In the 1920s, China's intellectual youth rose up in the upsurge of work-study in France, and Zhou Enlai, Deng Xiaoping, Chen Yi and others all joined the movement with the dream of saving the country.
However, the ideal is very full, the reality is very bone, at that time France had just experienced the catastrophe of the First World War, the economy and people's livelihood were greatly damaged, all kinds of industries were withered, there were unemployed people everywhere, and the people's lives were generally difficult.
The French are still like this, and it is even more difficult for Chinese students who are already poor and white. They had planned to work to provide education, who knew that even the native French could not find a job, where would it be the turn of the Chinese? Therefore, many international students are caught in the dilemma of having no food and clothing.
However, Chinese has always been known for being hard-working, intelligent and capable, and no difficulty can overwhelm them, in order to solve the problem of survival, these Chinese students have shown their skills, such as Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, and others, they have opened a "tofu factory" and sold tofu, named "Chinese Tofu Shop".
This tofu shop not only makes tofu, but also a series of soy products such as soy milk, bean blossoms, tofu brain, tofu milk, dried tofu, etc., with a variety of patterns and inexpensive prices, and soon established a good reputation among the Chinese overseas Chinese in Paris, and then slowly affected the French people with rich taste in life, which is very popular.
In fact, tofu in Paris is not the "patent" of Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping, as early as the late Qing Dynasty, there began to have Chinese students studying in Paris, known as one of the four elders of the Kuomintang Li Shizeng, is an earlier student studying in France, tofu is the earliest he brought over.
In 1902, two years after the Eight-Power Alliance invaded China, the young Li Shi came to Paris with the idea of serving the motherland, he originally wanted to study military, but because his physical fitness was too weak, the military academy did not accept it, Li Shi once turned to study agriculture, after all, China is the world's largest agricultural country.
Soybean is a unique cash crop originating in China, which can not only press oil, but also produce many soy products, is a magical cash crop, so Li Shi once specialized in soybean research, and also published a French version of "Soybean Research" and other academic works.
Li Shi was very clever to combine Chinese tofu with the "vegetarian fever" popular in the West at that time, during that period, Western countries such as Britain, France and the United States were influenced by Eastern culture, and there were many health theories that actively advocated vegetarianism, and many Westerners also began to be interested in the vegetarian feelings of the East.
Due to the peculiar shape and rich nutritional value of tofu, it is very similar to the "cheese" of the West, so it is known as "Chinese plant cheese" by the French and is very popular.
Li Shi once opened a "Chinese restaurant" in Paris, and many of the dishes in the menu are tofu, such as casserole tofu, mapo tofu, cold mixed tofu, shredded tofu, dried tofu and so on. The same small bean can make so many tricks of delicious food, so that the French are greatly impressed, many French people come to Li Shizeng's restaurant to taste tofu, even the French president came to admire.
Sun Yat-sen, who was raising funds for the revolution at that time, was also a regular visitor to the Li Shizeng Hotel, and Li Shizeng, who had long had the ambition to serve the country, saw the same thing as Sun Yat-sen and immediately became one of the earliest revolutionaries.
Li Shizeng, who became rich from the operation of tofu, also often sent money to Sun Yat-sen and gave Sun Yat-sen great support, so he was known as one of the "four elders" of the Kuomintang.
What is less well known is that Li Shi was also the initiator of the work-study movement in France, providing huge financial assistance to Chinese students studying in France. Moreover, it was the successful example of Mr. Li Shizeng that inspired Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping to open a tofu shop as well.
Because Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping were flexible and well-run, the tofu shop was so successful and profitable that some people joked that if Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping could stay in France and rely only on the tofu business, they would probably become Chinese rich!