Before the industrialisation of China began in the 1950s, many Chinese from the Pearl River Delta region needed to go to Southeast Asia for work.

They would fry the dace, preserve it with salted black beans and bring it with them because they were not used to eating foreign food.

Due to its low price, long shelf life, and its strong taste, which allows it to be served with rice alone, canned fried dace with salted black beans became a very common food for meals.

As research[9][unreliable source] show that canned food lacks nutritional value because of the artificial processing, people consume less fried dace with salted black beans.

[13] Other classic ways are eating with stir fried green vegetables, noodles or plain white rice.

[16] Furthermore, middle-income households would also use it during emergencies (e.g. when strong typhoon signals are in force or during tropical rainstorms which prevent people from going out to eat).

Thus, fried dace with salted black beans has been a common dish among lower and middle-class people, and is still considered as popular on an occasional basis.

[17] Trace quantities of malachite green were found again in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2019, though a government spokesman assured consumers that the levels were unlikely to be harmful under normal circumstances.