New immigrant from Malaysia shares her entrepreneurial journey of selling traditional pastries of her hometown in Taiwan!

【Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network】Translated by CHI CHIA I

In this episode of "New Immigrants in Taiwan" Podcast unit, National Education Radio &【Taiwan Immigrants' Global News Network】invited a new immigrant from Malaysia, Shi Yan Wei (石雁維) who is also a pastry chef, to share a Taiwanese-Malaysian TV series “The Ghost Bride (彼岸之嫁)” with the audiences.

“The Ghost Bride” is adapted from a novel written by the Malaysian writer Yangsze Choo (朱洋熹). The story depicts Chinese culture and special customs in 1890s Colonial Malacca. Through this TV series, we would be able to have a deeper understanding of Chinese culture in Malaysia.

Read More: New immigrant from Malaysia creates a picture book “Bangau Oh Bangau” in the form of collage art, promoting hometown culture

“The Ghost Bride” depicts Chinese culture and special customs in 1890s Colonial Malacca. (Photo / Retrieved from NETFLIX)

Shi Yan Wei shared with us that the cast donned in gowns and old-fashioned dresses. It can be observed that the clothing is influenced by Western culture, at the same time showing the traditional characteristics of ethnic Chinese and a rich Nanyang style.

A Malaysian Chinese woman accepts a wealthy family's marriage proposal to be the "ghost bride" to their deceased son, a chance that would save her family a lifetime of debt but would force her to spend the rest of her days plagued by a ghostly spouse.

Desperate to get rid of the problems, she becomes involved in a murder investigation and the supernatural far beyond than she could have thought. Fortunately, she was accompanied by a heavenly guard on her way to the underworld. The two of them were always quarreling with each other but they gradually developed a deep friendship which made the interweaving of the human, ghost, and God more interesting.

Read More: Singaporean in Taiwan misses the taste of home, looking for Nanyang cuisine in Taipei to satisfy her cravings=

Shi Yan Wei creates a logo that resembles a rabbit. (Photo / Retrieved from NETFLIX)

Later, Shi Yan Wei introduced her entrepreneurial philosophy. Currently, she has opened an online store for more than a year, mainly selling Malaysian specialties such as cakes, New Year snacks, and Nyonya cakes, etc.

“Since I love eating carrots, I came up with a whim to create a logo that resembles a rabbit and launched a series of Malaysian specialties, including Kuih Lapis (九層糕), Seri Muka (糯米糕), and Kuih Kapit (糕加必),” Shi Yan Wei said. She also mentioned that she has started preparation for setting up a physical store, as well as financial planning and market research.

New immigrant from Malaysia promotes traditional pastries of her hometown to people in Taiwan. (Photo / Provided by石雁維)

Besides, she also shared the arduous journey of starting a business. When starting a business, customer’s tastes and preferences must be taken into consideration, as well as logistics and home delivery. There was once she did not manage to send products on time due to delivery & logistics companies’ failure to inform her about the demand exceeding capacity.

In terms of ingredients, she uses Taiwanese ingredients to make authentic Malaysian pastries and insists on not using colorings to make the snacks. Her entrepreneurial philosophy is to make every customer who likes pastries have a taste of delicious & healthy snacks. Now let’s listen to her wonderful journey.