Renaissance of Taiwan Bamboo

In the peak harvest season for the shoots of Oldham’s bamboo (Bambusa oldhamii), they have the delicate texture and sweetness of Asian pears, and they are one of the most popular seasonal foods. Bamboo farmer Zhou Liangfu, chief of the Laoquan Ward of Taipei City’s Muzha District, along with his brothers, guides us into the bamboo groves to dig up Oldham’s bamboo shoots. Before going into the groves, we have to put on protective clothing against mosquitoes and hang portable mosquito coil burners at our waists.

Bamboo shoots are young bamboo buds that grow out from the rhizome but have not yet produced a culm (stem). Whether the shoots are harvested before or after they emerge from the soil depends on the species. For instance, shoots of ma bamboo (Dendrocalamus latiflorus) are harvested after they break through the soil surface, but the shoots of Oldham’s bamboo start photosynthesis and turn green as soon as their tips see the light of day, making the bamboo flesh bitter, so Oldham’s bamboo shoots must be harvested before they come up out of the soil.

Zhou Liangfu notes that bamboo grows well in moist conditions. When harvesting Oldham’s bamboo shoots one can judge the location of the shoots by looking for cracks in the soil covering the tips, and observing whether the surface of the soil is moist. During peak harvest season you can’t go wrong if you follow these signs. Zhou repeatedly loosens the soil with his hands to reveal the top half of a bamboo shoot, then uses a bamboo-shoot harvesting tool to dig out the soil and expose the cowhorn-shaped shoot, and precisely applies the tool’s blade to the node to cut it free. In this way he collects nearly 20 bamboo shoots from this one grove, a bountiful harvest indeed.

In summer, demand for Oldham’s bamboo shoots outpaces supply, and Zhou says that if they are sent fresh to market they sell out quickly and command a good price. The shoots can be boiled in their shells, and they make a tasty, refreshing salad if iced or topped with mayonnaise.

An Asian icon

Bamboos are a diverse group of mostly evergreen perennial flowering plants that make up the subfamily Bambusoideae of the grass family, Poaceae. There are more than 1,000 species worldwide, and they are naturally distributed across all major continents except Europe and Antarctica. They mostly grow in humid tropical regions, with 80% being in Asia, mainly Southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Taiwan. No wonder bamboo is seen as an Asian icon.

Bamboos are divided into two types: clumping (sympodial), which grow together in clumps, and running (mono­podial), which grow as scattered individual plants. Both types grow rapidly, with some species reaching an average growth rate of 18 centimeters or more per day. The culms can be harvested after three to five years. Bamboo ­propagates vigorously, and can ­effectively mitigate soil erosion. Thinning bamboo groves by removing older culms makes room for new ones to grow, and improves their quality. Most bamboo species complete their life cycle by flowering once in a mass flowering and then dying back. However, beneath the soil the rhizomes live on, and after five to ten years will put forth new shoots, recreating the verdant groves.

Since ancient times, bamboo has been intricately inter­twined with all aspects of human life. Every part of the bamboo plant, including the roots, rhizome, shoots, sheaths, stems, branches, and leaves, can be used: Bamboo shoots are edible; the sheaths can be used to make conical hats; the leaves are used to wrap zongzi (meat dumplings); the branches can be made into brooms, chopsticks, and bamboo-­copters; and the stems can be turned into bamboo flutes, used to construct buildings, made into bamboo palanquins, or pyrolyzed to make charcoal. Bamboo is a constant companion in life.

Laoquan Ward in Taipei’s Muzha District welcomes visitors to dig up bamboo shoots for themselves—it’s both educational and entertaining.

At bamboo-shoot harvest time, one can judge the shoots’ location by the cracks in the soil over their tips and the dampness of the soil surface.

Bamboo farmer Zhou Liangfu says that at the peak harvest season in summer, Oldham’s bamboo shoots have the delicate texture and sweetness of Asian pears.

Taiwan’s bamboo resources

Lu Chin-ming, an expert on Taiwanese bamboo species, says that given Taiwan’s hot, humid climate and abundant rainfall, bamboo and bamboo shoots grow well across the entire island from north to south, from the plains to the high mountains. Mt. Hehuan, which rises to more than 3,400 meters above sea level, is covered with Yushan cane (Yushania niitakayamensis), a Taiwanese endemic species.

According to surveys by the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA), Taiwan has at least 89 species of bamboo, of which 25 are native species. MOA data shows that the six economically most important bamboo species in Taiwan are ma bamboo, moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis), thorny bamboo (Bambusa stenostachya), Oldham’s bamboo, long-branch bamboo (Bambusa dolichoclada), and the endemic makino bamboo (Phyllostachys makinoi).

“The worst litterers in the mountains are wild boar—they eat the bamboo shoots as soon as they sprout.” Tseng Tsung-yao, a bamboo researcher at the Lienhuachih Research Center of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, has discovered scattered debris of bamboo-shoot shells on the ground beneath ma bamboo groves. He says that wild boar love bamboo shoots, and occasionally monkeys too will come to eat their fill.

Kunishi cane (Sinobambusa kunishii) grows densely in the shade of trees. It is native to Taiwan, like Yushan cane and usawa cane (Pseudosasa usawai). Tseng notes that Yushan cane grows in the Central Mountain Range at medium to high elevations, while kunishi cane and ­usawa cane are found at medium to lower elevations.

Kunishi cane stems are slender and flexible, and were formerly used as arrow shafts by indigenous peoples in Taiwan. This species is therefore also called “arrow bamboo” in Chinese and its edible shoots are known as “arrow shoots.” Meanwhile, the usawa cane that grows on Yangmingshan is located in a conservation area, and the Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters has drawn up rules for harvesting the shoots.

Tseng notes that bamboo culms are mature after three or four years of growth, and this is the best time to use them. Culms over four years of age are considered old, hence the rule of thumb for managing bamboo groves: “Keep threes, harvest fours, remove sevens,” meaning that one should allow culms to grow for four years before harvesting them, and cut out and discard those over seven years old. Periodically thinning the bamboo groves to remove old or dead culms helps to maintain the groves’ vitality.

Until the early 1980s, Taiwan had a robust bamboo products industry, but after the introduction of plastic goods, the industry gradually shrank. However, bamboo-shoot culture and the bamboo-shoot economy are still flourishing.

Bamboo is very versatile. It can be used to make craft products and in construction, while tender bamboo shoots make excellent food. （Jiangsun: ma bamboo shoots pickled with salt, soybean meal, licorice, and rice wine.）

Sweet dragon bamboo shoots stir-fried with wood ears fungus.

Braised pork belly with dried bamboo shoots.

Chilled bamboo shoots with mayonnaise.

Makino bamboo shoots with meigancai.

Bamboo-shoot culture

Bamboo shoots are high in fiber, low in calories, and packed with nutrients, making them a popular dish. When the spring rains arrive following the spring equinox, huge numbers of shoots appear, and this has given rise to the Chinese expression “springing up like bamboo shoots after spring rain” to describe something appearing in large numbers. Following Tomb Sweeping Festival, two weeks after the spring equinox, there are arrow shoots, followed by makino bamboo shoots, thill bamboo shoots (Phyllostachys lithophila), Oldham’s bamboo shoots, black-shell green bamboo shoots (Bambusa edulis), ma bamboo shoots, and sweet dragon bamboo shoots (mainly Hamilton’s bamboo, Dendrocalamus hamiltonii, and Brandisii bamboo, Dendrocalamus brandisii). In the tenth month of the lunar calendar, the harvest season begins for moso bamboo shoots, known as “winter bamboo shoots.”

“All bamboo shoots are edible, but you have to prepare them right,” says Lu Chin-ming. Shoots can be used in a wide variety of ways. They can be soaked in water for several hours, then drained, packaged, and chilled. They are also tasty when stir-fried with shredded pork or simmered to make soup.

Taiwan has a long tradition of culinary excellence, and its “bamboo-shoot culture” is especially rich.

The head chef of the staff canteen at the Lienhuachih Research Center uses all kinds of bamboo shoots to make familiar downhome dishes. Diced Oldham’s bamboo shoots make a sweet, tender salad. Ma bamboo shoots in sparerib soup is a popular dish with young and old alike. There is also bamboo shoots with meigancai (a type of pickled mustard greens), often sold as streetfood or included in boxed meals. Also, sweet dragon bamboo shoots, only cultivated in Taiwan in recent years, can be stir-fried with wood ear fungus and shredded pork. Braised pork belly with bamboo shoots is a popular dish at the Lunar New Year and at banquets. And then there is the famous Zhushan delicacy of fried eggs with pickled bamboo shoots (jiangsun).

To meet consumer demand, second-generation bamboo farmer Li Xingchen has developed vacuum processing technology to keep bamboo shoots fresh without added preservatives. He exports his shoots to ethnic Chinese markets in countries such as the US and Canada.

Production of winter bamboo shoots is small, enabling them to command the highest prices of any shoots. The townships of Zhushan and Lugu in Nantou County are famous across Taiwan for their winter bamboo shoots. They are also among the few places in Taiwan to have specialized wholesale markets for bamboo shoots. The one in Lugu is open only in winter, showing how popular winter bamboo shoots are.

Zhushan—the name means “bamboo mountain”—is a bastion of Taiwan’s bamboo industry. At the Lunar New Year, families indulge in “delicacies from the mountains and the seas,” and for local residents “mountain delicacies” invariably refers to bamboo shoots. “For Zhushan people it just doesn’t feel like the new year without braised winter bamboo shoots, and squid soup with bamboo shoots and garlic,” says Zhushan native Lin Yu-jen, who is a researcher in the Forest Products Utilization Division of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute.

In addition, Zhushan residents have a tradition of making pickled bamboo shoots—jiangsun—often to a special family recipe. In one popular formula, ma bamboo shoots are cut into large pieces and pickled with salt, soybean meal, licorice, and rice wine. It makes an appetizing side dish, and when eating it one cannot detect the fibrous texture of the bamboo at all.

Lin Yu-jen, a researcher in the Forest Products Utilization Division of the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, is very knowledgeable about bamboo.

A bamboo ball.

A woven bamboo basket.

Bamboo balancing dragonfly toys.

Innovative uses of bamboo

As technology has progressed, uses of bamboo have evolved from the simple to the modern. Various bamboo products are displayed in Lin Yu-jen’s research lab, including woven bamboo products, bamboo children’s toys, bamboo charcoal, and bamboo pellets for use as biofuel. It’s like taking a journey through time to see the past and present of bamboo.

Lin, who advises the bamboo products industry, notes that Taiwan’s endemic makino bamboo is extremely resilient and does not break or crack easily, making it a popular material among Japanese for making shinai, the bamboo swords used in kendo. Meanwhile, bamboo charcoal, made by high-temperature pyrolysis, can also be used for air filtration thanks to its very fine pores.

The growing international attention paid to net-zero carbon emissions in recent years has bump-started the bamboo circular economy. Lin states that while the economic cycle of tree plantations takes 20 years from planting to harvest, bamboo can be harvested and used after only three to five years. It has three to four times the carbon sequestration capacity of trees, and is seen as the renewable resource with the greatest carbon capture potential. The government is encouraging enterprises to fund bamboo forestry and the bamboo industry is experiencing revitalization, creating a virtuous cycle of bamboo planting and economic activity.

“However,” says Lin, “if you want to promote large-scale use of bamboo, you have to develop bamboo construction.”

Processing bamboo can increase its economic value. Bamboo charcoal, made by pyrolyzing bamboo at high temperatures, is a product that can be used in daily life.

Building with bamboo

In Taiwan, architects Peter Kan and Li Lu-chih were the first to commit themselves to the sustainable path of modern bamboo construction.

In 2011 Kan and Li became the first people in Taiwan to devote themselves to the study of bamboo construction. “Taiwan has many typhoons and earthquakes, so the top priority is for buildings to be safe; there’s a lot to think about.” They and some other fans of bamboo established the Taiwan Bamboo Society to promote bamboo use. They have worked with industry, government, and academia in Taiwan to research applications for bamboo, and developed a high-temperature drying process that makes bamboo more durable and resistant to mold, wood-boring insects, and splitting.

To make bamboo more versatile as a modern construction material, the technology for bending the material was essential. Kan and others also developed joining systems to facilitate the creation of large bamboo structures. They published a book on bamboo materials and joining systems to share their ideas about the use of this natural resource.

Examples of bamboo structures include the CJCU Hall at Chang Jung Christian University and the Xianzhu Pavilion, a public art work in Danan Forest Park in Tao­yuan’s Bade District. Under a bamboo roof clad with copper, the pavilion offers a covered activity space and creates dialogue between bamboo, people and the environment.

“Bamboo buildings are a little ‘wild’ compared to wooden ones,” says Peter Kan. Although bamboo requires frequent maintenance, the joy that people get from this natural material makes it all worthwhile!

The rustic feel of bamboo makes it possible to realize the “bamboo dream” of returning to nature. On the path of environmental sustainability, there are boundless possibilities for bamboo lifestyles.

Bamboo structures are not only beautiful, they also have value as a form of sustainable architecture.