ZHAO'AN HAKKA ｜ OUR STORY
愛惜，正知甜
oi^ siaˊ, zhang^ diˇ teemˋ
“Cherish it, and only then will you taste the sweetness.”
A Zhao'an Hakka saying, and the whole of our brand in six words. Buyuseika started with one small melon in Lunbei that nobody could bear to throw away.
THE PLACE
Lunbei 崙背
The last Zhao'an Hakka settlement
Lunbei, in Yunlin County, is — together with Erlun and Xiluo — one of the few places in Taiwan where Zhao'an Hakka communities remain concentrated. People here still speak Zhao'an Hakka, a dialect now close to disappearing, and grow melons in alluvial soil laid down by the Zhuoshui River.
Under Qing rule, Lunbei was known as Buyu 布嶼. We took the old name for our brand, so the memory of this land travels with the product.
The melons here are unusually sweet: mineral-rich alluvial soil, long hours of sun, and a wide day-to-night temperature swing driven by sea wind. Every season the fields also yield melons that are small or picked early — perfectly good in flavour, simply the wrong shape for the fresh market. They had not yet found a stage of their own.
THE PERSON
頭家 Thâu-ke
From Keelung to Lunbei
Everyone here calls me Thâu-ke — “the boss”. I came from Keelung in the north and married into a Zhao'an Hakka family in Lunbei.
After moving here I kept seeing it in the fields around me: every season, melons that were small or picked early went out at a knock-down price simply because they missed the grade for the fresh market. Fruit with its flavour fully intact deserved a better chance than that.
So I set out to do something with them. We slow-dry at low temperature for the better part of a day, concentrating a whole melon into a few slices. No added sugar, no additives — the fruit speaks for itself.
I also wanted more people to know this place. Zhao'an Hakka is fading, and Lunbei's culture and stories deserve to be remembered. That is how Buyuseika began: every product carries something of this land and of the Zhao'an Hakka language.
THE PRODUCT
A second life
Every slice is a whole melon, concentrated
1.5 kg of fresh melon, slow-dried at low temperature, yields under 100 g of dried fruit. Every slice is the concentrated essence of a whole melon.
No added sugar, no colouring, no preservatives. The sweetness comes from time and temperature drawing it out of the fruit itself.
Preserving a season's flavour so it lasts is a century-old Hakka craft of preserved foods — and a way of carrying culture forward, bringing a disappearing language into everyday life.
What we believe
Waste nothing
Cutting food waste, so that every carefully grown fruit ends up somewhere it belongs.
Carrying culture
Keeping Zhao'an Hakka language and village culture alive through the products themselves.
Local economy
Creating extra value for Lunbei's melon growers, and keeping that value in the region.
OUR PRODUCTS
Two product lines
Our range splits into 菓 goo^ and 食 shiedˊ. Both names come from Zhao'an Hakka — the village's own words, printed on the packaging.
菓 goo^
Dried fruit
“goo^” is Zhao'an Hakka for fruit. Lunbei melons, slow-dried at low temperature to hold their aroma and nutrients — each slice a concentration of the field it came from. Thick or thin, red-fleshed or green-fleshed, each has its own character; the range also includes Jiji mountain banana and dragon fruit.
食 shiedˊ
Everyday snacks
“shiedˊ” is Zhao'an Hakka for eating. Melon folded into everyday treats — the crisp, milky snap of our melon sticks and the soft milkiness of our melon nougat, making the taste of Lunbei easier to share.
Working with us
We work with companies on gifting, employee purchases and event favours — and supply sourcing figures you can cite in a sustainability report.
Our online shop is in Chinese — browse the shop or write to us in English.