Does Taiwanese breakfast reflect an identity distinct from China's?

For many who grew up on the island, there is a strong connection between what is deemed Taiwanese food and what it means to be Taiwanese. This comes as public attitudes towards China change over the years.

- Yip Wai Yee

TAIPEI - It is not yet 6am on a weekday, but the queue is already snaking outside Fuhang Soy Milk, Taiwan's most famous breakfast spot.

Tourists from all over the world flock to the Taipei eatery, bleary-eyed, to sample a "traditional Taiwanese-style breakfast" that includes items such as shaobing, or baked flat bread, scallion pancakes and, of course, soya milk - both sweet and savoury.

Given their Chinese origins, however, can any of these items truly be considered Taiwanese?

This question has long been a subject of controversy, with people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait engaging in fierce debate on social media about it.

Supporters say that Taiwanese cuisine is distinct; critics maintain it is merely a subset of Chinese cuisine.

There is no doubt that these breakfast dishes were introduced to the island only after 1949, when Republic of China soldiers retreated to Taiwan from the mainland following the defeat of the Kuomintang government by the Communist Party of China in the civil war.

This type of breakfast, heavy on wheat flour and distinct from the typically rice-based meals found on the island previously, served to remind homesick troops and their families of their northern Chinese roots.

However, Taiwanese cultural experts argue that these dishes have since evolved with their own local twists, forming a Taiwanese food identity that distinguishes it from that of China, which claims the island as its own territory.

"Food from elsewhere has been transformed, reinterpreted and given a new form of life here that makes it Taiwanese," Ms Chen Ching-yi, a Taipei-based food writer and researcher, told The Straits Times.