"In this paper, I trace how Taiwan became Japan's sugar factory in the early 20th century, followed by the story of two confectionery companies, Meiji Confectionery and Niitaka Confectionery. I focus on the relationships between businesses and colonialism, especially how these companies extracted resources from Taiwan to produce Western-style candy such as caramel and chocolate.
I was very lucky to be on a panel with junior and senior scholars from other institutions to discuss sweetness at different stages of Japanese history. After the conference, we continued to workshop one other's papers and now plan to publish a special issue in a food studies journal."