🌍 East Asia
Also known as: Far East
China and Japan: rare but ancient dairy traditions — the Bai people's dried rushan cheese, Guangdong's milk pudding, and so at the Japanese court.
East Asia is a region in the east of Asia that includes China, Japan and Korea. In East Asia — China, Japan and Korea — milk was historically not an everyday food: the diet was based on rice, soy products, vegetables and fish. Many adults here digest lactose poorly. Even so, the region has ancient and distinctive dairy traditions.
In southwest China, the Bai people have for centuries made rushan, a dried “milk fan” from cow’s milk. In Guangdong, buffalo milk is used for a delicate pudding called double-skin milk. In 7th–10th century Japan, the imperial court made so, a product of boiled-down milk that served as a delicacy for the nobility, a medicine and an offering. According to the FAO, a large share of Asia’s milk comes not from cows but from buffalo, yaks and other animals.
Mass milk consumption in Japan, Korea and China spread mainly in the 20th century, especially in its second half. Today milk, yogurt and dairy desserts are ordinary supermarket products there.
What it includes
How it connects to milk
🌍 East Asia → kind of → 🌍 World regions → kind of → 🥛 Milk
Links
- Traditional products
- 🪭 Rushan, 🍮 Double skin milk, 🏯 So (dairy product)
- Peoples
- 🧑🤝🧑 Bai, 🧑🤝🧑 Cantonese, 🧑🤝🧑 Japanese
- Part of
- 🌍 World regions
- Wine and milk
- 🍷 Jiahu
Frequently asked questions
Why did people in East Asia drink so little milk?
Farming was built on rice growing rather than dairy herding; in addition, many adults digest lactose poorly.
What are traditional Chinese dairy foods?
For example, rushan, the dried cheese of the Bai people in Yunnan, and the Cantonese pudding double-skin milk.
Did ancient Japan have cheese?
In the 7th–10th centuries the court made so, a product of boiled-down milk that is sometimes called an ancient cheese.
What to read next
- 🍮 Double skin milk — A Cantonese milk pudding from Shunde (Guangdong): buffalo milk, egg white and sugar; two skins form on top.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Bai — A people of Yunnan in south-western China, around Erhai Lake; for centuries they have made rushan, a dried "milk fan" of cow's milk.
- 🍷 Jiahu — An ancient settlement in China where traces of a drink made from rice, honey and fruit were found.
- 🏯 So (dairy product) — A dairy product of imperial Japan in the 7th–10th centuries: layers of milk skin pressed into a soft mass, used as medicine, an offering to the gods and tribute to the court. Daigo was made from it.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Cantonese — People of Guangdong province in southern China; their dairy classic is double-skin milk, a dessert made from buffalo milk.
Similar
🌍 West Africa · 🌍 Southern Africa · 🌍 Himalayas and Tibet · 🌍 Arctic and the North · 🌍 Carpathians · 🌍 Central Europe
Sources
- Bacterial Diversity in Chinese Rushan Cheese From Different Geographical Origins. Frontiers in Microbiology, 2018
- MAFF Japan — Traditional Foods in Japan: Processed livestock products
- FAO — Gateway to dairy production and products: Dairy animals