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China's soy milk home delivery
Chasing modern nutrition
As the West celebrated dairy milk as the perfect food for infants, China worried about its kids being left behind. Soy milk looked like a way to have milk with Chinese characteristics, and the medical establishment began experimenting to evaluate its potential benefits for infant feeding. It was tied up with a sense of being a modern, developed nation that could compete with others.
Delivery to the door
Soy milk dairies opened, first for infants and then for the rest of the family. Like dairy milk, it was sold by subscription with home delivery and bottles at breakfast time. Advertising presented it as part of the daily life of the modern nuclear family, which tied it to certain times of day and certain meals.
Civil war
Then the country fell apart in a decades-long civil war. The communists won, and Chairman Mao threw his energy behind setting up cow's milk dairies.
What does a Chinese soy milk breakfast look like?
Soy milk is served warm with youtiao, strips of fried dough for dipping. The sweet version is sweetened with sugar. The salty version is topped with vinegar, dried shrimp, pickled mustard greens, and scallions, and the vinegar curdles the soy milk into soft clumps. Both versions are standard breakfast fare in many Chinese cities.
How did soy milk reach Paris?
Li Shizeng, a Chinese reformer who studied in France, founded a soy products factory in Paris around 1909. It made tofu and other soy foods, and it employed Chinese workers who went to France to study. Li promoted soy as a modern, cheap protein, and he published a book on soy in French in 1912.
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