How a cocktail bar on Taiwan’s Quemoy island tells Cold War stories through drinks made with local ingredients
On Taiwan’s Quemoy island, less than an hour’s boat ride from the mainland Chinese cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou, bar owner Powei Lee draws crowds by blending the tiny island’s battle-scarred past into cocktails.
During the height of the Cold War, mainland Chinese and Taiwanese forces regularly clashed over Quemoy – also known as Kinmen – and other islets controlled by Taipei along mainland China’s coast.
While today Quemoy is a fashionable tourist destination, drawing visitors to see its endangered otters and stark natural beauty, it has been back in the news after China last week included areas round the island for its latest war games near Taiwan.
Quemoy native Lee’s cocktails at his Vent Bar, in Jincheng township, in the west of the main island, showcase Quemoy flavours, such as the firewater Kaoliang, made with sorghum grown on the island.
Lee, 31, has designed one cocktail inspired by an extensive propaganda campaign that followed fighting in 1958, when Taiwanese forces fended off a Chinese attack on Quemoy, whose closest point is only around 2km (1.2 miles) from mainland China.
Called “Pick and Eat”, the cocktail is made with a base of soy milk, ginger and whisky, and topped with a cookie.
“Back then, the two sides would drop propaganda leaflets, each trying to show that their side was doing better and urging the other to surrender,” he said.
“One of the things they would do besides the leaflets was to send over supplies like snacks and food, to show that the people were well fed.”
Taiwan has controlled Quemoy, and the Matsu islands, further up the coast, since the defeated Republic of China government fled to Taipei in 1949 after losing a civil war with Mao Zedong’s communists. No peace treaty has ever been signed.
Old bunkers, many now open to visitors, still dot Quemoy, which is home to some 100,000 people, and Taiwan’s military maintains a substantial presence.
“I want [visitors] to be able to take away something even more meaningful than just typical souvenirs. If they can really feel that connection to the land, and understand the stories behind it, that is going to be the best memento they can have from their time here in Quemoy,” Lee says.
Those visitors may be Taiwanese or from further afield – but generally not mainland Chinese. Regular post-pandemic tourism from the mainland to Taiwan has yet to resume, amid bickering between Beijing and Taipei.
Life in Quemoy continued largely as normal during the drills last week, residents said, and flights to and from Taiwan’s main island were not disrupted.
Regarding the potential for conflict, Lee expressed hope there will not be a war. “The pandemic has already been very disruptive, and a real war would be far worse,” he said.
