Tofu Salesroom
Plant Studies Elective - tofu learning
from Plant South Salesroom
2025.4.3 - 2025.4.30
ScheinSpace
Hangzhou, China
In the past project practices of Plant South Salesroom, we have typically engaged in thematic research, exemplified by projects like A Nomadic History of Pineapple and Making Citrus. Following the threads laid out on our desks, we ventured into the fields, allowing the moist, bitter, and sweet tides to surge towards us, through us, and become us. During this process, we realized that we do not aspire to become botanical experts on pineapples or citrus—or rather, we are far from it. For us, the more pressing questions lie in how to initiate discussions about plants and how to understand the relationship between plants and ourselves. Simultaneously, amidst the shifts between focused and unfocused perspectives, we sensed the complexity of research on ‘plants and places.’ In the current surge of studies on proximity, locality, and the everyday, are we overemphasizing the personal memories associated with plants, treating them as products of individuals, families, and locales, thereby failing to address their inherent fluidity? If plants have permeated our daily lives, why do we insist on emphasizing their ‘native origins’ and ‘production sites’? While the original forms of plants are undoubtedly intriguing, why do we bypass their ‘present’ to constantly revert to their ‘past’?
Perhaps, this is a kind of 'research malady.'
Tofu serves as an excellent example, given its ubiquity and the fact that its techniques are deeply rooted in folk practices. So much so that even a knowledge authority, standing before a tofu stone mill, might find themselves at a loss. When we see a piece of chilled tofu on the table, someone may invariably begin to expound on the origins of soybeans and the brilliance of regional cultures. Come on, by the time the speech is finished, the tofu will have warmed. A researcher of culinary culture must first and foremost be an enthusiast of culinary culture—a simple truth that surprisingly needs reiterating. Can we perhaps begin with the subtle nuances of tofu’s texture, preparation, and flavor profiles, before delving into your tofu dreams?
Huang Miaozi once wrote in his Five Chapters of Tofu Love, ‘If one were to compile a family-tree of tofu, its branches would be remarkably extensive: soybeans (yellow and black) are its progenitors. Soybeans, when processed into soy milk, give rise to tofu and beancurd skins (the layer that forms on the surface of heated soy milk, dried and sold as beancurd sticks). Tofu, through further processing, becomes dried tofu, thousand-layer tofu, fried tofu (also known as tofu puffs), fermented beancurd, and stinky tofu... Even dried tofu alone, due to regional customs, different ingredients, and diverse preparation methods, yields distinct flavors across various regions and varieties. It is estimated that there are over a thousand ways to prepare tofu throughout the country.’ While all these sayings carry their own weight among the populace; if someone were to flaunt their erudition, people might just retort, ‘Alright, alright, would you like to come to my home and taste some homemade tofu? It’s quite different from what you get outside.’
Therefore, perhaps it is more fitting to conduct plant studies with the mindset of having an elective course. As a special project of Plant South Salesroom, ‘Plant Studies Elective’ will have each session still commence with a ‘thing’ related to plants. However, unlike previous thematic research, we aim to construct a space for discourse. You can come here to read, decompress, and engage in conversation. Refrain from absorbing information like a sponge; instead, relax and let yourself roll like the ocean waves!
1 / (Hi)stories around Bean Varieties
The on-site archival materials available for visit are about soybeans, a key ingredient in tofu making. These materials are compiled from the internal repository of the Plant South Salesroom Collection, which has engaged in continuous collection and organization. A substantial portion of these soybean-related materials, ranging from the 1960s to 1990s, originates from the circulation of holdings from the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, comprising primarily specialized reports on regional soybean cultivation, breeding, and scientific experimental studies.
2/ A Moving Station of Bean Varieties
Saved and provided by members of Farmers’ Seed Network (China), these beans comprise eighteen varieties from five regions. From left to right, the arrangement roughly corresponds to the north-to-south geographical distribution of these bean varieties in China.
3/ Dark Water, White Tofu
"Dark Water, White Tofu" is a set of improvised installations completed on-site within ScheinSpace over a three-day period by Hangping Yang and Yurui Dong. The title, "Dark Water, White Tofu," alludes to the water element and its associated color in the Chinese Five Elements theory ("Black Water"), and tofu, commonly used to represent white, block-shaped food ("White Tofu"). This set of installations employs the transformation of "black and white" and "water and tofu" as its central thread to harmonize the space. In this collaborative endeavor, Yang continues his established research direction concerning "spatial production and metabolism." He correlates the "constructed room" with the "body of tofu," re-examining the subtle and complex relationships between "minerals, plants, and humans" through the "pulping process" of materials such as putty, plaster, Xuan paper, and soybeans. Drawing upon his extensive training in traditional Chinese painting, Dong adheres to the artistic tradition of "line drawing" in this creation and invokes the imagery of "water and tofu." By employing the technique of "mounting" (裱纸) and the mural language of "indistinguishable sculpture and painting" (塑绘不分), Dong also attempts to evoke a sculptural experience of painting within the spatial dimension.
Photograph by Jiajun and Yihe Wu.
A Transect Walking on the ancient path of Tofu skin
along with an experience of tofu-skin making tutored by Jinyi Tofu Skin Factory
Dongwushan Mountain Village
Fuyang, Hangzhou, China
2025.04.27
13:00 - 18:00
Photograph by Xiaoyi, Amily, ScheinSpace, Plant South Salesroom.
NB.
Tofu in China: A Pre-Study for the Development of a Sino-German Tofu Network (2025), commissioned by Farmers’ Seed Network (China), with the support of Sino-German Agricultural Centre (DCZ)