Share
With K-pop culture taking over the world, people have been acquainting themselves with Korean traditions. K-dramas have offered insights into the culinary scenes, family dynamics, and traditional rituals that have struck a chord with many South Asian ethnicities. While some rituals are progressive and make you feel at home, others leave you surprised.
One of the popular traditions in Korea is eating tofu after being released from prison. It sounds surprising and a little confusing, but it is deep-rooted and has significance behind it. One must also note that tofu is an integral part of Korean cuisine. Being a rich source of protein, it is added to the hot pot, prepared with kimchi, tossed with fried rice, and simmered in spicy sauces.
Tofu For Nutritional Recovery
Confinement in jail can leave a person deficient in nutrients. Therefore, feeding tofu is a step towards their healing, especially protein. It is also widely available across South Korea and affordable to people across all sections of society. In the correctional system, people do not get a nourishing meal, just enough to get through their days. Hence, it became a tradition to eat tofu after coming out of jail and get stronger every day.
Tofu Reinforces Cultural Practices
If you are a K-drama fan, you must have witnessed this tradition in series and films. Through media, this ritual has reinforced cultural practices, allowing the world to dive deeper into its roots. The reel families feeding tofu to their loved ones adds symbolic meaning to the tradition and promotes its continuation through generations, making it difficult for sceptical people not to follow it.
Tofu Is A Symbol Of Purity
Study South Asian cultures or any other culture across the globe, white is often associated with peace, purity, and a new beginning. In Korea, people also associate it with innocence, and therefore, people eat it after returning from jail to mark their ritualistic cleansing. It symbolises leaving behind the past, however dark it might be, and heading into a brighter and hopeful future. The act of eating tofu is almost like a person vowing to themselves to be a more virtuous and better person.
Tofu Signifies Wish To Never Return To Jail
Eating tofu is also a promise that a person makes that they will never return to prison again. As soybeans transform into tofu, this irreversible change is connected with how a person’s personality and ideologies can take a new shape in jail. It means never repeating the mistakes of the past that put them behind bars in the first place.
Tofu Symbolises Support
When a person’s family offers them tofu for a meal, it symbolises that they have their full support. The act is an acknowledgement of the difficult experience one had in prison and that one needs time to heal and move on. This gesture welcomes a person right into the arms of their loved ones. It stands as a testament to new beginnings so that people can give back something to society.
