption in the post-war period. |
