Taichung, Taiwan – Standing in line at her favourite boba tea shop in Taiwan’s second-biggest city, Lisa Chen was perplexed to hear that her preferred beverage had been embroiled in a headline-grabbing controversy halfway around the world.
After a Montreal-based company pitched a “convenient and healthier” canned version of boba tea on Canada’s version of Dragons’ Den last week, a firestorm ensued.
Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu, a potential investor on the reality show, raised concerns about so-called “cultural appropriation” and the lack of any indication that boba tea originated in Taiwan.
“There’s an issue of taking something that is very distinctly Asian in its identity and ‘making it better,’ which I have an issue with,” said Liu, who was born in mainland China and grew up in Canada, declining to back the company.
Manjit Minhas, another judge on the show, announced in a video on Instagram several days later that she had decided to withdraw an offer to invest 1 million Canadian dollars ($726m) for an 18 percent stake in the company after “more reflection, due diligence and listening to many of your opinions”.
On Monday, after days of angry comments online, the company, Bobba, offered a public apology online for the “harm we have caused with our words and actions on the show”.
To 21-year-old engineering student Chen, though, the controversy felt silly and not worth getting upset about.
Chen said she did not see the problem with the beverage becoming part of the globalised food landscape with variations that are increasingly detached from its Taiwanese roots.
“It’s great that more people can enjoy boba tea,” she told media.
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