Last week, on Canada’s version of Shark Tank (Dragons’ Den), Sebastien Fiset and Jessica Frenette asked Dragons to invest in their company “Bobba” (see episode clip below). Frenette starts by asking investors if they are familiar with “The trendy sugary drink… but you’re never quite sure about its contents”. The “trendy” drink refers to bubble tea, in which investor Simu Liu who is Chinese-Canadian quickly argues against, sarcastically saying “… I’m quite sure about its contents…”. They continue to claim this “innovation” of popping boba as their own, even stating they have made it healthier than the original. Despite questions regarding its origins, the team says before they discovered boba, nobody knew about it. Simu brings in a really important question: where is the acknowledgement and respect of Asian culture in this *already existing* drink?
For those who don’t know the origins of bubble tea, it was created in Taiwan in the mid 1980s. Tea itself has been a long standing tradition for many Asian cultures, dating back to as early as 4,000 years ago. If this doesn’t expose the obvious misinformation Fiset and Frenette shared about their “invention”, their response to Simu’s concerns of cultural appropriation should. Fiset states: “Boba is no longer an [ethnical] product”. This outrageous statement is not only widely offensive to Asian culture, it simply doesn’t answer Simu’s question. What’s worse is the dismissal that came along with Simu’s question. The other investors either stayed silent, or even disapproved of him asking it. Denying the fact they have appropriated a tradition by saying “it no longer belongs to this culture” is quite literally the definition of cultural appropriation. It may have been Sebastien Fiset’s first time trying bubble tea, but that doesn’t mean he discovered it.
This situation mirrors recent trends with white people wearing satin bonnets and creating TikTok trends with “cultural food” (like tanghulu – candied fruit, and ramen). There is nothing wrong with appreciating a culture’s traditions, using certain methods, or even putting it in business. The issue appears when there is no accreditation of that cultures’ practices or product, and it is purely used for a quick profit. For Bobba, nobody on the entrepreneur team was Asian, and although they claimed one of their “distributors” is based in Taiwan, they clearly had the intentions to sell a product, not support the culture.
Along with appropriation, this panel was filled with microaggressions from the start. Calling food, hair, traditions, or any aspect of non-white culture “unhealthy”, “weird”, or even “ethnic” indicates that non-american or european based cultures are out of the norm and are inferior to their white counterparts. It resembles Mikki Kendall’s statements she receives of being a certain trait, “for a black girl”.
Growing up Asian American, I would always resort to american food over something my grandma made, hoping it would avoid the funny looks from my classmates. Having my family’s traditions ridiculed and our food called “weird” is unfortunately a familiar experience that many other young children have. Now that I’m older, I can appreciate both my parent’s cultures and be proud of the food I grew up with. I am happy that other people are able to appreciate the food I was once made fun of for. But it hurts to see these traditions being left behind for the idea of profit or a new follower, especially when there are people like Simu Liu raising concern, yet being ignored.
In our class we discuss intersectionality and valuing people of color’s experiences. One way we can provide this validation is by appreciating cultural practices, foods, and traditions without diminishing their origins. There is so much beauty in intercultural communication, and when we share traditions with people we gain a better understanding of other’s lives. However, Bobba, and similar companies, are an ineffective way to spread this awareness if their method is through cultural appropriation.
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