Tang Tang Da-ke’s broad smile always left a deep impression on anyone who met him for the first time. He started his business of wood fired red bean soup two years ago in Tainan and used what he earned in the first year to fund his bike tour around the island. During his bike tour, he visited more than 73 locations in order to deliver free red bean soup to locals and share stories with disabled children, adults and the elderly at schools and institutions for the disabled. The experience of having a bowl of hot red bean soup in a cold winter’s day, just the thing he needed to warm his body and soul, inspired him to share such warmth with others. Besides, his parents often prepared sticky rice dumplings and red bean soup by burning wood, so Tang, a lover of carpentry, came up with the idea of wood fired red bean. He said, as long as we take care of our land, it will offer you great wood and keep your fire burning.
唐大可讓人第一眼最深刻的印象就是大大的笑容。他兩年前開始在台南經營柴燒紅豆的生意，第一年累積經費，去年騎著三輪車環島，跑了73個地方，就是為了免費把紅豆湯跟故事分享給學校跟身心障礙機構的小朋友老人跟身心障礙者。他有次在冬天裡喝到紅豆湯，覺得心裡很感動，當時的他很需要這份感動，也想把這份感動分享給別人。另一方面，他的父母也經常燒柴煮肉粽跟煮紅豆湯，於是喜歡木工的唐大可就想出了燒柴的方式煮紅豆。他說，只要把土地照顧好，土地就會供給你很好的木材，讓燒柴的火源源不絕。
When Tang biked around the island, he was invited by many schools to share with children on how to cook red bean soup outdoors. He likes to ask children what makes them happy. Would they like to share this happiness with others? The children were always enthusiastic and took part in his activities. He let the children divide their work of washing red beans, collecting wood, fire lighting and cooking red bean soup themselves. Most of the children had never seen wood burning before. With various imaginations about fire lighting, some thought it as fun, and others dangerous. He told them that once the fire started, you cannot leave the fire unattended, for it is a life on its own.
Once, a child at a kindergarten insisted on inviting his mother to join Tang’s outdoor classes. Initially, his mother was puzzled about why he wanted her to come to taste red bean soup, something which was very common and easily available. The child explained that this red bean soup was very special as “it was cooked by the burning wood I collected!” Tang said, when happy children grow up, they can save our society and reduce its problems, for they are able to find simple joy in life and share with others, and this is how they make friends. The accumulation of unhappiness will become a negative energy. Many children have suppressed themselves for a long time, but what they really need is to be able to break free from social pressures and constraints. Since the liberation can only occur in the right space, such activity must take place outdoor. He has met teachers who would prefer to stay indoors to cook the red bean soup. He told the teachers that what adults are afraid of is children’s’ noise; we can use tangible space to restrict the movement of their body but not their mind. Children can stay quiet and obey our commands, but it doesn’t make them totally convinced mentally.
Tang Da-ke pays close attention to the relationship between agriculture and the environment. His red beans are grown without herbicide and chemical fertilizers by a farmer in Da-Liao, Kaohsiung. They are hand-picked, certified for passing environmental and crop tests and its production process and distribution can be tracked in the Taiwan Agriculture and Food Traceability system. Tang said, he visited the red bean farm himself and took friends to harvest the red beans, and it made him more confident in sharing the information about the source and production of the red beans with consumers. He also promotes environmental sustainability at his store. To cut back the consumption of plastic, he offers no containers for his red bean soup; his customers have to bring their own. Though no new plastic bags are used for carrying his soup, his customers are always happy to collect and offer clean and used plastic bags for his other customers to use. He said this is a kind of interaction and mutual learning process, and other stores may follow his strategy when they see it works.
He has joined the Democracy Store Front and Tainan Citizens’ Action Alliance, which discuss issues related to local social participation. He hopes to make his store a platform for citizens to voice their concerns, thus enhancing citizen autonomy and allowing such discussions to take place regularly in the long term. He has noticed that the participants’ average age became younger, and they come from various fields and disciplines, mainly because they were invited to join the events via the internet.
唐大可環島時受到許多學校邀請，在戶外跟孩子們交流跟煮紅豆湯。他喜歡問小朋友們，什麼會讓他們快樂？願不願意分享這種快樂跟幫忙？孩子們總是很熱烈參與。他讓孩子們分工合作：洗紅豆、撿柴、生火、合力煮好紅豆湯。大部份的孩子沒看過燒柴，對生火有一種想像，有的覺得火很好玩，有人覺得很危險，他告訴孩子們，生起火來不能不理他，不照顧它，因為火是一個生命。
有次一位幼兒園學生堅持要邀請媽媽加入唐大可的戶外課，媽媽本來不太懂為什麼孩子堅持要她來喝常見的紅豆湯，但孩子告訴媽媽：「這紅豆湯很特別，因為那根柴是我撿的喔！」這個經驗讓他覺得好笑又感動。唐大可說，快樂的孩子長大可以拯救社會，社會問題會減少。因為在生活中可以找到簡單的快樂，就會想分享，也會有朋友。不快樂的累積是一種負面能量。很多孩子都壓抑很久了，孩子需要的是一種解放。要在對的空間才能啓動，所以一定要在戶外辦活動。他曾經碰到想要待在室內煮紅豆湯的老師，他告訴老師，大人害怕的是孩子們吵鬧的聲音，我們可以用有形的空間限制他們的身體，但是框不住他們的心，孩子只是屈服在我們的控制下，並沒有心服口服。
唐大可很在意農業跟環境的關係，他的紅豆來自高雄大寮一位認識的農夫，不用除草劑，不用化肥，人工採收，也有檢測環境跟作物的產銷履歷證明。他說，我們有親自到現場去看，也會帶著朋友去採收，更可以很有自信地去跟消費者講產品的來源跟過程。他也在店面提倡減少塑膠的使用，紅豆水不提供容器，顧客必須自己帶容器來裝。他的紅豆湯則是不用新的塑膠袋，顧客們知道他的理念後都很樂意幫忙，總是帶乾淨的回收塑膠袋來，提供給其他的客人再次使用。他說這是一種互動跟共學。其他店家看到的時候也許會跟進。
唐大可是民主店頭跟台南公民行動聯盟的一份子，積極討論在地的社會參與，他希望讓店面空間跟公民的自主作為永續性活動，提供公民一個平台去發聲，近來他更注意到參加公民社會議題活動的年齡層下降許多，他說，這應該要歸功於網路，讓不同領域的人能受邀加入活動。
