As the saying goes, "old friends are the best friends." The same is true of cuisines; there is something special about those old recipes passed down from generation to generation. Snack foods rich in variety and abundance and steeped in local tradition are everywhere to be seen in Taiwan. Examples include tsao-a-guei, shaved ice with taro root, papaya milk, and mitaimu (thick rice noodles in broth). The times have changed, however, and local fare has been pushed to the abyss by its counterparts from other nations. It's either put up a fight or pack it in.

Revamping old restaurants is Good Neighbor Foundation chairman Tomming Lai's wish. An old hand in Taiwan's advertising sector, he feels that pumping new life into these shops is monumentally important for preserving culture, invigorating local industry, and maintaining community color. "People and their children and grandchildren connect and identify more readily with their community when it has old shops like this."

The Good Neighbor Foundation has successfully revamped eight shops, each of which is over 30 years old, thereby helping to ensure that local products continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

A good neighbor

The Good Neighbor Foundation, founded by President Enterprises with 0.5% of its annual after-tax net profits, came up with a program three years ago aimed at restoring traditional shops. To sign up, shops have to have specialized in traditional light repasts or local products for at least 30 years, must be willing to undergo a makeover, and must agree to shoulder a portion of the expenses. For its part, Good Neighbor would provide NT$200,000 for refurbishing as well as professional consultation in marketing and visual image design. This year, it increased that subsidy to NT$400,000.

In 2003, Good Neighbor mobilized advertising, architecture, and culinary experts to diagnose old shops and launch the first wave of its revamping program. The most famous of the five refurbished in the first wave was Derming Bakery, located in Chiayi County by Mt. Ali's Fenchi Lake.

Selling traditional bridal cakes and tsao-a-guei, Derming Bakery was the first cake shop to be opened near Fenchi Lake. Located at high elevation, the 60-year-old shop has been passed down three generations. Its specialty, tsao-a-guei, is made by mixing cooked sun-dried cudweed (Gnaphalium affine) with glutinous rice paste. The individual cakes are stuffed with preserved daikon, shiitake mushrooms, pork shank, and shrimp.

Although Derming Bakery is located in the tourist district, business depended a great deal on Mother Nature's mood. On weekends and holidays, it did well, but trade plummeted when natural disasters cut off the highway or the railway, keeping tourists away. It was either feast or famine. What's more, the relentless march of time left its mark on the storefront--the windows and awning had seen better days. The shop's manufacturing equipment and products were crammed together in an area only 35 square meters in size.

Good Neighbor's architecture team drew up plans for a new production line and sales area within the store, while removing the equipment, freezer, and ingredients to the basement. It also installed a freight elevator. Two of Fenchi Lake's major local industries--timber and railway, were incorporated into the shop's new exterior, with large quantities of logs and old railway ties used to refurbish the shop. The ceiling was dismantled to reveal the 100-year-old wooden roof.

The front sign, product signboard, packaging boxes, bags, product fliers, as well as employee aprons and hats were also redesigned to bring the shop's sales methods and product image in line with its fine products. The shop owner put up NT$1 million of the total NT$1.2 million required to overhaul the store.

President Enterprise subsidiary 7-Eleven just happened to be promoting Fenchi Lake Royal lunch boxes at the time and the exposure provided by the massive advertising campaign helped make Derming Bakery itself one of Mt. Ali's tourist attractions. Its business trebled and its popularity helped drive up sales in the nearby business district.

The Good Neighbor Foundation has successfully revamped eight shops, each of which is over 30 years old, thereby helping to ensure that local products continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

War of ideas

From the commencement of talks to completion of all construction work, it takes an average of one and a half years to refurbish one of these old shops. Perhaps the reason so few stores took advantage of the program in the beginning was because it wasn't well known--in the first year only ten stores signed up, in the second, 12.

"Tastes vary a great deal today. Many stores specializing in unique products might be steeped in history, but more often than not, the proprietors are unwilling to accept recommendations from outsiders. But we haven't given up. As long as these landmark shops have someone to whom they can be passed on, they won't disappear on our watch." Speaking candidly, Tomming Lai says shop exteriors are the quick and easy part, but changing the way people think is what really counts. The best way to keep these stores successful is to combine the shop owner's insistence on product quality with new management ideas.

For example, Hsinchuang City Office once recommended a Taiwanese-style cake shop and a maltose factory on Temple Street in Hsinchuang as candidates. Good Neighbor representatives and professional consultants visited the cake shop to discuss the program with the proprietor and to familiarize themselves with his needs. They also presented design suggestions for the shop front aimed at making the cake shop the place locals would go to buy offerings when they worship at the nearby Hsinchuang Tzushih Temple. The shop owner, however, was not persuaded by these suggestions, and in the end the plan fell through. As for the maltose factory, it didn't qualify for the program, because it did not produce final products.

After visiting the old street, however, National Chengchi University Department of Advertising professor and Good Neighbor executive Chen Wen-ling noted that business was brisk at the Temple Street maltose factory. Aesthetics and a pleasant environment, however, had not been considerations in the malt sugar's production. A long desk, a sofa, and piles of canned maltose monopolized the front of the shop. The narrow hallway was packed with raw materials and semi-finished products.

Chen felt that if this old shop could be integrated into Temple Street's traditional architecture, it would attract tourists and boost the beauty and vitality of the street. She decided to focus Good Neighbor's energies on a makeover of this one old shop. She would also bring students in her Experiencing and Realizing Creativity class along to document the story of the revamping of Changhua's Meihsingchen Cake Shop as it unfolded.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

The ripple effect

Social columnist Nanfang Shuo once wrote an article analyzing reasons behind the recent successful (and breathtaking) transformations of Ireland, Italy, and South Korea. He said that Italy couldn't hold a candle to many countries in terms of high-tech achievements and industry size, but her fine-quality craft industries, such as leather goods and clothing and accessories, had kept up with modern technology. Introducing computer design capabilities, for example, has substantially boosted profits for the more than 1,000 cities and towns that specialize in handmade products and enabled them to find their own niche amidst the flood of globalization. Italy's story is a most unusual chapter in the history of capitalism, because the people of her ancient communities have been able to depend on traditional craft industries to maintain happy lives characterized by abundance and style in a high-tech era.

In contrast, the beautiful storefronts of the shops that participate in Good Neighbor's program might have to be redone in another 20 years or so, but if while having their "hardware" renewed, the shop owners can extend reengineering into their manufacturing processes and their business methods, then the little ripple stirred up by Good Neighbor might spread throughout the entire food and beverage industry.

"The most fundamental element in the success of these three countries has been their thinking. Thinking is nothing to be sneezed at. When it's on the money, everything falls into place. When it's not, nothing will go right," Nanfang Shuo explains. Truer words were never spoken.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

The Good Neighbor Foundation has successfully revamped eight shops, each of which is over 30 years old, thereby helping to ensure that local products continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

The Good Neighbor Foundation has successfully revamped eight shops, each of which is over 30 years old, thereby helping to ensure that local products continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

This bustling night market, boasting a wide variety of traditional foods, gives a taste of Taiwan's vitality.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.

The Good Neighbor Foundation has successfully revamped eight shops, each of which is over 30 years old, thereby helping to ensure that local products continue to be passed down from generation to generation.

These old shops are being given a new lease on life as they are spruced up and given new signs with local character.