The inventor of instant ramen, Momofuku Ando, passed away today at the ripe old age of 96. He was the founder of Nissin Food Products (Cup Noodle) and was the first to perfect a flash-frying method of cooking to create Chikin Ramen, the world’s first “instant ramen.”
Interestingly enough, Chikin Ramen was originally considered a luxury food, as it was many times more costly than fresh noodles (udon).
Ironically, Mr. Ando was born in Taiwan. So a Japanese version of a Chinese noodle was popularized by a Chinese person who founded one of the most widely-recognized Japanese food manufacturer in the U.S.
Thanks to misterstarfish for the heads up!
lol smart minds post alike =P. R.I.P Ando-san!
Thanks for the comment on my blog, too! -haj
First, “ramen” is the Japanese pronunication of “la mien”, Chinese for “pulled noodle”. That said, the Chinese call instant ramen “fangbian mian”, which means “convenient noodles”.
With a name like Momofuku Ando, I don’t think that the inventor was technically Chinese. He may have been born in Taiwan, but he was Japanese.
Nice tribute to the genius of instant noodles http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/09/opinion/09tue3.html?em&ex=1168491600&en=3b7a48876bee5364&ei=5087
Z.A., you’re right. While I’m not 100% sure, I do believe Mr. Ando is Japanese and just happened to be born in Taiwan. And actually, most Chinese people I know called instant ramen “pao mien.” Maybe it’s a regional thing?
I’ve never heard the term “pao mien”. It very well could be regional – it’s a big country, and there’s always Taiwan. But where I lived (Beijing, Urumqi) they called them “fang bian mian”.
Japan colonized Taiwan for a long, long time, so it would make sense that Japanese people would be born there.
Here’s a link to an article about some Japanese officials patting themselves on the back for their imperialist tendencies.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2006/02/06/2003291777
http://japundit.com/archives/2007/01/18/4764/
With a name like Momofuku Ando, I don?t think that the inventor was technically Chinese. He may have been born in Taiwan, but he was Japanese.
ZA , you are wrong. he was Taiwnese. his birth name was WU BAI-Fu. look it up. he was never Japanese, and he was always a gaijin in Japan, they never accepted him, just like the Kroeans are not accepted there
http://japundit.com/archives/2007/01/18/4764/
I have learned that the name NISSIN [??], for his firm, is comprised of two kanji, the first one [?]of course, NI, stands for NIHON or Japan. The second one [?], is a Chinese character for the CHIN Dynasty, when Wu Baifu was born. So in naming his company, he gave credit to both his adopted country, where he was always a gaijin, no matter how hard he tried to japanize himself, name included, and to his birth country/culture, China (Taiwan). I will try to find the kanji later. but this is true. NISSIN is an homage to the two parts of his soul.
?? = Nissin = Ni-Chin = Ni for Nippon, Chin for Chin Dynasty when Ando Sensei was born!
Comment by Danny Bloom ? 1/19/2007
Hi Danny, do you know for sure that Mr. Ando/Wu was Taiwanese? I’m asking because I haven’t been able to find anything *definitive* either way. I know he’s got a Chinese birthname, but then again, I have Chinese relatives who were born in Japan and have a Japanese birthname! It would certainly lend more credence to what I said about “a Japanese version of a Chinese noodle was popularized by a Chinese person” if he was indeed “racially” Chinese/Taiwanese. Love Japundit, by the way. Keep it up!
When the inventor of instant noodles Momofuku Ando died recently in
Japan at the age of 96, his obituary became international news, with
over 500 newspapers and magazines noting his death and describing his
colorful (and tasty) life. But one detail that many reporters in Japan
and overseas left out of Ando’s life story is that he was born in
Taiwan of ethnically-Chinese parents and first set foot in Japan when
he was 23 years old.
When a reporter for TIME magazine wrote that Ando “returned” to Japan
in 1933 to study at a university there, she used the wrong word. Ando
did not “return” to Japan at the age of 23, since that was the first
time he ever travelled to that country. In addition, the New York
Times, in its official obituary of Ando which was reprinted in several
newspapers around the world and remains online, wrote that
“Ando was a son of Japanese parents who had moved there from Osaka,”
adding that “when he was 23, he returned to Japan.”
The New York Times needs to correct its online website to reflect that
fact that Ando’s parents were not Japanese at all. They were both
ethnic Chinese people born in Taiwan. Furthermore, Ando did not
“return” to Japan when he was 23, as the New York Times reported,
since his trip to Japan in 1933 marked his first visit to that island
nation.
In fact, most of the international coverage of Ando’s life and death
implied that he was Japanese and that his iconic invention was a
Japanese one. Well, to be fair, Ando, whose birth name in Taiwan was
Wu Bai-fu, did become a Japanese citizen in 1948, at the age of 38 and
he did live there for the rest of his life. However, the Chiayi County
native spent the formative years of his life in a small town in
southern Taiwan, as most Chinese-language newspapers in Taiwan noted
recently when the famous man passed away.
Blogs and ramen-themed websites on the Internet were filled with news
and insigts about Ando and his popular invention, but few bloggers or
reporters outside Taiwan bothered to note that Ando was originally
from Taiwan and did not became a Japanese citizen until he was 38.
Part of the problem in reporting Ando’s life stems from his own
attempts to downplay his roots in Taiwan, according to sources, and
even Nissin Food Company in Japan downplays (or completely ignores)
this fact.
When a reporter in Asia asked the Nissin public relations department
for some biographical information about Ando’s early life, the
reporter was informed that Ando was a Japanese who was born in Taiwan
but who “returned” to Japan in 1933. This is patently false, as the
world knows now.
Even the name of Ando’s company, Nissin, is composed of two Chinese
characters that pay homage to the two sides of his life. The first
character “ni” stands for Japan, while the second character “chin”
stands for the Chin Dynasty in which Wu Bai-fu was born in 1910. The
very name of his firm is therefore proof that he knew who he was, even
if the world has been slow to find out the truth about his life.
Because of Taiwan’s isolation in the interational community, the
international media often belittles or ignores this country’s real
history and achievements, not to mention its native sons and daughters
who make names for themselves in other countries. But had Ando been
born in Beijing or Shanghai, one can be sure that the recent headlines
around the world would have read “Chinese inventor of Cup Noodle dies
at 96.”
Why can’t the world ever get things right when it comes to reporting
about Taiwan and its native sons? Momofuku Ando, a.k.a. Wu Bai-fu, was
born and bred in LiuJao Village in Chiayi County when Taiwan was under
the control of Japan. Both his parents were Taiwanese. The record
needs to be set straight. How about it, New York Times?