This is a good point—branding is so key. Creating contrast between normal and rare tofus could turn out to be a really powerful marketing tool, or make us sad and un-credible.
Very cool that you’ve spent time in Hunan. I’d love to visit someday. And absolutely, it blows my mind how people talk about western veganish cities—it’s a thousand times easier in China
I think Cornelius and Lumpyproletariat make good points, but as evelynciara points out in another comment, it’s also important to make sure you don’t do anything that’s seen as cultural appropriation-y. There’s one world where marketing rare Chinese tofu as something other than tofu could lead to accusations of white-washing and bad PR overall*. That being said, I could imagine that branding it with some other names used for the specific tofus in China could work, since it wouldn’t be white-washing (I think?) and it wouldn’t carry the negative connotation of tofu.
I know these are all conflicting comments, so my advice is just to be thoughtful about the various considerations before committing to a name :).
*Particularly since veganism is sadly (anecdotally) perceived as being super white, even though that’s not true in America at least (BBC).
This thought crossed my mind as well. On the flip side, there is also already a market for tofu, supermarkets know where to put it and consumers know what it is. Though some hate it, some also like it and might be more easily enticed to try a new kind of it, than something completely unfamiliar. On the other hand, if most of the benefit is in replacing meat, it certainly seems like appearing to people who don’t like current forms of tofu would be valuable. Maybe there is some way to do both?
This is a good point—branding is so key. Creating contrast between normal and rare tofus could turn out to be a really powerful marketing tool, or make us sad and un-credible.
Very cool that you’ve spent time in Hunan. I’d love to visit someday. And absolutely, it blows my mind how people talk about western veganish cities—it’s a thousand times easier in China
I think Cornelius and Lumpyproletariat make good points, but as evelynciara points out in another comment, it’s also important to make sure you don’t do anything that’s seen as cultural appropriation-y. There’s one world where marketing rare Chinese tofu as something other than tofu could lead to accusations of white-washing and bad PR overall*. That being said, I could imagine that branding it with some other names used for the specific tofus in China could work, since it wouldn’t be white-washing (I think?) and it wouldn’t carry the negative connotation of tofu.
I know these are all conflicting comments, so my advice is just to be thoughtful about the various considerations before committing to a name :).
*Particularly since veganism is sadly (anecdotally) perceived as being super white, even though that’s not true in America at least (BBC).
This thought crossed my mind as well. On the flip side, there is also already a market for tofu, supermarkets know where to put it and consumers know what it is. Though some hate it, some also like it and might be more easily enticed to try a new kind of it, than something completely unfamiliar. On the other hand, if most of the benefit is in replacing meat, it certainly seems like appearing to people who don’t like current forms of tofu would be valuable. Maybe there is some way to do both?