List of Taiwanese inventions and discoveries

Last updated

This is a list of inventions by people who were born in Taiwan (officially known as Republic of China) or citizens of Republic of China.

Contents

Food, food techniques and cuisine

Bubble tea Bubble tea by Chill Bubble Tea.jpg
Bubble tea
Bubble tea
is a drink that contains flavored tea and tapioca pearls. It was invented in the early 1980s in Taiwan. [1] Bubble tea vendors serve the beverage cold or hot inside a translucent plastic cup with an oversized straw wide enough for the tapioca bubbles to pass through. [2] The drink has spread from Taiwan and is now popular across the world. [1] [3]
General Tso's chicken
is a sweet deep-fried chicken dish that is served in North American Chinese restaurants. The recipe was invented by Taiwan-based Hunan cuisine chef Peng Chang-kuei. [4]
Instant noodles
were invented by Go Pek-hok, who later adopted the name Momofuku Ando when he immigrated from Taiwan to Japan. Ando created a method for deep-frying and drying noodles that could later be cooked using boiling water. He founded the Nissin Foods company, which in 1971 introduced instant noodles marketed as Cup Noodles that were packaged in Styrofoam cups. [5]
Mongolian barbecue
is a stir fried dish that was developed by Wu Zhaonan in Taiwan in 1951. Meat and vegetables are cooked on large, round, solid iron griddles at temperatures of up to 300 °C (572 °F). Despite its name, the dish is not Mongolian, and is only loosely related to barbecue.
Pineapple cake
is a sweet traditional pastry and dessert containing butter, flour, egg, sugar, and pineapple jam or slices. It likely came into fruition around the 16th century when the pineapple, a fruit native to South America, was introduced by the Portuguese presence in Asia.

Games and entertainment

Connect6
is a game similar to Gomoku invented by I-Chen Wu, a computer science professor at National Chiao Tung University. The player who obtains six or more stones in a row wins. [6]
Cat café
was first opened in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998, which involves a coffee shop with in-house cats that roam freely and interact with customers. The idea since took off and spread around the world. [7] [8]

Science and technology

A universal crossed molecular beam apparatus
for studying chemical reactions was developed by the Taiwanese chemist Yuan T. Lee. [9] In 1986, Lee was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Dudley R. Herschbach and John Polanyi "for their contributions to the dynamics of chemical elementary processes." [10]
Floating gate transistor
In 1967, Simon Min Sze and Dawon Kahng invented the floating gate transistor, which provides the foundation for many forms of semiconductor memory devices. [11] [12]
Discovering HAART Cocktail Therapy
David Ho is a Taiwanese-American medical doctor and HIV/AIDS researcher who was born in Taiwan and has made many innovative state of the art scientific contributions to the understanding and technological treatment of HIV infection.
The integrated laptop projector
was first developed and showcased by Asus, a Taiwanese computer manufacturer, in 2008. The built-in projector debuted at Computex Taipei 2008, an annual computer expo. [13] Competitors such as HP in 2010 and Fujitsu in 2011 have since released similar products. [14] [15]
Refinement of Charged Meltblown Filtration
Certain charged filtration media manufacturing processes used in modern respirators, like N95 masks, were invented by Peter Tsai. [16]
The optimistic concurrency control
method was first proposed by Taiwanese computer scientist H. T. Kung and American John T. Robinson in 1981. [17]
Pop a Point Pencil
a stackable pencil or non-sharpening pencil. It is a type of pencil where many short pencil tips are housed in a cartridge-style plastic holder. A blunt tip is removed by pulling it from the writing end of the body and re-inserting it into the open-ended bottom of the body, thereby pushing a new tip to the top. It is pioneered by Taiwanese stationery manufacturer Bensia Pioneer Industrial Corporation in the early 1970s.
USB flash drive USB flash drive (unbranded).jpg
USB flash drive
USB flash drive
a data storage device, invented by Pua Khein-Seng, a Taiwanese-Malaysian inventor.
Xiaoluren
the walking green man, is the animated traffic light system.
High entropy alloys
invented in 2004 by Jien-Wei Yeh and his team in Taiwan. [18]
WiMAX
a wireless broadband communication standards invented by Tatung Company accompanied with Tatung University.

Language and writing system

Taiwan Sign Language
is the sign language most commonly used by the deaf and hard of hearing in Taiwan.
Taiwanese Braille
is the braille script used in Taiwan for Taiwanese Mandarin (Guoyu).

Sports

Woodball
is a sport invented by Weng Ming-hui and Kuang-chu Young in 1990. In the game, a mallet is used to pass a ball through a series of gates. The Olympic Council of Asia made the sport a program of the Asian Beach Games in 2008. [19] The International Woodball Federation is based in Taipei, Taiwan. [20]

Weapons and military

Assault rifle

Sniper rifle

Submachine gun

Machine gun

Pistol

Grenade launcher

Others

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bubble tea</span> Tea-based drink with chewy bubbles

Bubble tea is a tea-based drink that originated in Taiwan in the early 1980s. Taiwanese immigrants brought it to the United States in the 1990s, initially in California through regions including Los Angeles County, but the drink has also spread to other countries where there is a large East Asian diaspora population.

Taiwanese cuisine is a popular style of food with several variations, including Chinese and that of Taiwanese indigenous peoples, with the earliest cuisines known of being the indigenous ones. With over a hundred years of historical development, mainstream Taiwanese cuisine has been influenced by Hakka cuisine, the cuisines of the waishengren, Japanese cuisine, and American cuisine, with southern Fujian cuisine having had the most profound impact.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramen</span> Japanese dish of Chinese origin consisting of wheat noodles in a meat or fish broth

Ramen is a Japanese noodle dish of Chinese origin. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a broth; common flavors are soy sauce and miso, with typical toppings including sliced pork, nori, menma, and scallions. Ramen has its roots in Chinese noodle dishes and is a part of Japanese Chinese cuisine. Nearly every region in Japan has its own variation of ramen, such as the tonkotsu ramen of Kyushu and the miso ramen of Hokkaido.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Malaysian cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of Malaysia

Malaysian cuisine consists of cooking traditions and practices found in Malaysia, and reflects the multi-ethnic makeup of its population. The vast majority of Malaysia's population can roughly be divided among three major ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians. The remainder consists of the indigenous peoples of Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia, the Orang Asli of Peninsular Malaysia, the Peranakan and Eurasian creole communities, as well as a significant number of foreign workers and expatriates.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Youtiao</span> Deep-fried pastry of Chinese origin

Youtiao, known in Southern China as Yu Char Kway, is a long golden-brown deep-fried strip of wheat flour dough of Chinese origin and also popular in other East and Southeast Asian cuisines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cha chaan teng</span> Type of Cantonese restaurant

Cha chaan teng, often called a Hong Kong-style cafe or diner in English, is a type of restaurant that originated in Hong Kong. Cha chaan teng are commonly found in Hong Kong, Macau, and parts of Guangdong. Due to the waves of mass migrations from Hong Kong in the 1980s, they are now established in major Chinese communities in Western countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Likened to a greasy spoon cafe or an American diner, cha chaan tengs are known for eclectic and affordable menus, which include dishes from Hong Kong cuisine and Hong Kong-style Western cuisine. They draw comparisons to Western cafés due to their casual settings, as well as menus revolving around coffee and tea.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Datong District, Taipei</span> District in Western Taipei, Republic of China

Datong District or Tatung is a district of Taipei City, Taiwan. It is located between the Taipei Metro Red Line and eastern shore of the Tamsui River, and between Civic Boulevard and the Sun Yat-sen Freeway. The southern part of this area used to be the site of Twatutia, one of the first settlements in what is now Taipei and for a time the area's commercial center. Taipei's commercial center has since shifted south east to Zhongzheng, Da'an and Xinyi, and Datong is far less important economically. One of the last vestiges of Twatutia's commercial importance disappeared with the closing of the Chien-Cheng Circle in 2006. The north was the site of the village of Daronpon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stinky tofu</span> Chinese fermented tofu with a strong odor

Stinky tofu is a Chinese form of fermented tofu that has a strong odor. It is usually sold at night markets or roadside stands as a snack, or in lunch bars as a side dish, rather than in restaurants. Traditionally the dish is fermented in a brine with vegetables and meat, sometimes for months. Modern factory-produced stinky tofu is marinated in brine for one or two days to add odor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hong Kong cuisine</span> Cuisine originating from Hong Kong

Hong Kong cuisine is mainly influenced by Cantonese cuisine, European cuisines and non-Cantonese Chinese cuisines, as well as Japanese, Korean and Southeast Asian cuisines, due to Hong Kong's past as a British colony and a long history of being an international port of commerce. Complex combinations and international gourmet expertise have given Hong Kong the labels of "Gourmet Paradise" and "World's Fair of Food".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grass jelly</span> Asian jelly-like dessert

Grass jelly, also known as leaf jelly or herb jelly, is a jelly-like dessert originating from China. It is commonly consumed in East Asia and Southeast Asia. It is created by using Chinese mesona and has a mild, slightly bitter taste. Grass jelly was invented by the Hakka people who historically used the food to alleviate heat stroke after long days working in the field. The dish was introduced to Southeast Asia by the Chinese diaspora. It is served chilled, with other toppings such as fruit, or in bubble tea or other drinks. Outside Asia, it is sold in Asian supermarkets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese Indonesian cuisine</span> Cuisine of the people of Chinese Indonesians

Chinese Indonesian cuisine is characterized by the mixture of Chinese with local Indonesian style. Chinese Indonesians, mostly descendant of Han ethnic Hokkien and Hakka speakers, brought their legacy of Chinese cuisine, and modified some of the dishes with the addition of Indonesian ingredients, such as kecap manis, palm sugar, peanut sauce, chili, santan and local spices to form a hybrid Chinese-Indonesian cuisine. Some of the dishes and cakes share the same style as in Malaysia and Singapore, known as Nyonya cuisine by the Peranakan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night markets in Taiwan</span> Street markets

Taiwanese night markets are night markets in Taiwan that operate in urban or suburban areas between sunset and sunrise. A few, such as Huaxi Street Tourist Night Market, use purpose-built marketplaces, but most occupy either sidewalks or even entire streets that carry vehicle and pedestrian traffic by day. Some night markets in smaller side streets and alleys feature retractable roofs. Most night markets operate daily and feature a mixture of individual stalls selling clothing, consumer goods, xiaochi, and specialty drinks. The atmosphere is usually crowded and noisy with hawkers shouting and fast-paced music playing over loudspeakers. Taiwanese night markets have evolved over the years from small, local gatherings to noisy streets lined with vendors, who must adhere to regulations placed on their activities by the Taiwanese government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taiwanese tea culture</span> Tea culture of Taiwan

Taiwanese tea culture includes tea arts, traditional tea ceremonies, and the social aspects of tea consumption in Taiwan. It can be traced back to its roots in Chinese tea culture. Many of the classical arts can be seen in the tea culture, such as calligraphy, flower arts, and incense arts. Tea, especially oolong tea, is a popular drink in Taiwan, and teahouses, or "tea-arts" shops, are common.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agriculture in Taiwan</span>

Agriculture is one of the main industries in Taiwan. It contributes to the food security, rural development and conservation of Taiwan. Around 24% of Taiwan's land is used for farming.

Articles related to Taiwan include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron egg</span> Egg-based dish from Taiwan

Iron egg is a special version of soy egg, a snack from Taiwan. They are considered a delicacy and originated in the Tamsui District of New Taipei City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mauritian cuisine</span> Culinary traditions of Mauritius

The cuisine of Mauritius is greatly influenced by the tropical location of the island as well as the cultural diversity which characterizes the country. Mauritian cuisine is a blend of African, Chinese, European and Indian influences in the history of Mauritius. Most of the dishes and culinary traditions are inspired by French culture, former African slaves, Indian workers and Chinese migrants that arrived in the country during the 19th century. Over the years, communities found in Mauritius have adapted and mixed each other's cuisine to their liking, resulting in the development of Mauritian cuisine. While some popular dishes and desserts are consumed by Mauritians of all ethnic groups or communities, there are also forms of cuisines which remain distinctly ethnic and are unique to a specific ethnic community due to their ancestral cultural and historical connections. Local food which varies depending on ethnic communities therefore reflects the strong traditional, cultural, and historical influences of each community. French cuisine is very popular in Mauritius. Sino-Mauritian cuisine is one of the most prevalent in the restaurants throughout the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peng Chang-kuei</span> Chef known for Hunan cuisine

Peng Chang-kuei was a chef specializing in Hunan cuisine. Throughout his culinary career, he was based in Hengyang, Chongqing, Taipei and New York City. He was credited to be the creator of General Tso's chicken.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chun Shui Tang</span> Inventor of bubble tea

Chun Shui Tang is an international teahouse chain based in Taichung, Taiwan. Founded in 1983 as the name Yanghsien Tea Shop, it is known for the origin of bubble tea. Besides bubble tea, Chun Shui Tang also serve traditional Taiwanese dishes and snacks.

References

  1. 1 2 Martin, Laura C. (2007). Tea: The drink that changed the world. Rutland: Tuttle Publishing. p. 219. ISBN   9780804837248.
  2. Lovegren, Sylvia (2013). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Oxford University Press. p. 223. ISBN   978-0-19-973496-2.
  3. Carson, Erin. "Boba tea shortage explained: Why the bubble drink's facing tough times". CNET. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
  4. Grimes, William (2 December 2016). "Peng Chang-kuei, Chef Behind General Tso's Chicken, Dies at 98". The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February 2021.
  5. Laudan, Rachel (2013). Cuisine and Empire: Cooking in World History. University of California Press. pp. 310–311. ISBN   978-0-520-95491-5.
  6. Wu, I-Chen; Huang, Dei-Yen (2006). "A New Family of k-in-a-Row Games". Advances in Computer Games. 11th International Conference, ACG 2005, Taipei, Taiwan, September 6-9, 2005. Lecture Notes in Computer Science. Vol. 4250. pp. 180–194. doi:10.1007/11922155_14. ISBN   978-3-540-48887-3.
  7. Poletick, Rachel. "A Brief History of the Cat Café". Mental Floss. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  8. Lemmin-Woolfrey, Ulrike; Lastoe, Stacey (19 July 2019). "'Cats' is a disaster, but cats aren't: The best cat cafes to show your solidarity with our beloved companions". Cable News Network. CNN. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  9. Lin, M.C.; Lin, S.H.; Neumark, D.M. (4 September 1997). "Y.T. Lee Preface". The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 101 (36): 6339–6340. doi:10.1021/jp971954n.
  10. "The dynamics of chemical reactions - a fascinating new field of research". The Journal of Physical Chemistry A. 101 (36): 6339–6340. 15 October 1986. doi:10.1021/jp971954n.
  11. "Taiwan flash memory inventor wins lifetime award". Taiwan Today. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Republic of China (Taiwan). 25 April 2014. Retrieved 16 August 2017.
  12. Kahng, D.; Sze, S. M. (8 July 1967). "A Floating Gate and Its Application to Memory Devices". Bell System Technical Journal. 46 (6): 1288–1295. doi:10.1002/j.1538-7305.1967.tb01738.x.
  13. Herrman, John (5 June 2008). "ASUS Laptop With Built-In Projector Raises PowerPoint Threat to "Critical"". Gizmodo.
  14. Stevens, Tim (21 January 2010). "HP launching tablets and notebooks with integrated pico projectors this year?". Engadget.
  15. Robinson, Mark (22 April 2011). "Fujitsu Notebook Ditches Optical Drive, Packs Pico Projector". Wired.
  16. Tsai, Peter P.; Wadsworth, Larry C., "AIR FILTRATION IMPROVED BY ELECTROSTATICALLY CHARGING FIBROUS MATERIALS", Particulate Science and Technology, doi:10.1080/02726359408906659
  17. Kung, H.T.; Robinson, John T. (June 1981). "On optimistic methods for concurrency control". ACM Transactions on Database Systems. 6 (2): 213–226. CiteSeerX   10.1.1.101.8988 . doi:10.1145/319566.319567. S2CID   61600099.
  18. Wei-han, Chen (10 June 2016). "Taiwanese researcher gets special 'Nature' coverage - Taipei Times". The Taipei Times.
  19. "MOFA honors inventor of woodball". Taipei Times. 6 July 2007.
  20. "Historical innovation". International Woodball Federation.