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<\/a>In the old times, \u8c46 was written as \u83fd<\/a>, which pronounces shu<\/em><\/a>\u00a0in mandarin and suk<\/em> in Cantonese. Soy<\/em>bean might have been from the southern pronunciation, since Guangzhou (Canton) was the port for trading for centuries.<\/p>\n![\u8c46 was written as \u83fd<\/a>, which](\"https:\/\/www.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_1212.jpg\"){kind=link}
The earliest mention of beancurd was perhaps by Dominican missionary to China, Domingo Fern\u00e1ndez Navarrete (1698-1786) who went to China. In 1665 he wrote about teu fu<\/em> in his journal.1<\/sup><\/p>\n According to Joyce E. Chaplin,2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0it was Samuel Bowen (?-1777), an English who first introduced it to North America in 1765, from China.<\/p>\n Bowen was an employee of the East India Company who also served four years as prisoner in China. After releasing, he used his knowledge of how Chinese grew the beans while in captive, and enlist the help from James Flint<\/a>.<\/p>\n SCMP photos: soy sauce jars ferment; the futures at the CBGT in 1980, and Ford in his $39,000 soybean suit in 1941. A few sources had credited Benjamin Franklin as the first man who introduced soybean to North America. He did but five years behind Bowen and Flint. Franklin had consulted Flint after reading the Chinese made cheese out of beans,<\/p>\n “so excited my curiosity that I caused enquiry to be made of Mr. Flint, who lived for many years there [in China], in what manner the cheese was made.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Flint replied on January 3rd, 1770,<\/p>\n “Dear Sir, 1st Process. The method the Chinese convert Callivances into Towfu. They first steep the Grain in warm water ten or twelve Hours to soften a little, that it may grind easily. It is a stone Mill with a hole in the top to receive a small Grain of warm water which passes between the two Stones the time of grinding to carry off the flower [flour? slurry?] from between & keeps draining into a Tub which has a Sieve or cloth at the top to stop the gross parts from mixing with the flower.3<\/sup> Henry Ford had tried to utilize soy fibre, mixing it with 3\/4 of wool to produce suit. There were many others who had ideas for soybeans other than consuming it. Unfortunately, none of them had materialized.4<\/sup><\/p>\n Today, soybean is one of the major items on President Trump’s trade war with China. In 2018, U.S. was the top producer in the world with 120 million metric tons<\/a>\u00a0output and China, the 4th with 14 mm tons but was the top consumer, taking in 74 mm tons<\/a> while the second, which was the U.S., consumed only 31 mm tons.5<\/sup>\u00a0It was 89 mm tons surplus vs 60 mm ton shortage.\u00a0How will the trade war smooth that out, remains to be seen. It sure sucks.<\/p>\n Fun read: Chairman Mao and the stinky tofu vendor, Liu Shanling: \u6bdb\u6cfd\u4e1c\u548c\u714e\u81ed\u8c46\u8150\u4e7e\u5c0f\u8d29\u5bf9\u8bdd\u53ca\u98ce\u4fd7\u753b\u91cc\u5356\u81ed\u8c46\u8150\u4e7e\u8005<\/a>,\u00a0\u767e\u4ee3\u811a\u5370 by \u5218\u5584\u9f84 Liu Shanling.<\/p>\n 1, 3\u00a0<\/sup>History of Tofu and Tofu Products<\/em> (965 CE to 2013) by William Shurtleff, Akiko Aoyagi. Retrieved<\/a> 2020.7.19 Was\u00a0Benjamin Franklin (1706-90) the first man to bring soybeans to U.S. and was Henry Ford’s $39,000 soybean suit the costiest? Beancurd, or tofu (doufu \u8c46\u8150)…<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/IMG_1205-150x150.jpg\")
<\/a>Bowen immigrated to Georgia in 1764 and purchased an estate in Savanna where he began to cultivate soybeans, “Luo Taw”, Chinese vetch. He produced soy sauce and soy vermicelli noodles from it. Further, he “conjectured that soybean sprouts had antiscorbutic properties of value to the Royal Navy.” This finding or claim, had won him the gold medal from Royal Society of Arts in 1766. He passed away in 1777 in London.<\/p>\n
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\n2\u00a0<\/sup>An Anxious Pursuit: Agricultural Innovation and Modernity in the Lower South.<\/em>
\n4<\/sup> SCMP<\/a>: How United States became world\u2019s top soybean producer, what it does with them, and why US-China trade war makes crop\u2019s future uncertain,\u00a02019.12.18<\/a>
\n5<\/sup>\u00a0Retrieved on 2020.7.19: \u00a0World soybean production<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
![120 million metric tons<\/a>\u00a0output and China, the 4th with 14 mm tons but was the top consumer,](\"https:\/\/www.ireneeng.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Screen-Shot-2020-07-19-at-12.30.52-PM.png\"){kind=link}