yeah had they said something like "our brand aims to bring this popular Taiwanese beverage to the western masses with more accessible familiar marketing tactics and packaging to the western consumer so people may experience this drink which they otherwise may never have ordered, and maybe start learning more about other culture's drinks and foods which they may not have tried before" they would've been much better off... actually may have come off as not racist...
@@crunchevo8974It’s actually all bullshit from them because as a Canadian, EVERYONE I KNOW LOVES BOBA???? Like of all places to try to peddle such nonsense, it’s urban Canada? There’s bubble tea at every major area, and I have no clue who they think they’re “teaching” about a drink that white kids here start consuming at like 13. It’s all nonsense. Sure maybe in rural Canada people don’t drink boba, but I don’t think those people would be buying their product at the store either. That’s actually what is pissing me off the most about this. Bubble tea might not be big in America, but it sure as hell is not a strange thing here.
Yeah if they just said that they wanted to do their own spin on boba tea with fruit juices without the whole "making it less ethnic" line, it would have been fine.
@@crunchevo8974 idk this drink seems so far off from taiwanese bubble and fruit teas, it would be better to market this as something completely different but inspired by bubble tea, instead of trying to pass this drink off as authentic in any way. I would not want people drinking this and thinking that this is what bubble tea is.
The "we don't know what's in boba" was so gross. It's tea, tapioca pearls, and other fun things. It's not sneaky. If they had come in saying "we're making boba available to keep in your fridge", he wouldn't have had his reaction. It was clear that their marketing was to make boba less scary, which was the problem.
Saying that they improve it and made something knew shows that they didn’t do full research in the market. They should come up up with the idea that it’s just tapica petals in lots of flavors that’s that can be save in the fries he. They should have even put in the pitch that they work with Taiwanese companies and put it in their label. Make it a collaborative effort. And be thankful that other cultures influence the market that you’re trying to get into it inspired by them. “Making it better” it’s a huge stretch that no one can achieve. I don’t think Dominos makes better pizzas than traditional- Italian owned pizzerias
For real though. No one's coming for the Trader Joe's boba because it's make at home boba that is not bad for tapioca you microwaved instead of getting the good stuff at a store that makes theirs in the morning. No one is trying to fix boba or exoticize it. 🤔 Now if they knocked off an independent business that pitched to them that's a different thing TJs might get dragged for. 👀
The immediate, LOUD hostility of some of his fellow judges was such a common response when you disrupt the complacent vibe of... certain people. We've all been there and it's always out of proportion. Then you're the one who's "angry" 😲
The best part is that the judge who interrupted Liu's legit criticism is South Asian. What would she have said if someone pitched a "better" version of HER ethnical foods?
The immediate dismissal from them while you try to kindly tell them is MIND-NUMBING. And then they act like you're being overly dramatic about cultural appropriation when *they're* the ones getting their panties in a bunch because you just informed them about something they clearly didn't know. I feel for Simu here, something like unbridled POC rage lol
Lebanese/Vietnamese people who run pizza shops are not claiming that Italian pizza is worse (less healthy with ambiguous ingredients) than theirs. They don’t claim to make better pizza than Italians do. They make the SAME food. They don’t modify or ‘upgrade’ it. Lol I don’t see how that compares at all.
Exactly. There are even plenty of pizzerias in Italy run by North Africans, like Moroccans and Egyptians, and guess what Italians eat at those places too. My friend is Chinese ethically and her parents own a Chinese/Italian restaurant and they make pizza too and my friends and I went to eat it there many times.
I’m Vietnamese and I know vietnamese people that sell pizzas with ketchup instead of tomato sauce and I’m not with it at all, but they don’t ever claim that they invented pizzas
Do you know who claims to have better pizza than italians? Americans, I do saw with this eyes an American claim that " the best pizza you'll ever have is new York pizza" which is laughable for an Italian 😂
Its an unfortunately typical response I'd expect of many québécois business students. This is the same province where our local government denied on the record that systemic racism exists in Canada.
“No longer ethnical.” Honestly, he probably just accidentally added an n there. He meant to say they’re being so disrespectful that’s it’s no longer ETHICAL for them to sell boba tea. 😝 Joking, of course. Whenever I’m surprised at the caucasity of my fellow white folk, I’m reminded that it’s a privilege to not constantly assume they’re going to be the absolute worst.
Something that sort of bugs me is them specifically bringing Simu Liu, an Asian man, onto this specific episode as a guest judge. Fully knowing this pitch will be there. And then getting upset with him when he brings up a valid concern about cultural appropriation. Feels icky and shallow.
It's a show celebrating business moguls. Kevin Oleary is/was a main character on both the US and Canuck versions for years. None of those people got where they are without stepping on a few necks.
The problem is definitely the owners presenting it like bubble tea is some weird, mysterious “ethnic” drink that could use some whitewashing to make it less intimidating, like bro why not just say “bubble tea is a beloved drink, here’s our take on it”
I absolutely agree with what you're saying It doesn't seem like they have any partners - Taiwanese, or just Asian in general - in the immediate Quebec area (sounds like the only partners that fit the bill are all the way on the other side of the world and seems like they're only involved on the production side rather than the marketing side) whom they could have consulted to bounce off ideas on how to pitch the drink more effectively. Someone who at least was culturally aware would have stopped them point blank from blurting the things that they said ("no longer ethnical", "boba is the drink that no one has any idea what's inside of it", "our version is so much more healthier", etc.) and helped them rephrase it less offensively. You can pitch a different reiteration of a cultural food or item without having to disrespect the original product as if it's less than. That's definitely where the owners failed in pitching their product. Simu tried to give them the benefit of the doubt at first, but they kept digging their graves deeper because they could not see how hurtful and dismissive their words were.
This reminds me of the white UK couple opening a pho restaurant then trademarked the word pho. And went around seeing any mom-pop restaurants that used that vietnamese word (its like trademarking the word burger)
The two people's pitch is about making a sugary drink healthier. Your version is making it less "intimidating" by "whitewashing" the drink... a sugary drink is a sugary drink - regardless of where it's from and trying to adjust the ingredient doesn't make it cultural appropriation.
red flag #1 was when the woman said boba is a trendy drink. She wants to profit off of a "trend". To me, one of the key signs of cultural appropriation is when people treat something as a trend.
I’m 100% on Simu’s side here, but to be fair regarding the “trendy” comment, they were literally trying to pitch their product to a panel of judges and convince them it would be a popular thing to invest in. Like I don’t like this product or these people but I get why they used that word lol
This right here. Part of the reason why we need to actually call out cultural appropriation, is that just sharing it around in good faith to anyone, DOES get these wonderful cultural arts and techniques distorted, cheapened, and redefined as just a tired old trend one day. Appropriators demand that you share your toys with them, and leave them to you broken when they get bored of it, or even tell you they lost it/gave it away when you ask to enjoy the thing you made. The issue isn't some innate issue of dominating communities like white people using things, the issue is that very few things have managed to be spared from being fed through the late stage capitalism machine, and we'd really like people to be careful and not just do that just to print a little money or make a new marketable trend. Cultural appropriation stops being a concern, once we dismantle the systems that keep destroying and capitalising on the few corners of international culture barely touched by anglocentric dominance.
It can be both traditional and a trend. A few years ago there was this bubble tea war going on in SEA where a bunch of Taiwanese companies started opening branches everywhere in the region. It was a total bloodbath and these days only a handful of brands are still around, because the trend (started by the Taiwanese themselves) pretty much ended. It's now seen more as a treat than anything.
The first time I tried Boba was from a Taiwanese family-run business. The owner worked at the counter and thanked me for supporting them. It closed down within a few months, and the same street has several generic chain boba stores.
My favorite boba place is a family run Thai place that has the BEST boba smoothies, and their tea is great too. By far the best places I've been for boba are places run by small Asian businesses. Chain places or stores just jumping on a trend don't come close imo
The fact these tea people intentionally acted ignorant is the problem to me. Its not just the cultural thing, its also the fact they that in said traditional boba you dont know whats in there. Not buying from them honestly. The judges were definitely part of the problem as well for cutting off Simu and allowing these people to say their ignorant bs
i completely agree. it feeds into the “MSG is unhealthy” narrative which is so racist. they’re portraying their yt founder brand as the comfort introduction to other yt people who are equally as ignorant
I was going to say this as well. And we very often see, generally white people, colonize other cultures products once its popular. Claim it as an unknown and unhealthy and reinvent it their way as healthier and better. And when it comes to food and beverages its usually asian foods and beverages. Its a completely racist pattern. And just trying to profit off of THEIR culture. Its so gross.
I’m Taiwanese. I appreciate Simu Liu for pointing out MULTIPLE problematic points from the clip. People need to watch the whole clip before they judge what he said.
@@TrueGamer22887 You missed the point of the video. The problem wasn't the product, or even its inventors, it was the marketing. Saying that Bobba solves the problem of bubble tea being an "ethnical drink" that "no one knows what's in it," while also trying to sell it as a "trendy cultural drink" (their words, not mine) is literally cultural appropriation for capital gain. Also, they are literally asking Simu to donate a million dollars to become their investor. He has the right to tell them his opinion.
@@marianne3802 no, they’re asking a panel of investors and he made himself the main character. He had a problem with the product 5 words into their pitch because it didn’t mention Taiwan (a state he does not recognize as its own place and culture btw). Why is he on dragons den if he’s this super moral anti capitalist (who got famous playing a Korean on tv)
@@TrueGamer22887 Seek help. Culture, regional food and statehood are completely different things. Typical white nationalist deepsheetgamer can't cope with anyone complaining about racism from white people.
@@TrueGamer22887he had a problem with it five words into the pitch because they posed boba drinks like they were some shady foreign stuff and as if no one knows what goes in it. Which I, at least, found pretty weirdly worded. This guy clarified that the statement is objectively misleading. We know about as much about boba as we do anything else we put in our bodies. I don’t really know anything about this actor and if you have a problem with him as a person then okay, sure, I don’t really care, but you know, staying farther away from ad hominem when trying to make a point and removing your opinion of the person from what is actually happening may be a good thing.
honestly his statement was very nice and honest fr, and he's not wrong. he respectfully brought up a valid discussion during the show. anyway, internet is just nuts.
the mildest statements get blown up so much. he didnt start screaming and crying that his ancestral cultural heritage was dishonored. yeah if someone claimed crystal pepsi was being appropriated id think it was weird, but id also think it was weird if someone marketed an identical version of it as "better" and "cleaner" somehow by pretending it isnt american.
Bul***, his 'opinion' is not 'valid' it's just 'his opinion' - which most people do not agree with, the problem arises when his 'opinion' is a condemnation.
@@saattlebrutazwell the part where he asked and was concerned about them not even mentioning Taiwan as the originator was valid. It’s the fact that you can say ‘well people that make pizza don’t shout out Italy’ that’s because majority of the population know where it’s origin lies. But with Boba it’s different since people just call it asian without any true understanding of where exactly in Asia it’s from. He just wanted them to show some acknowledgment of the origin like many other in store boba drinks do like pocas or that new brand were the boba drink is in an actual cup in stores. It’s just the idea that people aren’t grasping that he wants Taiwan to be referenced. Which to me isn’t a crazy thing to ask for because for the longest time people assumed it was Korean because many different shops sold it with kimchi fries and Korean corn dogs and stuff.
he was being truthful but also condescending ( keep in mind, i have nothing against this guy, i never watched his movie , my focus is on the topic at hands). Cultural appropriation is not illegal ( wether we like it or not) and imposing barriers to someone's business based on that ( on US soil to top it all ) is not a good look . The truth is everyone culturally appropriates everyone, people have been doing it for very long . So to me as long as it's done respectfully it shouldn't be a problem , as an african i wouldn't bully a white person because they have an outfit made of african wax for example but i see so many non african-people ( black americans are americans, not africans, the same way white americans aren't british) try to APPROPRIATE a fight that isn't theirs ...
"Never heard italians complain about..." bro....us italians complain about how people change our food ALL THE TIME. IT IS A MEME BY NOW HOW MUCH WE DO IT . Dont use us to dismiss asian people and be racist!
RIGHT? that's like, the first thing i think of when i think of Italians. Like the biggest Italian youtube shorts guys basically made a career out of "Nooo not my Italian food". What a stupid argument to make
Same with Turkish people We aren’t known as complaining about our food or that our food is even known by many people except kebab and baklava but if there is one ingredient wrong then all hell breaks loose 😂
You really madde me open my eyes. I was kinda weirded out about this because I thought of food how it's changed around and noone cares and then your comment made me realize that... the whole capuccino after 11 AM and what pasta goes with what sauce! HEHEHE.
@@writerintherye Just for the sake of accuracy - he was saying "Ethnical" not "ethical" - Ethnical apparently is a word according to merriam webster, but means something that is of or related to ethnology. I would assume this was just a language barrier. It boils down to basically the same though, as it is unethical BECAUSE they try to make it not ethnic. But his actual comment was that it was not ethnical any more (which imo is kinda worse, like he's coming right out and saying it's cultural appropriation)
Those people: "Boba tea made by Asians is super sketch, so we made it better, safer, healthier, and now it's not ethnical anymore." Simu Liu: "Not cool." Internet: "WTF, you can't say that, you're not even Taiwanese!"
Fun facts: Taiwan is part of "greater China" culture circle which is part of the East Asian culture circle. Back in Asia, we may fight, but here, we easily see each other as someone from similar or same culture background.
@@KWu-fv9nz Taiwanese aren't part of People's Republic of China, that's the fact that hurt you. That being said, Taiwanese will not tolerate Western people delusionality
Yeah, its like they took the points that were meant for the graphic designer and internal marketing team and tried to use that as the whole marketing selling point. Like you might say to your marketing and graphic design department "we are looking to target WASPs so we need to make sure it doesn't come off as overly exotic and we clearly communicate the contents so they feel comfortable"
wasn't the other judge that interrupted him and was being rude when he started speaking also poc? but yeah acting like he needs to calm down when he literally was calm is so infuriating
i agree the presenters were racist, but stuff like chai, vietnamese coffee, thai tea, matcha, oolong, are all usually sold by generic coffee shops of no ethnic origin lol. not sure why we're gatekeeping boba for some reason.
@@sandrasim46 cause the ppl trying to appropriate it aren't willing to do even the most basic of gestures of respect to its origins. In fact they go so far as to belittle it. So yeah these ppl deserve to be kept out if they're just going to insult Asian food to make a bag
@@sandrasim46Because cultural appropriation is literally just an excuse to get angry at people. Like i’ve seen many people say “well they have to pay respects,” but what the hell does that even look like here? It just all seems so trivial at the end of the dau
As a Taiwanese American, it’s the “disrupt the boba industry” and “fixing” people not knowing what’s in boba that reeks of cultural appropriation. Claiming they invented popping boba or pioneered adding fruit juices is just the ignorance on top imo. Simu Liu has not always had the best takes tbh but he’s 100% on the money here.
The pioneering with boba they mentioned was that they put it in bottles. Cause they kept mentioning that it was "ready to drink." Which uh. Is almost more pathetic imo. Changing the packaging isn't innovating shit lol. Like, there is also bottled coffee, but I don't think anyone sees that as anything special lol
@@awkwardpawsome Such a silly claim when there's already bottled boba too. Literally no part of their product/company is actually innovative or pioneering lol
I mean its sad and fristrating that white people actually believe they can """"""discover""""" stuff that other's invented, put their name on it and """""make it better""""". They do it w countries politics food shows science the whole culture 😩😩😩😩😩
Fr yt people really believe they can """""dicover"""" something that already existed, plaster their name on it, and say it's """"better""""" They do it w politics, science, culture, food, antiques, they steal and call it "discovery" 😬
If someone came to me, described a very normal dish to my culture as strange and in need of a revamp, then asked me for A MILLION DOLLARS to fund their gimmicky attempt at making it better OF COURSE I'd have some thoughts. It was a mid idea at best in the first place, and he shouldn't be under fire for giving the owners a swift reality check. (I don't think the owners of Bobba were trying to be racist or insensitive either, it was a mistake to not consider the background of the product, but they're just another set of ill informed business owners they aren't bad people for making a mistake they'll likely never make again)
Yes. I think they could have launched a great product, a twist on a classic, but their pitch was OFF. And that’s what I think Sui was in on and as they continued to fail he kept on it. I totally agree w him.
Also, the folk claiming Simu is appropriating a culture that isn't his and he's even worst cause he's gatekeeping too...? What? A lot of Chinese people came to the west for a lot of the same reasons they fled to Taiwan. And Taiwanese people share a deep rooted history and culture with China even if they have "disagreements", to put it lightly. Also, Boba has been widely accepted by all South East Asians. Drinks with different kinds of jellies and stuff to chew on is a staple in Asian countries, so obviously they share notes. Even ignoring that, the idea that Simu is appropriating a culture that isn't his when it's been part of Asian American (the continents, all 3) culture for decades is giving me "the Japanese who've lived here for generations can't be trusted" vibes, but maybe that's just me. I'm a different kind of Asian, but the overall anti-Chinese/Asian sentiment these days is getting out of hand, so I might be reading into things.
Love people using pizza as a gotcha as if Italians wouldn't shed blood in masses if someone came out and said "we made this product that is basically exactly like pizza but it's much better (for reasons we can't explain) and we're calling it pizzza." Anyway I actually fully agree with Simu Liu. Even if they don't mean anything malicious by it, they are acting as though they made something new and speak of boba using language that perpetuates the idea that Asian food is unhealthy/bad for you in some way. It's just racism and harmful stereotyping and it was well deserving of the criticism it got
Fr. I'm east Asian and idc if people make Boba or even do it poorly. I love sharing my culture with others! However, it rubs me the wrong way when random people come around and try to "improve" something that has been so important and integral to my life and then pay zero respects to it while also profiting off of it. It's like they're reducing my (and many other's) life experiences to a godamn number and that's all that matters to these people. All the countless days I've gotten Boba with friends. The long and hard study hours at our favorite Boba spots, the memories we made there, the games we played, the love and and joy I associate with this drink from our shared culture, the gifts from co-workers or the gift I've long given to others. The times my friend's father made Boba for us, the childhood I spent in their house. My friends and I are all east Asian from different countries with different cultures, but boba is a constant between us, something we all understand so intimately and now share with our non Asian friends. I feel robbed and left to bleed dry when people who don't have that experience come here and exploit it without even trying to understand.
It's even worse, somehow, because when pitching pizzza to you they also tell you that Italians cannot be trusted to make even pizza properly because you don't know what ingredients they're using
@@tomewifecollector9608 look its not not like they can't operate their business tmr. But they def can get criticize for it. The way they spoke about their product is def exloiting the culture. Boba "we don't know what's in it", "we the first to introduce this" and no mention how it came from Taiwan and etc, and etc. That's exploiting the culture for just profit because its "trendy".
Simu wasn’t even responding to two white people appropriating an Asian drink. He was expressing concern over what could potentially become a massive company not paying homage to Taiwan and, largely, East Asian culture. What steps will the company be taking to ensure that culture is not lost? There’s a fine line between appreciation and appropriation and they crossed it.
I'm 100% sure if it were East Asian or specifically Taiwanese people doing this he'd have said the same thing, but the internet wouldn't have blown up about it. It's only when people of a certain background are accused of cultural erasure do people get defensive. It's real "why can't us white people just take your shit" and "I'm one of the good ones, I stand for white people taking our shit" energy, ironically _making_ it racial in order to claim Simu made it racial as a convenient way to ignore his words didn't attack white people or gatekeep making Asian dishes. Guarantee these same people complain about DEI and affirmative action on the internet all day.
the "you don't really know whats in boba" irks me so much as a chinese person bc it is VERY reminiscent of the villainization of msg and how things from our culture like food are always seen as dirty and unsafe. the panel, especially the poc lady were super disappointing
As an MSG aside there's an Instagram account know msg that recent made a post aimed at the New England Journal of Medication and their role in the creation of the term "Chinese restaurant syndrome". It's also still amazing to me that it's such a ubiquitous ingredient yet everyone who tells me they definitely react to msg only have this reaction from Chinese food but never ranch.
right like damn I haven't gotten boba in a hot minute but I still remember the endless customization options and very nice staff who walked me through all the choices so "wE jUsT dOn'T kNoW" is diabolical actually
This was exactly my reaction as someone who used to drink boba every day, and I'm a white Canadian. You don't have to be asian to be offended by their awful pitch, you just have to love boba. I question if anyone in that room other than Simu Liu actually likes boba
its not the fact they are white, its the fact there are stating they are creating a "BETTER" version of a such an iconic asian drink that has been popular forever, if they had said it was their own interpretation or a cool mix of cultures then i dont think there would have been any issue whatsoever
What tops it imo is that they're making it "Better" while having literally no fucking idea about Boba. Their ideas aren't new, or innovative, the ingredients in boba aren't mysterious or unkown it's literally black tea (or jasmin or any other tea) with milk and tapioca-based pearls or jelly. It's so rude to present something you clearly know nothing about as bad, simply because you don't know anything about it.
wdym forever? it was invented in the 80s. It's not some ancestral drink passed down for generations. Maybe we should ban pineapple on pizza because that's not how Italians do it?
@@ionaskualexander1255nobody ever claimed Hawaiian pizza is the “better” version of pizza. It’s just another flavour. That’s the difference. This company claims that boba is like this mysterious and unhealthy drink, and that their product (bobba) fixes those problems. Which is not… true? The only difference in their boba is that it’s “popping” boba. That’s not “fixing” the problem. Besides, they could’ve at least changed their brand name to something different than bobba. Boba and bobba sound the same.
I like how the first comment on reddit talked about "you don't hear italians complaining about luganos" . Like have you never seen the countless react videos of italians to other people butchering their food?
I'm sorry these all sound like privileged people problem. One thing I've learnt and had a reality check on based from my cousins back home is that when you're thinking about waking up early because you need go buy or go long distances for something as basic as clean water or factor in load sharing as part of your daily routine, things like this seem stupid.
it's also a bad example because it is still being sold as an "italian" restaurant ... and that association with the original culture is exactly the thing that this boba tea company is not doing ...
@@goodial LITERALLY! One of the points Simu expressed was that he didn’t like how they were *separating* the cultural aspect of Boba Tea by making it a “New and non-ethnical” drink, but that point seemed to fly over peoples head smh.
@@arnitaxavier9446you do know people can be concerned about two things right? I can worry about all sorts of things and also despise blatant cultural appreciation. If you can't care about two things at once level your game up
People attacking Simu for not being "the right ethinicity" makes me so sad. I'm Malaysian-Chinese living in Aus, which means I'm like four generations removed from my ancestors in China (back when Taiwan wasn’t a thing yet), and I was equally appalled because yes, bbt is absolutely an East Asian cultural product. Having randos on the internet "correct" you on YOUR OWN CULTURE is WILD.
I am glad to see that Manjit pulled out of investing in Bobba, but I am still so disappointed in her for not even acknowledging what Simu was saying. As a fellow Indian , I remember when people used to tell me that the indian food my mom packed me for lunch was gross and smelly, and now those same people have become yoga instructors or are selling turmeric shots. Culture is not a shopping mall where you can pick and choose. It is a part of our identity and should always be respected and acknowledged.
I didn't really know who she was before this, but yeah I was disappointed she had all that to say when her own heritages has been taken to hell and back just as all aspects of East Asian cultures have been too.....
She probably pulled out because she realized that this was not a unique product in the market at all. Pre packaged popping boba drinks already exists already and this company has nothing to differentiate them 😅
Also what happens when people internalise white supremacy. Some of the people who had those same experiences of being othered unfortunately end up just casting their culture aside so they can blend in and thus making things more bland overall.
She isn't truly sorry. Not one word in her "apology" was about dismissing Simu Liu and how he (rightfully) called out the inherent racism in this product. She's only sorry that her words backfired and now she's getting backlash for it.
@@solarmoth4628 based on what her business sells I don’t think that that would stop her, her business makes functionally knock off low quality alcohol 🤷🏼♀️
The way he tried his hardest to thoughtfully and carefully inform them and was still attacked is the story of every POC, black and indigenous person who tries to defend themselves or their culture. I found their pitch very tone deaf and I hope his 3 minute back and forth with these successful business people pushed them towards educating themselves more. AND YES SIS with the middle part was giving OPPPPPPPP.
What's funny is Asian culture is commonly appropriated BUT never talked about coz the stereotypes about Asians stop people from understanding our cultures. In fact, so many POC people also disrespect Asian culture a lot of the times. And when we defend ourselves, they laugh at us.
@@abnormalnox IMMEDIATELY. Even when the other person is “of color.” You know some only remember that when it’s time for a speaking engagement, or it boosts up a resume in some way.
not only is it cultural appropriation…those businesses already exist. Idk why they even act like when you go to a boba shop you can’t customize the sugar level. Also if you buy the canned stuff or your own kit, the calories and ingredients are listed. you can also get fruit tea with popping boba so idk what these people were thinking by presenting this on TV. I have some some gripes with Simu Liu, but he wasn’t wrong.
Exactly, even if it wasn’t cultural appropriation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that company fail since boba is already extremely popular and trendy among other companies
I am Taiwanese, and I love the fact the world has adopted bubble tea as one of the most popular drinks. It's like no one cares where coffee is actually from, I don't mind people not knowing it's Taiwanese. The problem with the business owners is not cultural, my problem with them is they don't understand the consumer problem they're seemingly trying to solve. I never had a problem knowing or thinking I know what's inside my bubble tea. The other thing is they don't need to "improve" a product that's already very good, it just reversed how I feel about their business, I'd rather drink a traditional bubble tea than their allegedly improved version. I'm not a Simu fan but I enjoyed his movies, and I don't think he was being inappropriate with what he said. Oh, did I mention I'm Taiwanese? Don't come for me, internet. lol
There was so many avenues they could have went with this... "ours has better flavor profile than the rest of the grab-and-go bobas!" "Some people just don't like the tea flavor so here's a popular fruity spin!" "Our brand is a popular alcohol mixer because of the fruity flavor versus traditional boba tea so we want to break ground in that market and make the original line more accessible to customers to boot!" Literally textbook whitewashing a whole ass culturally significant drink without feeling an ounce of shame. There was literally no need to fix their lips to say anything close to how it's an "ethnic drink" they needed to "fix" because "nobody knows what's in it". I'm embarrassed for them as a white dude myself LMAO
At this point it's a reflex white people have with Asian and especially Chinese/Taiwanese food. "We can't eat at that restaurant they probably put msg or mystery chemicals in their food. They're sneaky!"
I'm normally completely of the mind of "Ooo, nowadays everything is 'cultural appropriation' unless you swear up and down you 'don't see color', all abroad the ethnic erasure masking as virtue signaling train!" But I don't think I've ever seen (at least in my time) such a *textbook* definition of cultural appropriation. It's like a skit that could've been written by an HR department. "Let's profit off this successful cultural venture originating from a minority demographic- but first it's very important we make everyone forget that it came from minorities. Can't have them thinking whites are inferior!" .....wtaf
Not to mention the term ethnic is so weird and misapplied. If people knew anything about Taiwan they would know that “Taiwanese” is not an ethnicity. Moreover, food is tied to culture, NOT to ethnicity. Every food comes from a cultural group.
@@MsKaz1000 the people having the "taiwan is not chinese" war don't even know the historical ties between china and taiwan. Ignorant people are deathly allergic to research.
Simu himself was being gross. This makes me so angry. Good grief, he should be getting called out, not the couple making the drinks FOR GOD'S SAKE PEOPLE GET A GRIP
Yeah, that's the thing. Everyone makes mistakes, nothing wrong with that. But when you double down after having your mistake pointed out to you, that's the problem.
@@canadiangirrrrl whats gross and anger inducing for me, an asian person, is watching two non-asians walk on national television and insinuate that boba’s contents are in any way dubious or mysterious, and then watching a host of that show shut down the only asian person on the stage raising concerns without even listening to what he’s saying. asian-americans and canadians have traditionally been pressured to suppress their culture to fit in and it makes me mad seeing them try to cram simu into that box ON TV. how is it not racist to imply an ethnic drink is weird or suspicious? the couple on stage you’re defending are preying on preexisting stereotypes of “weird ethnic food” to sell their unoriginal juice. they’re profiting off of the implication that ethnic products are scary and the vibrant color white people product is wayy better, pure, and healthier
The thing is- if I, an Asian person, trademarked on a frozen pizza brand called “Pizzza” and said I made a NEW ONE OF A KIND PIZZA DISRUPTING THE PIZZA INDUSTRY and it’s just thin crust and thin crust already exists??? And I’m pitching the idea to an Italian guy??? I would only expect to be torn to shreds
Their pitch was terrible. They did not plan for any kind of pushback/challenge and their main selling point seemed like "ours is better than old school boba". How about, we are taking a beloved drink and making it more convenient, adding more uncommon fruit/juice and offering alcoholic version (if I understand correctly). We have fun marketing/promo aimed at...insert demographic here. Kids/teens really like boba (all the sugar) and a grab and go convenience store version (non-alcoholic) would be fair selling points. That said, these two were a little tired and feel late to the game.
I wonder if it's a language barrier. They're clearly ESL speakers and maybe there's some nuance lost in translation. Then again, I'm not interested in defending them. It's just a problem I've run into before speaking with Quebecois tourists in Maine. A kind of casual callousness in the way they phrase things. They're nice people and they don't act like their words might imply, but it causes friction.
@@chrisblake4198 The language issue could be a factor, but if you are trying to get a million dollars, put best foot forward. I would have taken some of that product package and website design money and hired a business plan/presentation coach prior to this very high profile event. They just came off very arrogant and a little entitled. FYI, I was in store today and came across Hello Kitty shelf stable boba, so the concept is already being done... smartly.
@@chrisblake4198 I can see that, like saying ethnical was crazy but I'm not putting it against them for that as I understood it as a language barrier (speaking as an east asian tho I have to admit I found it kind of hilarious). I feel it was their arrogance about "disrupting the industry" when everything they pitched has been done and been done better is what really rubbed people the wrong way.
Yeah and people are trying to claim Simu was being unreasonable, unfair and angry for the fact he gave pushback which he's _supposed to do._ The show is very much about critiquing sales pitches and the interplay between investors and pitchers. That he brought up an obvious problem with their marketing that showed him they don't _actually_ offer a million dollars in value is what he's supposed to do.
@@chrisblake4198nah its not a language thing. I'm from there and I speak French and they definitely say the same ignorant stuff in French. Pretty much all the racism and micro aggressions I've encountered in my life have been 99% white Quebecers specifically. Not white Anglo Quebecers.
I'm so glad Simu brought this up, as a South Asian there's so many white owned companies that try to make our food, drink and even spiritual practices "better" and more palatable for the white market because they see us as "dirty" and "backwards". Also manjit minhas is so embarrassing she gives pure coconut energy here
@@senorc4416 Many KPOP bands use other cultures and aesthetics in their videos and music. For instance, in one of blackpink’s videos they had a statue of a hindu god on the floor. They use parts of other cultures as an aesthetic without paying respects to the people they take from.
"We don't know whats in boba" they probably should've stopped their pitch from there. It just went down hill. The more I heard the worse it got. Its wild to me they asked for 1mil for something they didn't do any different and how they speak about it feels insulting. Definitely terrible wording. And its common knowledge what it's made out of and plenty of videos. For them to say that "while working with a team jn Taiwan" is disappointing. Italians are known for being upset with how other people cook their food. Its literally what Italians on TikTok are known for. Their entire niche is criticism on people making italian food. The other judges were irritating. I'm on Simus side about it.
Yeah that example was crazy, a culture's dishes are like the number 1 most protected thing, but I guess it's only valid to see that between different European cultures. And that's not even what Simu was doing, sure he didn't really like the tea but the issue was the marketing, they went up there and said the only different thing about our product that makes it worth your money is that we're calling traditional boba a problem that we fixed by removing its "ethnic" roots. Like bro what, nobody is out here denying pizza is Italian or that whiskey is Gaelic. "But it was only invented 44 years ago" so? It took less time for record labels to take blues and rock and intentionally remove black identity from it for profit. Is it invalid to say boba's part of or originates from a culture then? When has anybody considered boba _not_ East Asian before this clip to die on this mission uncritical hill? How is it a "celebration and embracing of multiple cultures" when the entire idea is to call its culture the problem and remove it as the solution? How are the people saying the previous excuse seriously holding that opinion _and_ denying it has cultural heritage?
They could have made a pitch that they made the popping boba content more fruit based rather than syrup based/sugar. Made it about the ingreadients not cultural thing.
I have lived in Quebec as an Asian-canadian for over 10 years. Unfortunately ppl here are generally dismissive of asian communities and our experiences... I wasn't surprised at all when the owners refused to acknowledge and apologize for their mistake in branding, they simple don't care to learn or respect our culture
@@evadburnsfirst of all ur point is irrelevant to this comment. secondly racism and colourism is a problem in every community and it shouldnt be that way, i agree with u on that. but just because some asians are racist doesnt mean they should also face such discriminations. if anything bipoc people should unit, which i hope to see more of in the future. btw my tone is sometimes off and i dont mean to come off aggressive, but i get where u initially come from.
not specifically taiwanese but i grew up with boba (although my parents called it sago since we’re filipino), and i really hate the idea that you don’t know what’s in boba tea. most of the flavors are pretty easy to understand, AND you can adjust the sugar in most mainstream places. if you’re getting the slushies or the gong cha oreo flavors or anything else that’s crazy (no hate i love them), that’s on YOU. otherwise the boba itself is just tapioca. it’s giving the msg debate all over again
Right?? Not to mention that I’ve never been to a boba place and not been able to just ask about the ingredients in one of the crazier flavours. It’s really not that hard, people are so desperate to have things to be hateful over!
Right???? Like, it's LITERALLY just tea with a bit of juice, syrup and/or milk. Maaaaybe there are coffee variants for the wildchildren out there. Hell, most Starbucks coffees probably have more different and questionable contents in them than the average cup of boba! It feels like an extension of how white people stereotype Asian cuisines as weird, exotic and full of questionable crap. When it's literally just a bit of tea or syrup milk with some starch balls or juice pearls in there. I legit gasped in anger when they said that part!
everyone like "i went to an italian restaurant owned by vietnamese people" and all that and its like... and you knew it was italian.... bc the vietnamese people selling it to you aren't trying to convince you its actually vietnamese food and therefore better than the normal italian food and thats the like whole entire problem lol
im pretty sure a lot of americans do think their version of pizza (new york style pizza for example) is better than the original and people don't think of it as italian food so much as american pizza
@@Uragaan1i mean i’ve had this argument in a completely different context… like i was arguing about croissants because it’s believed that it originated from a polish cookie with the same shape and then was adapted into the croissants we know with the French using puff pastry instead. so some people argue that croissants arent French. my counter argument was “is the Boston deep-dish pizza not from Boston?” because it’s a completely different dish compare to authentic Italian pizza. now, watching these two goobers take everything that already existed and brand it as something new is (in my opinion) not the same thing as adapting a foreign dish to the local taste, but still, idk what to think anymore
@@businesszeus6864 Boston deep dish pizza is very very different from Italian Pizza, so you are not wrong in it being different and a lot of people hate it because of it. I think there is a level of acknowledgement of saying "this is Boston deep dish pizza" it acknowledges both that it is a type of pizza and that it is so far removed from the original that just calling it Pizza without specifying would feel disingenuous, it feels quite a bit more respectful to the OG as it is. But if Boston people went around talking crap about Italian pizza "you don't know what is in there" and saying you created shit that already exist or saying "this is no longer italian food so we don't need to pay any respects" that would be delulu. Most importantly Italian Americans were involved in Boston pizza's adoption right? A child inherits their parents culture, so it isn't weird to say "Hey I want to make something with italian roots but in an American way, just like me, for other people like me" vs "I have absolutely nothing to do with this culture but I want money, and I am also going to be disrespectful and lie"
Boom, there's the difference. Nobody's out there trying to make lasagne or moussaka less "ethnic", because *for some reason* everyone's fine acknowledging Italian and Greek cuisine.
i saw a bunch of east asian people online saying this but the idea that people "dont know what's in boba" is a huge microaggression. there are a lot of longstanding racist ideas against asian food being "unhealthy" or "bad for you" or "secretly gross" and a weird history of white people "fixing" asian food by making it "cleaner". boba is literally just tea, milk, sugar, and tapioca pearls
@@Freerider93sorry can someone genuinely explain this to me i can't determine if that last part is supposed to be "here's a bandage for your safe space liberal feelings being hurt🥺" or gen advice i'm actually so torn
@@scringlinbo freerider93 is calling us triggered and in need of mental help/sensitive for calling out racism. they're being an asshole. a lot of the health scares around asian food is overblown. like the msg thing. ugh, white people fr need a reality check. i won't argue that every chinese restaurant is a bastion of health, but that goes for EVERY low income restaurant. it's not specific to chinese ones. :|
The clarity and accuracy in your approach to this is so refreshing. Literally you voiced everything I was thinking and as POC we see this every. single. day and AAAAA I just hate having to explain it to an audience that's chooses to be blind 😂😭
As someone born and raised in Canada, this is a huge example of the casual racism in our coutry. The stereotype of Canadian politeness is generally true, but politeness is in no way kindness. People hold biases against poc and their experiences and use the societally expected baseline of politeness as a shield. That girl saying stuff like "you haven't given them a chance to change yet" is exactly that, pretending that it's more about being kind to these random people than even trying a little bit to understand where he's coming from.
@@abnormalnox when you complain you're the one rocking the boat. but that's how it works for *every* societal change. think the last 4 decades how it worked for other groups such as gay people fighting for rights in the western sphere. Or you know that black lady who refused to give up her seat on the bus.
So their thesis was “We have improved our perceived lack of quality control in boba tea by making it non-ethnic”. That’s not cultural appropriation; that’s just racist. And I feel like calling it cultural appropriation does a disservice to Simu by making it look like he has a problem with white people producing boba tea and not a problem with *the* white people producing boba tea
There is no such thing as cultural appropriation. Everyone borrows from other cultures. To call that as bad is the equivalence of telling people to stay in their own country . And telling black people to go back to Africa .
@@woobiefuntime Do you actually hear yourself? Like when you speak, do you actually hear words? Or is it just the WHOOSH of the vacuum inside your skull, sucking in air, every time you open your mouth?
Eh, she's a capitalist on a show about gamifying private equity-type capitalist nonsense. Idk why you'd expect better. She smells a potential bag and that's all she cares about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
She is also a woman of colour who made her money disrupting - let’s say a closed cultural beverage market - cheap beer sold in 2Ls. Her take might be interesting.
I had to subscribe - I mean enroll - because of this video. I sometimes worry that the year 2024 in cyberspace has lost so much nuance of communication, and I so much appreciate that you have built this space to have so much contextualization. Groundedness. Nuance. Appreciation. Thank you for calling out Manjit for her disrespectful behaviour here. Sometimes I see people wring their hands whenever they see POC disagreeing with each other on racialized issues and ultimately side with the one who stirs the pot less. Like, no. She was not willing to put in the work to sit with challenging, valid concerns and show Simu empathy. I've been shut down in situations like this before, and it's validating that someone sees this moment for what it was. As part of the Hong Kong diaspora, here’s some history that I hope will still be known broadly about the boba years from now: The name 'boba' actually relates to a Hong Kong actress. Moreover, the Taiwanese bubble tea is one of the milk teas which has political significance as the symbol of a democratic protest movement. That's something that can have cultural significance in a uniquely existential register to some East and Southeast Asians and the Asian diaspora. For that anonymous internet comment to say that isn't part of "culture" just because it's been invented in the 80s is to disregard meaningful snapshots of real, lived experiences and flatten the history and politics of forming meaningful identities with something as social and as commonplace as food.
it's hilarious how they think they invented popping boba like. you can already buy that. and you can make boba at home really easily by just buying tapioca pearls and boiling them over a stove.
We Italians complain endlessly about people disrupting the way we make our traditional pizzas. Like that's all we do online these days. That reddit user has never been on the Internet I fear
Let me be clear that I don't agree with that reddit user first. But I find some Italians doing that to be insufferably annoying. I'm Canadian, not American, but clearly in certain areas of North America and South America we share a cultural heritage with pizza and pasta--not the least of which because they often feature tomatoes, an essentially American vegetable. All the internet fuss over Chicago deep dish pizza or carbonara with cream and peas has made me never want to visit Italy ever lol. And I'm sure it's a lovely place. I'm sure the people who owned Pizzerias would have been happy to use whatever ingredients they saw fit. Tomato, basil, and mozzarella were their on-hand favourites but can't we all have different tastes? And I mean no shade to those Italian people who just find the differences funny or can't help but express how it's not to their tastes. You're fine. But boy I've casually witnessed it devolve into weird mud-slinging far too often. I could rant about it longer than anyone could rant about cream and peas in "carbonara". xD But yeah that guy was smoking rocks!
@@rawkhawk414 I mean, I'm against deep dish pizza, not because it's un-Italian or something, but because it's a crime against everything that is good and decent. Satan himself would tell the inventor of that dish he went a little bit too far.
@@rawkhawk414 not sure why you're kind of... like... mad and annoyed over italians complaining. when italians online dont really complain that much. they're not the biggest complainers either, id say we arabs complain way more - even us HUNGARIANS do so much more (im kurd and hungarian). i think its disrespectful to make a dish not of your culture and fuck it up completely and then get MAD at people who find it offensive... yes you can make it different but so many who make it different claim they've "made it better" which is the disrespectful part
I haven’t finished the video but already, the business on dragons den does sound somewhat racist. I’m white but I can already see that what they’re saying is pretty suspicious being said by white people. They’re presenting their version of an Asian drink as healthier, cleaner even and saying the original version is suspicious or mysterious. That’s a common view of non white food that’s pretty racist, even if they aren’t conscious of it. White people often view ethnic food as dirty or unclean or mysterious and that’s because of racial biases.
100% agree and I haven’t even gotten to watch yet. This happens all the time; it’s literally food gentrification. I hate it so much. In my city it’s only recently started happening because it’s pretty small but they also charge exorbitant amounts of $ for the same ingredients as a real Asian restaurant would as an example.
Hi D'Angelo, I loved your video as someone of East Asian descent and Canadian! Although, I think reading through r/Canada is not the best place in understanding how a general audience feels. As someone who uses Reddit a lot, the r/Canada subreddit is generally an older-male focused and conservative space. The comments you read are not a great reflection of the Canadian reaction but it was still entertaining. Unfortunately, I don' think there is a great place to gather the online Canadian reaction, but I would have loved if you pulled from the r/aznidentity subreddit to hear more from the Asian diaspora! Lovely video
Why are ppl mad at him? Simu really brings out great points. Cultural appropriation is different than cultural appreciation. You can ABSOLUTELY appreciate a culture without appropriation.
@@lunavioleta001yeah there is Disney tried to trade mark the name “Dia de Los muertos” or “Day of the Dead” meaning only them could make profit out of the holiday. Which batshit crazy it’s a matinal holy day in Mexico. Basic tea soon for us Mexicans. They obviously couldn’t pull it off but they try to make money out of our holiday. Also German crocked hook comes from the Manji Kanji in Japan. The Nazis took the symbol changed it and now must people when they see a Manji in Japan they think it’s a Nazi symbol. The manga series Tokyo Revengers uses the Manji a lot for a symbol of their gang but it has been heavily censored to international audiences
Disclaimer I'm white, but best longest friend is Taiwanese, grew up drinking boba and lived in Asia. There is no innovation here. Fruit tea, been done for decades, prepacked boba, done to death, popping boba, old news. Hell, I was just in Taiwan last year and canned milk tea cocktails were in 7/11. He was 100% right this ain't it they didn't innovate anything here other than bad taste. The worst part is they bought into the racist cultural trope of "mysterious/suspicious Asian food" which has been used for decades to denegrate and dismiss Asian people and their food as dirty, unhealthy and lesser than western food. (See Chinese restaurant syndrome and "jokes" about Asian restaurants serving cat and dog) I work in the food industry and have little issue with people owning and operating restaurants serving food not of their own culture IF there is love and respect of the culture it's from. They did the opposite. Just for buying into that racist trope alone Simu had every right to rip them to shreds, he was way nicer than he needed to be as far as I'm concerned.
YES!! Thank you! I was wondering why that line about not knowing what was in it made my skin crawl in an all too familiar way. It was such a stereotype growing up, I heard it often enough at school. I'm black with Trinidadian parents, but a lot of my good friends growing up were and are south Korean. I would trade my elementary school lunches of curry channa for roasted seaweed and rice, or we'd mix them and eat seaweed, curry, and rice. "Mystery" foods and "smelly" curry, our lunches were always delicious but as kids you could never get past the feeling of being judged by your other friends who had peanut butter and jelly or pizza. Man... I hate that sentiment is still around. It's gotten better, but it's wild to get smacked in the face by it now in 2024.
I think what's most ironic about this is that the French Canadian couple who pitched the business seemed confused about someone being annoyed by cultural appropriation when the Quebecois are, by far, the loudest group of Canadians when it comes to preservation and respect of Quebec culture. Anyway, carry on.
Seriously. As a black Vancouverite this entire thing just seems insane. It genuinely feels like a joke. It's like a couple of Canadians saying Mexican cuisine is hard to understand so they're going to create Taco Ti... Fuck.
It's so telling, honestly. This is such a perfect distillation of what racism really is. You have everything in that clip, and it's... Well, really, it's quite frightening
Omg, thank you for making this one. I thought I was going crazy. All the asian creators and my mates had the same reaction to that clip, we saw what we saw. I don't think the Bobba owners did it on purpose, but they pretty much hit all the bingo phrases. As asians, we immediately recognise the very harmful (and persistent) racist rhetoric of asian food somehow being "unknown" or "unhealthy" (i.e. msg/umami), and a white person gotta come along and gentrify it to be "better". Especially those of us who grew up as immigrants in western countries, a lot of us know the experience of feeling ashamed of our own food as children, and not wanting to pull out a bento our parents made, because other ppl would call it "gross" or it "looks/smells weird".
the people saying he's Chinese so he can't say anything are so stupid omg. I'm Puerto Rican and Colombian but if I were in his shoes and someone was saying blatantly nasty stuff about any other LatAm country's accomplishments, I hope I would have the wherewithal to call them out. ESPECIALLY as respectfully as he did, idk if I could be so kind lol. the reality is diaspora from the same region usually have similar experiences and share food/culture with one another. in turn, I hope that means we can have each other's backs.
It’s especially hilarious because China and Taiwan are probably the most intertwined East Asian cultures. The majority of Taiwan’s population are straight up Chinese immigrants who migrated due to communism in the 50’s
the moment they used the "chinese" scape to validate their profit argument against Liu, I knew it's terrifying and I'm from a country that had fought china for thousands of years but the Chinese argument is just vague and more of a defensive attack than actually constructive criticism
I’m East Asian. It’s not about having to be East Asian to make boba. It’s about how unoriginal the ideas are, the way they frame their product as being a solution to the ‘issues’ of boba, as well as the general lack of respect they have for the drink and its origins despite relying on its name for their own brand. Imagine if I started a company called Croissantt with the extra ‘t,’ said that it was innovative because I added filling and I made sure to fix its ‘problems,’ and insisted that it’s no longer a French dessert.
The Croissant is actually just the French adaptation of an Austrian dish, which was introduced during the late 1700s. It uses a different dough than the original, that's the main difference.
As somebody who is from Québec, I can say with certainty that these people are speaking out of their arses, have done minimal market research, and don't have any appreciation for boba culture- Not because they're not Taiwanese, but because popping boba has been a thing in boba cafés everywhere in the country. Hell, you can buy DIY boba kits in shops with popping boba options. There are so many varieties of pearls, gels, and fruit jellies available in every boba shop in the province. Heck, boba is so prolific and popular that there are at least three different bubble tea chains in Québec. (Likely more, but I can think of 3 in my area off the top of my head.) Chain or individually owned, basically all shops have everything that you can imagine as options to mix and match, except for alcohol. And even then, there are a few individual cafés in metropolitan areas that *do* offer alcoholic boba. These two "entrepreneurs" are clearly just trying to cash in on the trend by claiming their stolen ideas are unique and groundbreaking whilst simultaneously trying to "demystify" boba and make it palateable to the masses as a "non-ethnical" drink. Simu Liu doesn't deserve the riddiculous amounts backlash for being wary of two Québecois trying to take credit for and cash in on an East Asian innovation without any regard for the origin and culture behind boba, nor for the existing market trends. Especially iffy seeing as the company name "boba" seems like a purposeful attempt to monopolise SEO and push out any and all competitors from search engine results.
i’m from Montréal, and i swear you can’t walk downtown more than 5 streets without seeing a boba shop. they were already getting big here back in 2017, and now they’re in every mall, every foodcourt, i’ve even seen a kebab place that shared the their counter with a brand of boba. now, it might be because they’re from Québec city (i’m sorry but it’s true they’re much more closed off and weird there) but still i can’t fathom the idea that they’ve never been in a boba shop that offers all of this. somehow they believed it was small enough of a thing (even though it travelled *all the way from Taiwan to mf Québec*) that they could just… claim to have invented it? and then they didn’t translate their speech properly before pitching it on international tv??? i mean “ethnical” is one for the ages man you don’t even know how to say “ethnic” 😂 this was so awfully lazy, neither of them bothered to open google for ANYTHING before drafting this
@vikingunicorn I grew up in Quebec, and it's crazy how they want to profit off a cultural drink, but at the provincial level, they put in a law that bans visible religious clothes/symbols. So you can violate the charter of rights, but taking ethnic food is ok?
@6:47 as an east asian who grew up drinking boba, asian tea shops have always had fruit juices and fruit infused teas available and have always had plenty of toppings besides tapioca... including popping boba 😭😭Not only are they framing the drink's Asianness as something to be fixed, but they're doing something that isn't even actually changing the drink in any new or innovative way
For real!! The first boba i ever drank was a lemonade type drink with popping boba and that was like 4 years ago, this has been a thing for so long already and for them to act like they invented it is insane to me
Fr, I live in SEA and boba shops are EVERYWHERE. Its very competitive but they always try and make themselves standout. Not only do they just sell either tea or juices, theres shops that sell boba ice cream, boba lemonade, boba mango juice and even at one point, spicy noodle boba. What theyre doing is not anything new, maybe perhaps from a Western perspective. But what gives me the ick was saying them saying theyre making it "less ethnic"
Fr I didn't live in an area with boba shops, but my introduction to popping boba was in like 2013 with a cherry berry frozen yogurt shop. It had to be pretty big already to be commodified that way by fro yo and it was 2013!
Exactly. Even Starbucks already has this. Hibiscus tea with pomegranate pearls. It's already a juice plus popping Boba. Those idiots have not made anything new
It's not even a matter of "being offensive" or whatever people seem to think. It's about protecting a service that many small-businesses revolve around when it's being threatened by a less authentic copycat. Worse yet, a copycat who is literally in the process of seeking corporate backing to further overshadow one of the last bastions of small brick-and-mortar businesses, *particularly* for the Asian community.
Maybe it's just a me thing, but the idea of grab-and-go boba from a grocery store/gas station is just so soulless in comparison to going to a tea shop. And there's no way a drink like that is healthier than what you can get and customize in a real tea shop.
Frozen yogurt chains have been doing popping boba for well over a decade it is nothing new. I remember trying it when I was 7 but I guess I'm not some sheltered rich woman who probably never stepped foot in a chain place in her life. Also, I'm side eying the company name. It makes me think they'll want to abuse that trademark to attack other boba sellers.
That’s not how the market works. Critizing someone because their product is in competition with small, traditional businesses is not valid because it’s not that person’s or persons’ responsability to protect those businesses. The people will decide what product they prefer. If the small businesses’ product loses the competition it won’t be their fault.
@@rafanochi4173 okay bro we get it, you invest in crypto - but we're talking about the CULTURAL aspect. I know it can be hard to understand, but these concepts don't exist in a vacuum, and there can be more issues at play than a purely objective, "economics devoid of existing in reality" perspective.
I didn’t watch the shows of this actor, but he is so very right. The company brought down and falsely claimed that people are unaware of the contents of boba, which is most likely not true because it’s tapioca, second of all it’s not the idea itself it’s the marketing “healthier” even if it’s a healthier alternative it should not be said in this way to put down a cultural drink, and third of all one million dollars for a business that did indeed NOT invent any new ideas on the market, and what made my blood boil is the other “judges” that immediately shut down what this actor had to say before he continued. That is infact cultural appropriation and not appreciation because they did not respect the original boba that they took the idea from.
The whole argument about “not knowing what’s in your drink” reminds me so much of the whole “msg is bad for you” argument. Just people trying to paint Asian food as mysterious and “unhealthy” to feed into subtle racism….when you’re just publicising how ignorant you are
Also, how many people that drink Coke actually know what's in Coca Cola? I mean, I can guess sugar and water, but what else? Idk. You can't sell anything for consumption in my country (and most countries) if it hasn't been cleared by whatever the local equivalent of the FDA is. So by definition it's going to be safe for me to consume. Hence I don't bother finding out whats all in Coca Cola. Same with boba, I don't know but if I wanted to know I could Google it. Fact my gov lets it be sold to me tells me enough about its safety. I'm not a fan of tapioca pearls myself but I'm not worried about the food safety aspect.
im an immigrant to the US and my mom spent my whole childhood trying to keep me away from american candy because its "sugar and paint" 🙄 but yeah tea and fruit juice with some tapioca in it is so mysterious and bad. better stick to good ol red lake 40 like nature intended
“We don’t know what’s _really_ in MSG!!” Dawg… if you read the name, you know exactly what’s in it. Monosodium Glutamate. One sodium molecule attached to an amino acid - one that your body naturally synthesizes, no less.
"hey, it's not good to try and reinvent a food from a certain culture under the guise of it being 'scary.'" "oh so you cant be white and make boba tea. heh 😏 well... pizza. checkmate."
That’s like saying tacos aren’t an ethnical product anymore 😭💀 like how are you going to un Mexican a taco ??? Like you don’t have to be Mexican to make tacos but at least make them good! And don’t act like you’re inventing anything when it’s already been around like… ?
This is such an amazing comparison. People acting as if Simu isn’t making any sense when he CLEARLY (and respectfully) stated his gripes with the product.
@@alpacafish1269 it’s so annoying 🙄 I don’t mean to be an armchair psychiatrist but I think people are just upset because he said cultural appropriation and sometimes people hear that and get so defensive like bruh i understand some people say stuff is cultural appropriation when it isn’t but this is not the case… did no one listen to what they said about “fixing the issue”?! What issue ? We know what’s in boba tea… tea and boba like what 💀😭 also if they were Mexican instead I would assume he would say the same exact thing to them bc what they said was the problem not the color of their skin 🙄 sorry for rant
This exactly. Imagine Y. T. McWhiterson showing up and saying “we all know that taco stands are scary because there's no way to know what's in them, but at Tacco, you can be sure _our_ tacos are clean because the people who make them look like us :)” And then imagine if the only person on the panel who spoke up was Puerto Rican and all these commenters were like, “uh, tacos are _Mexican,_ why is _he_ talking about this?”
@@mars-guajardo2507 It's especially funny because like. You can just look it up? You can even ask? It's black tea, milk, brown sugar tapioca for the bubbles, and then flavored jelly to make it taste like whatever you asked for. It's not some mystery.
If I was a business owner I’d actually value Simu Liu’s criticism. Culture is important to people and will affect how your product is received. They can take or leave it, but as a judge and someone being asked to invest in the company, he had the right to say it.
Using pizzerias as an example is crazy to me. If a non-Italian person said, “You’re welcome, Italy. I fixed pizza,” I’m pretty sure that would be a problem. It’s exactly what those people were doing. Well intentioned or not, they were wrong. I think it’s okay to point out, as long as we don’t go as far as literal death threats. 😩
As an Italian I had to fight against many Americans and Canadians because of that. Actually they went even further with their claims, they told me that they were the ones who invented pizza first disregarding completely centuries of history. They also said that pizza became popular in Italy because of them and all these claims was supported by the fact that people in the States eat more pizza than in Italy so they conclude that of course they must invented it first. They treated Southern Italians like shit back in the days like most immigrants were and now they are appropriating their food culture.
EXACTLY and it’s literally a running joke that litalians r extremely particular w their food and is disgusted by the “American way” for example ketchup in pasta(which i find unacceptable as well)
yeah i mean how are you going to invite someone on your show as a guest host and then interrupt and shoot down their unique (to the other hosts) insight on a pitch? its beyond rude even if racism werent an issue here
as a Canadian, I really want to put it out there that this isn't just cultural appropriation, this is a large part of how we practice our racism. we have a very progressive, falsely mutual idea where we pretend like we all enrich each other and care about being multicultural but in reality it's just another way of promoting homogeneity instead of equilibrium. The idea that everything that Canadians adopt becomes Canadian because we are all immigrants is one of the big ways that racists and white supremacists blend cultural appropriation and benevolent racism together. Even our concentration camps are disguised as education systems.
@@chimaican01 I don't know what you're responding to, that's a very vague response to my rambling. If we are both intoxicated and rambling just for the vibes, let me know. If it's just me and you really meant something, I would love clarity
@@dizzylilthingI believe they're agreeing with you, just adding onto it by saying that when the Bobba people (or in general any people trying to capitalize on cultural aspects and making them into a product to make money off of) said that they wanted to make it better, insinuating that something's wrong with it when there was never an issue with it in the first place (which is why its racist because they're indirectly saying an ethnic product is mysterious or icky or bad which is obviously a wrong thing to do and also by trying to "white-ify" the product they're trying to erase the cultural aspect of it whether it be intentionally or not) 😅 If not and I'm totally wrong in explaining their comment I'm sorry 😂
Yes!!! From the business’s attitude to the judges responses, this is very clearly and distinctly Canadian racism. It is full of gaslighting and silencing people who speak out! I recognized it right away.
Man you got a subscriber today. You said everything I couldn't get why people just want to bring anyone down, for having an honest opinion, and in this case it was correct!!! Sad reality.
As a québécois, their drink isn’t even good lmao I work at circle K where they sell them and they taste like shit😭 We have thousands of real boba tea shops everywhere that are 100x better than this
Tokébecicit c’est Couche Tard, en plus c’est eu qui on acheté Circle K. Mais pour de vrai, c’est pas si mauvais que cela, mais pour le prix y’a décidément de meilleur boisson.
@@emilyylabgirl read the room c’est pas le moment de faire une « tokebekicitte » joke quand on parle de racisme et d’appropriation culturelle… Aussi, leurs drinks sont 100% deg ils goûtent le fond de poubelle
@@emaroz sont vraiment decalissant même les perles qui vendent pr mettre dans les slush, je ruinerais plus jamais un de mes drinks aek ca😭 Legit personnes achète leurs drinks déjà fait ils pourrissent toute dans nos frigos depuis des mois oops
This is just a lesson that everything can get misconstrued on social media. You can speak in the clearest terms, be the calmest possible person and just be well-spoken - but there were will be someone taking things out of context (even when it seems LITERALLY impossible).
Especially when talking about racism, some people (especially white people) seem to hear any term related to racism and their ears immediately turn off
"this isn't some thousand year old recipe, it's from the 80's" not everything thats part of someone's culture has to be old bro 😭 cultures expand on themselves, they don't stay stagnant. just because something is a newer addition to a culture doesn't mean it shouldn't be treated with the same respect as the older parts.
There werent even chilis in Asia before the 16th century and noodles weren't an Italian staple until the 14th many identifiably cultural food staples arent more than a few hundred years old!
@@omgmo1962 Italy didn't have tomatoes either until the 16th century either, and it took until the 18th century for all of Italy to agree that they were not poisonous (the upper class were too scared of nightshades), and the 19th century for them to become a staple. Before then, a lot of those same dishes existed, but using fish, mushrooms, or dairy instead. Most food everywhere is just a modern adaptation of an existing thing, the same way boba tea is just a modern twist on both tea and shaped tapioca starch.
I watched people on a short on the situation comment ‘didn’t he play a Korean on TV?’ and sat there wondering where I was and how that at all had to do with anything 😭
oh man people ABSOLUTELY missed what he was saying and it's been driving me insane. He was absolutely right. It's one thing to say "Hey we really like bubble tea and we want to add our twist to it, it's a super cool thing" it's another to barge in like "WE MADE IT BETTER, IT's NO LONGER A WEIRD ETHNICAL DRINK." The whole pitch is gross. Also those poc fighting against him, racists aren't going to sleep with you, why are you siding with them? They'll come for you next.
The assertion that an Asian drink is "confusing" or you couldn't possibly know the ingredients or sugar content in them is just plain racist. Like, "Who knows what these people all the way on the other side of the world are putting in this? We're gonna clear that up for you." was definitely the vibe I was getting, even if it wasn't their intention. Also, you don't need to rebrand boba to figure out its ingredients or sugar content. Google exists, or you can just ask the shop owner! It's not rocket science.
@@luckiesttstarrOh, they are 100% full racists, that's not even up for debate. This may be caused by sheer stupidity, but that doesn't change the fact.
im glad u made this video, i was worried how many people where being misinformed by another creators commentary. so many didnt watch the full vid and jumped to wagon to hate on simu liu. idk much about him but if i dont think theres much reason to hate him for his opinion on bobba since its valid.
Italians were a wild choice to use as a gotcha. My family (from Italy, in Italy, I was born here) went to Olive Garden ONCE when I was a kid, and I never, ever, ever heard the end of it. They complained for decades. And try saying ‘expresso’ in front of a person from Italy. But also the dumb pizza example literally maintained the ethnic background of pizza. That’s massively different from someone saying “we’re French-Canadian and wtf is pizza even made of? Ewww! We’re here to fix pizza by completely changing it and erasing the Italian part. Plus, we just invented pepperoni. Don’t check Wikipedia.” When I saw that clip, it made my skin crawl. Nobody in that room besides Simu understood how gross the whole thing was. Good for him for not backing down.
"They added a b" sent me. That is me when I'm just done with the conversation and want everyone to shut up. Also, I relate to the statement of something Taiwanese being part of his cultural identity even though he isn't from Taiwan. I'm Middle Eastern but if I show empathy for a region I'm not from people are like "You're not 'insert random Middle East region here'!" It's still my culture.
I think what upsets me most is when Siu calls it cultural appropriation, everyone else in the room leaps to defend the people doing the appropriation. "That's not appropriation because I think it's okay." They're more concerned with making sure no one is unfairly identified as racist, than listening to or learning from the victims.
As a taiwanese, thank you, thank you, D'Angelo, for making this video. Arguing online in foreign language is so exhausting and ineffective. Glad I can just smack people with this well done video and let it explain itself.
Really? Tapioca pearls aren't Taiwanese in origin. Whenever a Taiwanese person makes boba, should they start out by thanking whichever nationality/ethnicity that came up with the idea to make tapioca pearls? Should they inform people about the origin of tapioca pearls? Do Taiwanese movie makers remember to point out where movies, films and pictures originate from at any point in their movies? Do Taiwanese tv productions? Do Taiwanese radio productions remember to inform about the origin of radio? Cultural appropriation is racist BS made up by people with inferiority complexes trying to feel better about themselves.
@@samvittighedsfuld7586 Bro just search up "Where did boba tea come from?" on Google. The answer will be Taiwan. Also I do think cultural appropriation is usually used incorrectly to the point it just gatekeeps cultures, instead of "normalizing" and sharing cultures, but this company really fucked up and are most definitely racist. They took something from culture that is not theirs and even said fucked up shit like "it's no longer a ethnical product" as if that's a positive. It wouldn't be a problem if they were respectful about the way they marketed and framed their product and company.
If all he'd said was the cultural appropriation line than I'd get it, but he explained what he meant very clearly. The appropriation isn't white people making it, it's white people claiming theirs is better.
@@jamman9569 Saying "we changed it", or "I prefer it done in this way" is not the same as saying "we fixed it" or "ours will replace what's already available", which is what these people on the show were saying.
@@jamman9569I don’t see any Asian challenging with orginal pizza from italy and simu didn’t even talk about race white but people automatically bring white in topic for no reason . Sometime I feel like American are deliberately doing this because we are going toward multi polar world so west need excuse to unite west by making this kind of media narrative content ..
And "not ethnical anymore" 😂😂😂 it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. And Simu having to now defend these people from idiots, when his own colleagues shat on him with no grace or even the decency to let him finish speaking...
I didn't know I could find Simu Liu any hotter than this but he was so articulate, he explained the issues so well (and still so many people didn't understand him!)
@@juliahiiri9713 he is gorg 😍 I don’t even care if the romantic dinner he cooked us has ‘pet cat’ and rat tail guuuuurl just hand me those chop sticks lol🤭
@@MrKurtykurt how is that related to the video or my comment? I am always happy to talk about anyone's pet cats but you sound like there is some trauma there?
people on the internet that love to say the most awful things always talk about how “you cant say anything anymore or you’ll get cancelled” when in reality what happend in that clip was a very real example about how POC get shut down so quickly
The way people keep being like "oh yeah, well, the Italian pizza place I know is run by non Italians!" or a "Japanese sushi place run by Koreans!" as a gotcha when that would be delivering on exactly what Simu Liu was talking about. He took issue with how this product was claiming to improve on something while removing all cultural ties to that thing. The ITALIAN pizza place and JAPANESE sushi place make it pretty clear where the cultural origins of that food are and I highly doubt either would be claiming to have "improved" or reinvented the concepts of pizza or sushi. Meanwhile, these Bobba folks are downplaying if not outright ignoring the origins of their product while claiming that it is weird/mysterious and that they've made it better by packaging it in this corporate branding devoid of anything that speaks to its origins...all while also claiming that they invented/innovated several of the elements of their product that they, in fact, did not invent or innovate.
"We had no idea idea what was in mysterious dirty pizza, so we made it less scary by taking away the white and now it's Pizzza! Get this, with our improved version you can customize your toppings, you can decide what meat or vegetable or cheese goes on top!"
I guarantee if they'd done it to a European food people these same people would be at their throats, the same way they get up in arms about "redhead erasure."
It infuriates me how those people will always run around starting arguments thinking they’re the smartest ones in the room, when really everything went over their heads 🤦🏽♂️
I’ll be real too, respect to anyone who owns a business in good faith but I’ve never had a good sushi from a Japanese place run by a Korean or a good pizza from an Italian shop not owned by Italians 😂
I'm pretty sure the first time I had bubble tea like 15 years ago, it was with popping bubbles. Also wdym u never know whats in it, it's literally tea. Reminds me of people freaking out because they don't understand what msg is
I literally said the same thing as soon as they brought up the popping boba. I had popping boba for the first time on top of frozen yogurt in like 2012/2013 🤣.
I am Taiwanese. I think Simu Liu calling out those two dumb ass is great. No matter which land he was born on, he has shown his support and heart on bubble milk tea culture through his quick responses and reactions on the scene. In Taiwan we have a picky taste in boba quality. We get all kinds of “healthier” ingredients like avocado foam, tea jelly, pineapple jelly…so many! Welcome to Taiwan to try them all❤
I feel bad for Simu. I think media is out against him because he is not afraid to call it out as it is. P.S. As a Taiwanese, I think this does not need to be a cultural issue. Anyone who calls a product that does not have problem a problem or pretend your idea is original when it is not is tacky, no matter if it is on a cultural product or not.
Yeah take the culture part out of it and you've got people insisting they've come up with a brand new idea that's years behind what everyone else back in Asia have already done anyway. Just shows the owners had done very little corporate research.
some of these entrepreneurs just have the most obnoxious and nasty egos ever cause wdym yall just straight up STEALING the same shit thats existed for decades and are tryna claim its ur incredible new spin on an old product just because u added booze and organic fruit juices omg baby dont piss me offfffff 😭😭😭😭they too unserious w it
I'll take my taro milk tea from that "scary" place I get it regularly, with the nice folks that know me, and these two can get organically stuffed. Lol
On top of it being cultural appropriation, why is everyone acting like canned boba is a novel item? I’ve definitely bought cans of boba from other brands before ever hearing about this one
I can get some at my local Safeway right now. It tastes horrible, and I much prefer the boba tea I can get from my local boba shop, but the fact is they didn’t “revolutionize” anything. Popping boba has been around since the 1990s, and I think was even created by an Asian food scientist, but my memory is a tad hazy on the particulars
Idk about Canada, but it can be hard to find decent canned boba in parts of the US. There’s definitely room for an “American” bubble tea brand (not Americanized, but marketing designed for US’ians as that sort of thing is regional. Either someone starts a business or one of the big brands in East Asia expands to the US in a dedicated way) bubble tea brand in a can. The only place I ever see it sold alongside other drinks is at Five Below or at my local Asian Market. The ones at the Asian Market are SO much better than the ones at Five Below. I don’t think I can find premade boba at my local Walmart, even (only the boxes for $10). So there’s room in the market. I just wouldn’t ever give these people money. Their comments were gross and that’s the crux of the problem with their interview. That’s not how you approach selling a product and I cannot comprehend how they thought their comments were appropriate.
His problem was literally the framing and marketing, and he made that so clear.
yeah had they said something like "our brand aims to bring this popular Taiwanese beverage to the western masses with more accessible familiar marketing tactics and packaging to the western consumer so people may experience this drink which they otherwise may never have ordered, and maybe start learning more about other culture's drinks and foods which they may not have tried before" they would've been much better off... actually may have come off as not racist...
@@crunchevo8974It’s actually all bullshit from them because as a Canadian, EVERYONE I KNOW LOVES BOBA???? Like of all places to try to peddle such nonsense, it’s urban Canada? There’s bubble tea at every major area, and I have no clue who they think they’re “teaching” about a drink that white kids here start consuming at like 13. It’s all nonsense. Sure maybe in rural Canada people don’t drink boba, but I don’t think those people would be buying their product at the store either. That’s actually what is pissing me off the most about this. Bubble tea might not be big in America, but it sure as hell is not a strange thing here.
Yeah if they just said that they wanted to do their own spin on boba tea with fruit juices without the whole "making it less ethnic" line, it would have been fine.
@@crunchevo8974 idk this drink seems so far off from taiwanese bubble and fruit teas, it would be better to market this as something completely different but inspired by bubble tea, instead of trying to pass this drink off as authentic in any way. I would not want people drinking this and thinking that this is what bubble tea is.
@@jtripper117 What is this even supposed to mean
The "we don't know what's in boba" was so gross. It's tea, tapioca pearls, and other fun things. It's not sneaky. If they had come in saying "we're making boba available to keep in your fridge", he wouldn't have had his reaction. It was clear that their marketing was to make boba less scary, which was the problem.
Legitimately.... five ingredients at it's simplest (milk, tea, sugar, tapioca, and water).
I like taro.
Saying that they improve it and made something knew shows that they didn’t do full research in the market. They should come up up with the idea that it’s just tapica petals in lots of flavors that’s that can be save in the fries he. They should have even put in the pitch that they work with Taiwanese companies and put it in their label. Make it a collaborative effort. And be thankful that other cultures influence the market that you’re trying to get into it inspired by them. “Making it better” it’s a huge stretch that no one can achieve. I don’t think Dominos makes better pizzas than traditional- Italian owned pizzerias
For real though. No one's coming for the Trader Joe's boba because it's make at home boba that is not bad for tapioca you microwaved instead of getting the good stuff at a store that makes theirs in the morning. No one is trying to fix boba or exoticize it. 🤔
Now if they knocked off an independent business that pitched to them that's a different thing TJs might get dragged for. 👀
Literally, it was such an unhinged pitch in the first place.
The immediate, LOUD hostility of some of his fellow judges was such a common response when you disrupt the complacent vibe of... certain people. We've all been there and it's always out of proportion. Then you're the one who's "angry" 😲
And now look at us, watching the rest of them with smiles on our faces, watching this all this foolishness unfold.
Yes this happens with so many issues making it hard to be open about injustice. I see this the most with nuanced race issues and veganism.
The best part is that the judge who interrupted Liu's legit criticism is South Asian. What would she have said if someone pitched a "better" version of HER ethnical foods?
Crazy that one was a minority herself, and crazy that this isn't a regular but a guest.
The immediate dismissal from them while you try to kindly tell them is MIND-NUMBING. And then they act like you're being overly dramatic about cultural appropriation when *they're* the ones getting their panties in a bunch because you just informed them about something they clearly didn't know. I feel for Simu here, something like unbridled POC rage lol
Lebanese/Vietnamese people who run pizza shops are not claiming that Italian pizza is worse (less healthy with ambiguous ingredients) than theirs. They don’t claim to make better pizza than Italians do. They make the SAME food. They don’t modify or ‘upgrade’ it. Lol I don’t see how that compares at all.
Exactly. There are even plenty of pizzerias in Italy run by North Africans, like Moroccans and Egyptians, and guess what Italians eat at those places too. My friend is Chinese ethically and her parents own a Chinese/Italian restaurant and they make pizza too and my friends and I went to eat it there many times.
I’m Vietnamese and I know vietnamese people that sell pizzas with ketchup instead of tomato sauce and I’m not with it at all, but they don’t ever claim that they invented pizzas
@@Desperatemeasuress I love the, ‘not with it at all’ 🤣🤣
@@nafisadodi damn right, if i weren’t brought up seeing my friends eating ketchup on pizzas i would have called the police on them 🤣
Do you know who claims to have better pizza than italians? Americans, I do saw with this eyes an American claim that " the best pizza you'll ever have is new York pizza" which is laughable for an Italian 😂
The fact that the drink is being pitched as "no longer ethnic" as a POSITIVE is CRAZY
yeah, its giving "unhinged".
Very "red". Very "flag".
Its an unfortunately typical response I'd expect of many québécois business students. This is the same province where our local government denied on the record that systemic racism exists in Canada.
@@mayotte3398 Yeaaaaah, I read the Wikipedia page for "Racism in Quebec" recently, and, uh, holy shit. That tracks.
“No longer ethnical.”
Honestly, he probably just accidentally added an n there. He meant to say they’re being so disrespectful that’s it’s no longer ETHICAL for them to sell boba tea. 😝
Joking, of course. Whenever I’m surprised at the caucasity of my fellow white folk, I’m reminded that it’s a privilege to not constantly assume they’re going to be the absolute worst.
@@jtripper117 1/10 ragebait let's try a little more effort and thoughtfulness next time
Something that sort of bugs me is them specifically bringing Simu Liu, an Asian man, onto this specific episode as a guest judge. Fully knowing this pitch will be there. And then getting upset with him when he brings up a valid concern about cultural appropriation. Feels icky and shallow.
I absolutely agree
Calculated maybe?
@@alpacafish1269the producers know what they are doing, the shows been on in Canada for decades so it’s definitely calculated
100% premeditated.
It's a show celebrating business moguls. Kevin Oleary is/was a main character on both the US and Canuck versions for years.
None of those people got where they are without stepping on a few necks.
the “healthier alternative to that sugary ethnic potion” being alcoholic sends me
It's literally so western
fuck that liver. didn't need it anyway
i can't even 😭
Why, it's true, stop acting like Boba is some special ancient Chinese secret.
@@swingusinners6001 It's the best.
The problem is definitely the owners presenting it like bubble tea is some weird, mysterious “ethnic” drink that could use some whitewashing to make it less intimidating, like bro why not just say “bubble tea is a beloved drink, here’s our take on it”
I absolutely agree with what you're saying
It doesn't seem like they have any partners - Taiwanese, or just Asian in general - in the immediate Quebec area (sounds like the only partners that fit the bill are all the way on the other side of the world and seems like they're only involved on the production side rather than the marketing side) whom they could have consulted to bounce off ideas on how to pitch the drink more effectively. Someone who at least was culturally aware would have stopped them point blank from blurting the things that they said ("no longer ethnical", "boba is the drink that no one has any idea what's inside of it", "our version is so much more healthier", etc.) and helped them rephrase it less offensively. You can pitch a different reiteration of a cultural food or item without having to disrespect the original product as if it's less than.
That's definitely where the owners failed in pitching their product. Simu tried to give them the benefit of the doubt at first, but they kept digging their graves deeper because they could not see how hurtful and dismissive their words were.
Fr nothing wrong with putting a new spin on something. You just have to be respectful to the version that came before it.
This reminds me of the white UK couple opening a pho restaurant then trademarked the word pho. And went around seeing any mom-pop restaurants that used that vietnamese word (its like trademarking the word burger)
@@ceecee8507 omg yeah I heard about that
The two people's pitch is about making a sugary drink healthier. Your version is making it less "intimidating" by "whitewashing" the drink... a sugary drink is a sugary drink - regardless of where it's from and trying to adjust the ingredient doesn't make it cultural appropriation.
red flag #1 was when the woman said boba is a trendy drink. She wants to profit off of a "trend". To me, one of the key signs of cultural appropriation is when people treat something as a trend.
I’m 100% on Simu’s side here, but to be fair regarding the “trendy” comment, they were literally trying to pitch their product to a panel of judges and convince them it would be a popular thing to invest in.
Like I don’t like this product or these people but I get why they used that word lol
This right here. Part of the reason why we need to actually call out cultural appropriation, is that just sharing it around in good faith to anyone, DOES get these wonderful cultural arts and techniques distorted, cheapened, and redefined as just a tired old trend one day.
Appropriators demand that you share your toys with them, and leave them to you broken when they get bored of it, or even tell you they lost it/gave it away when you ask to enjoy the thing you made.
The issue isn't some innate issue of dominating communities like white people using things, the issue is that very few things have managed to be spared from being fed through the late stage capitalism machine, and we'd really like people to be careful and not just do that just to print a little money or make a new marketable trend.
Cultural appropriation stops being a concern, once we dismantle the systems that keep destroying and capitalising on the few corners of international culture barely touched by anglocentric dominance.
To be fair..something can have cultural significance and still become a trend in areas where it's not commonly seen
It can be both traditional and a trend. A few years ago there was this bubble tea war going on in SEA where a bunch of Taiwanese companies started opening branches everywhere in the region. It was a total bloodbath and these days only a handful of brands are still around, because the trend (started by the Taiwanese themselves) pretty much ended. It's now seen more as a treat than anything.
Good point.
The first time I tried Boba was from a Taiwanese family-run business. The owner worked at the counter and thanked me for supporting them. It closed down within a few months, and the same street has several generic chain boba stores.
Damn, that hurts
That makes me so sad. I've only had Boba from family-run businesses and I've never been disappointed.
That genuinely broke my heart 💔
That’s awful
My favorite boba place is a family run Thai place that has the BEST boba smoothies, and their tea is great too. By far the best places I've been for boba are places run by small Asian businesses. Chain places or stores just jumping on a trend don't come close imo
The fact these tea people intentionally acted ignorant is the problem to me. Its not just the cultural thing, its also the fact they that in said traditional boba you dont know whats in there. Not buying from them honestly. The judges were definitely part of the problem as well for cutting off Simu and allowing these people to say their ignorant bs
i completely agree. it feeds into the “MSG is unhealthy” narrative which is so racist. they’re portraying their yt founder brand as the comfort introduction to other yt people who are equally as ignorant
@@laurenquirkyyeah those judges were being annoying 🙄
I was going to say this as well. And we very often see, generally white people, colonize other cultures products once its popular. Claim it as an unknown and unhealthy and reinvent it their way as healthier and better. And when it comes to food and beverages its usually asian foods and beverages. Its a completely racist pattern. And just trying to profit off of THEIR culture. Its so gross.
@@TheNoxolotl EVERYTHING DANGLEO HAS ON IS A CULTURAL APPROpriation of other cultures, he’s a literal capitalist appropriator for $$$
@@laurenquirkyyou are not quirky and you are not an elf , just stop, racist!
I’m Taiwanese. I appreciate Simu Liu for pointing out MULTIPLE problematic points from the clip. People need to watch the whole clip before they judge what he said.
Yea. This was super problematic, like someone who isn’t Korean getting famous playing a Korean on tv
@@TrueGamer22887 You missed the point of the video. The problem wasn't the product, or even its inventors, it was the marketing.
Saying that Bobba solves the problem of bubble tea being an "ethnical drink" that "no one knows what's in it," while also trying to sell it as a "trendy cultural drink" (their words, not mine) is literally cultural appropriation for capital gain.
Also, they are literally asking Simu to donate a million dollars to become their investor. He has the right to tell them his opinion.
@@marianne3802 no, they’re asking a panel of investors and he made himself the main character. He had a problem with the product 5 words into their pitch because it didn’t mention Taiwan (a state he does not recognize as its own place and culture btw). Why is he on dragons den if he’s this super moral anti capitalist (who got famous playing a Korean on tv)
@@TrueGamer22887
Seek help. Culture, regional food and statehood are completely different things. Typical white nationalist deepsheetgamer can't cope with anyone complaining about racism from white people.
@@TrueGamer22887he had a problem with it five words into the pitch because they posed boba drinks like they were some shady foreign stuff and as if no one knows what goes in it. Which I, at least, found pretty weirdly worded. This guy clarified that the statement is objectively misleading. We know about as much about boba as we do anything else we put in our bodies. I don’t really know anything about this actor and if you have a problem with him as a person then okay, sure, I don’t really care, but you know, staying farther away from ad hominem when trying to make a point and removing your opinion of the person from what is actually happening may be a good thing.
honestly his statement was very nice and honest fr, and he's not wrong. he respectfully brought up a valid discussion during the show. anyway, internet is just nuts.
the mildest statements get blown up so much. he didnt start screaming and crying that his ancestral cultural heritage was dishonored. yeah if someone claimed crystal pepsi was being appropriated id think it was weird, but id also think it was weird if someone marketed an identical version of it as "better" and "cleaner" somehow by pretending it isnt american.
Bul***, his 'opinion' is not 'valid' it's just 'his opinion' - which most people do not agree with, the problem arises when his 'opinion' is a condemnation.
@@saattlebrutazwell the part where he asked and was concerned about them not even mentioning Taiwan as the originator was valid. It’s the fact that you can say ‘well people that make pizza don’t shout out Italy’ that’s because majority of the population know where it’s origin lies. But with Boba it’s different since people just call it asian without any true understanding of where exactly in Asia it’s from. He just wanted them to show some acknowledgment of the origin like many other in store boba drinks do like pocas or that new brand were the boba drink is in an actual cup in stores. It’s just the idea that people aren’t grasping that he wants Taiwan to be referenced. Which to me isn’t a crazy thing to ask for because for the longest time people assumed it was Korean because many different shops sold it with kimchi fries and Korean corn dogs and stuff.
@@saattlebrutaz you say as you condemn his opinion. not very valid tbh.
he was being truthful but also condescending ( keep in mind, i have nothing against this guy, i never watched his movie , my focus is on the topic at hands). Cultural appropriation is not illegal ( wether we like it or not) and imposing barriers to someone's business based on that ( on US soil to top it all ) is not a good look . The truth is everyone culturally appropriates everyone, people have been doing it for very long . So to me as long as it's done respectfully it shouldn't be a problem , as an african i wouldn't bully a white person because they have an outfit made of african wax for example but i see so many non african-people ( black americans are americans, not africans, the same way white americans aren't british) try to APPROPRIATE a fight that isn't theirs ...
"Never heard italians complain about..." bro....us italians complain about how people change our food ALL THE TIME. IT IS A MEME BY NOW HOW MUCH WE DO IT . Dont use us to dismiss asian people and be racist!
RIGHT? that's like, the first thing i think of when i think of Italians. Like the biggest Italian youtube shorts guys basically made a career out of "Nooo not my Italian food". What a stupid argument to make
Same with Turkish people
We aren’t known as complaining about our food or that our food is even known by many people except kebab and baklava but if there is one ingredient wrong then all hell breaks loose 😂
You really madde me open my eyes. I was kinda weirded out about this because I thought of food how it's changed around and noone cares and then your comment made me realize that... the whole capuccino after 11 AM and what pasta goes with what sauce! HEHEHE.
Yeah you need to chill about it
It’s also not the same bc it’s usually white people changing up Italian (white) cuisine
they're mad because he said things that made them uncomfortable, but he's right
or they are mad cause they are dumb and he's showing eloquence and literacy, they don't even understand him, especially the violet suit lady
that goofball tried to parry liu's criticism by claiming 'its not an ethical product anymore' LIKE THATS THE POINT
every time a poc stands up for themselves suddenly we are angry
@@writerintherye Just for the sake of accuracy - he was saying "Ethnical" not "ethical" - Ethnical apparently is a word according to merriam webster, but means something that is of or related to ethnology. I would assume this was just a language barrier.
It boils down to basically the same though, as it is unethical BECAUSE they try to make it not ethnic.
But his actual comment was that it was not ethnical any more (which imo is kinda worse, like he's coming right out and saying it's cultural appropriation)
Pathetic gatekeepers of a drink. Cultural appropriation 😂 where did your dreadlocks come from bro? You Egyptian?
Those people: "Boba tea made by Asians is super sketch, so we made it better, safer, healthier, and now it's not ethnical anymore."
Simu Liu: "Not cool."
Internet: "WTF, you can't say that, you're not even Taiwanese!"
Fun facts: Taiwan is part of "greater China" culture circle which is part of the East Asian culture circle. Back in Asia, we may fight, but here, we easily see each other as someone from similar or same culture background.
@@KWu-fv9nz Careful saying that. When the internet is so misinformed, we don't want to add more divisions by bringging in Taiwan-China relations
@@coolguy4709 Thx for your kind reminder. I am just talking about some cultural aspects which I think are quite relevant in the context here.
@@KWu-fv9nz Taiwanese aren't part of People's Republic of China, that's the fact that hurt you. That being said, Taiwanese will not tolerate Western people delusionality
Yeah, its like they took the points that were meant for the graphic designer and internal marketing team and tried to use that as the whole marketing selling point.
Like you might say to your marketing and graphic design department "we are looking to target WASPs so we need to make sure it doesn't come off as overly exotic and we clearly communicate the contents so they feel comfortable"
The instant "calm down" energy folk give when POC dissent even in the coolest, most level-headed manner drives me up the wall😤😤😤
Calm down
wasn't the other judge that interrupted him and was being rude when he started speaking also poc? but yeah acting like he needs to calm down when he literally was calm is so infuriating
Me too.
Anyone replying calm down to this should eat glass.
@@chalkandcheese1868not funny or clever.
Nah the guy saying bubble tea would no longer be an “ethnical” drink was insane and I’m so glad they got called out
😊
i agree the presenters were racist, but stuff like chai, vietnamese coffee, thai tea, matcha, oolong, are all usually sold by generic coffee shops of no ethnic origin lol. not sure why we're gatekeeping boba for some reason.
@@sandrasim46 cause the ppl trying to appropriate it aren't willing to do even the most basic of gestures of respect to its origins. In fact they go so far as to belittle it. So yeah these ppl deserve to be kept out if they're just going to insult Asian food to make a bag
@@sandrasim46Because cultural appropriation is literally just an excuse to get angry at people. Like i’ve seen many people say “well they have to pay respects,” but what the hell does that even look like here? It just all seems so trivial at the end of the dau
@@sandrasim46 but those coffee shops aren't claiming to be revamping the chai tea latte and making it less ethnic...
Kinda gross how the judges are just immediately dismissing the only Asian judge's opinions on an *asian* drink like, immediately?
That female judge had no right to keep interrupting him
wait wasn’t one of the female judges asian as well?
When exploitation is the norm, you're not going to draw the line at being dismissive and being culturally insensitive/ignorant as an investor.
Manjit Minhas is actually asian as well, which makes it sadder that she somehow can't see the problem with this.
@@ok.4720 that’s what i was thinking!
I'm with Simu. Tired of people's micro aggression towards Asians and then they try to pull shit like this.
As a Taiwanese American, it’s the “disrupt the boba industry” and “fixing” people not knowing what’s in boba that reeks of cultural appropriation. Claiming they invented popping boba or pioneered adding fruit juices is just the ignorance on top imo.
Simu Liu has not always had the best takes tbh but he’s 100% on the money here.
The pioneering with boba they mentioned was that they put it in bottles. Cause they kept mentioning that it was "ready to drink." Which uh. Is almost more pathetic imo. Changing the packaging isn't innovating shit lol. Like, there is also bottled coffee, but I don't think anyone sees that as anything special lol
@@awkwardpawsome Such a silly claim when there's already bottled boba too. Literally no part of their product/company is actually innovative or pioneering lol
Them mentioning adding fruit as if that's some crazy new idea absolutely sent me. My local boba place has at LEAST five or so different fruit teas lol
I mean its sad and fristrating that white people actually believe they can """"""discover""""" stuff that other's invented, put their name on it and """""make it better""""". They do it w countries politics food shows science the whole culture 😩😩😩😩😩
Fr yt people really believe they can """""dicover"""" something that already existed, plaster their name on it, and say it's """"better"""""
They do it w politics, science, culture, food, antiques, they steal and call it "discovery" 😬
If someone came to me, described a very normal dish to my culture as strange and in need of a revamp, then asked me for A MILLION DOLLARS to fund their gimmicky attempt at making it better OF COURSE I'd have some thoughts. It was a mid idea at best in the first place, and he shouldn't be under fire for giving the owners a swift reality check. (I don't think the owners of Bobba were trying to be racist or insensitive either, it was a mistake to not consider the background of the product, but they're just another set of ill informed business owners they aren't bad people for making a mistake they'll likely never make again)
Agreed
This totally!
Exactly
You’re the one that needs to get a grip. This is an insane thing to be so mad about. Absolutely insane.
Except he should because it's something Asian countries do it all the time.
Simu is so right it always sucks when a valid point gets twisted for click bait.
And the way people are getting so upset by this is fucking weird
Yes. I think they could have launched a great product, a twist on a classic, but their pitch was OFF. And that’s what I think Sui was in on and as they continued to fail he kept on it. I totally agree w him.
Simu seems to have a penchant for being misunderstood, the poor guy. 😆
How is he right?
Also, the folk claiming Simu is appropriating a culture that isn't his and he's even worst cause he's gatekeeping too...? What?
A lot of Chinese people came to the west for a lot of the same reasons they fled to Taiwan. And Taiwanese people share a deep rooted history and culture with China even if they have "disagreements", to put it lightly. Also, Boba has been widely accepted by all South East Asians. Drinks with different kinds of jellies and stuff to chew on is a staple in Asian countries, so obviously they share notes.
Even ignoring that, the idea that Simu is appropriating a culture that isn't his when it's been part of Asian American (the continents, all 3) culture for decades is giving me "the Japanese who've lived here for generations can't be trusted" vibes, but maybe that's just me. I'm a different kind of Asian, but the overall anti-Chinese/Asian sentiment these days is getting out of hand, so I might be reading into things.
omg they really said “hey, we refined this product by making it not Asian”
Love people using pizza as a gotcha as if Italians wouldn't shed blood in masses if someone came out and said "we made this product that is basically exactly like pizza but it's much better (for reasons we can't explain) and we're calling it pizzza."
Anyway I actually fully agree with Simu Liu. Even if they don't mean anything malicious by it, they are acting as though they made something new and speak of boba using language that perpetuates the idea that Asian food is unhealthy/bad for you in some way. It's just racism and harmful stereotyping and it was well deserving of the criticism it got
I hate this idea of using other minorities to make one minority's complaints less important. both cultures matter.
As a white Canadian a lot of the garbage food we consumd is unhealthy
Fr. I'm east Asian and idc if people make Boba or even do it poorly. I love sharing my culture with others! However, it rubs me the wrong way when random people come around and try to "improve" something that has been so important and integral to my life and then pay zero respects to it while also profiting off of it. It's like they're reducing my (and many other's) life experiences to a godamn number and that's all that matters to these people. All the countless days I've gotten Boba with friends. The long and hard study hours at our favorite Boba spots, the memories we made there, the games we played, the love and and joy I associate with this drink from our shared culture, the gifts from co-workers or the gift I've long given to others. The times my friend's father made Boba for us, the childhood I spent in their house. My friends and I are all east Asian from different countries with different cultures, but boba is a constant between us, something we all understand so intimately and now share with our non Asian friends. I feel robbed and left to bleed dry when people who don't have that experience come here and exploit it without even trying to understand.
It's even worse, somehow, because when pitching pizzza to you they also tell you that Italians cannot be trusted to make even pizza properly because you don't know what ingredients they're using
@@tomewifecollector9608 look its not not like they can't operate their business tmr. But they def can get criticize for it. The way they spoke about their product is def exloiting the culture. Boba "we don't know what's in it", "we the first to introduce this" and no mention how it came from Taiwan and etc, and etc. That's exploiting the culture for just profit because its "trendy".
Simu wasn’t even responding to two white people appropriating an Asian drink. He was expressing concern over what could potentially become a massive company not paying homage to Taiwan and, largely, East Asian culture. What steps will the company be taking to ensure that culture is not lost?
There’s a fine line between appreciation and appropriation and they crossed it.
I'm 100% sure if it were East Asian or specifically Taiwanese people doing this he'd have said the same thing, but the internet wouldn't have blown up about it. It's only when people of a certain background are accused of cultural erasure do people get defensive. It's real "why can't us white people just take your shit" and "I'm one of the good ones, I stand for white people taking our shit" energy, ironically _making_ it racial in order to claim Simu made it racial as a convenient way to ignore his words didn't attack white people or gatekeep making Asian dishes.
Guarantee these same people complain about DEI and affirmative action on the internet all day.
Now yall know how black ppl feel 😂
the "you don't really know whats in boba" irks me so much as a chinese person bc it is VERY reminiscent of the villainization of msg and how things from our culture like food are always seen as dirty and unsafe. the panel, especially the poc lady were super disappointing
As an MSG aside there's an Instagram account know msg that recent made a post aimed at the New England Journal of Medication and their role in the creation of the term "Chinese restaurant syndrome". It's also still amazing to me that it's such a ubiquitous ingredient yet everyone who tells me they definitely react to msg only have this reaction from Chinese food but never ranch.
📠🔊🔊🔊
📠🔊🔊🔊
📠🔊🔊🔊
@@cupguin msg my beloved i love flavours
“Well they added a B 😐” fell out of my chair with laughter 8:22
yeah i definitely don't know what's in my BROWN SUGAR MILK TEA, with TAPIOCA PEARL boba. but we just don't know 🙄
right like damn I haven't gotten boba in a hot minute but I still remember the endless customization options and very nice staff who walked me through all the choices so "wE jUsT dOn'T kNoW" is diabolical actually
💯💯💯💯💯🎯🎯🎯🎯🎯
such a mysterious drink name… if only i had a whitewashed version 😣
Compare that with the """""improved""""" product they make with all the cute ingredients known :
Water • Sugars (sugar, fructose, strawberry juice) • Natural and artificial flavours • Oligofructose • Lemon juice concentrate • Starch acetate • Matcha powder • Allura red • Citric acid • Calcium lactate • Calcium chloride • Green tea leaf extract (caffein) • Malic acid • Sodium alginate • Potassium sorbate • Xanthan gum • Sodium benzoate • Stevia extract • Sodium erythorbate • Sucralose • Sodium carboxymethyl cellulose. Contains sucralose, sugar, fructose and stevia extract. Contains 4 mg of sucralose per serving.
This was exactly my reaction as someone who used to drink boba every day, and I'm a white Canadian. You don't have to be asian to be offended by their awful pitch, you just have to love boba. I question if anyone in that room other than Simu Liu actually likes boba
its not the fact they are white, its the fact there are stating they are creating a "BETTER" version of a such an iconic asian drink that has been popular forever, if they had said it was their own interpretation or a cool mix of cultures then i dont think there would have been any issue whatsoever
Exactly! So obnoxious!!! Esp the ethnical part 😂😢💀
What tops it imo is that they're making it "Better" while having literally no fucking idea about Boba. Their ideas aren't new, or innovative, the ingredients in boba aren't mysterious or unkown it's literally black tea (or jasmin or any other tea) with milk and tapioca-based pearls or jelly. It's so rude to present something you clearly know nothing about as bad, simply because you don't know anything about it.
wdym forever? it was invented in the 80s. It's not some ancestral drink passed down for generations. Maybe we should ban pineapple on pizza because that's not how Italians do it?
@@ionaskualexander1255nobody ever claimed Hawaiian pizza is the “better” version of pizza. It’s just another flavour. That’s the difference. This company claims that boba is like this mysterious and unhealthy drink, and that their product (bobba) fixes those problems. Which is not… true? The only difference in their boba is that it’s “popping” boba. That’s not “fixing” the problem. Besides, they could’ve at least changed their brand name to something different than bobba. Boba and bobba sound the same.
@@ionaskualexander1255 Tell me you didn’t learn anything from the video without telling me you didn’t learn anything from the video. 😀
I like how the first comment on reddit talked about "you don't hear italians complaining about luganos" . Like have you never seen the countless react videos of italians to other people butchering their food?
I'm sorry these all sound like privileged people problem. One thing I've learnt and had a reality check on based from my cousins back home is that when you're thinking about waking up early because you need go buy or go long distances for something as basic as clean water or factor in load sharing as part of your daily routine, things like this seem stupid.
it's also a bad example because it is still being sold as an "italian" restaurant ... and that association with the original culture is exactly the thing that this boba tea company is not doing ...
@@arnitaxavier9446 two things can very much be true at once, wanting to preserve culture and needing things to stay alive are two different things
@@goodial LITERALLY! One of the points Simu expressed was that he didn’t like how they were *separating* the cultural aspect of Boba Tea by making it a “New and non-ethnical” drink, but that point seemed to fly over peoples head smh.
@@arnitaxavier9446you do know people can be concerned about two things right? I can worry about all sorts of things and also despise blatant cultural appreciation.
If you can't care about two things at once level your game up
People attacking Simu for not being "the right ethinicity" makes me so sad. I'm Malaysian-Chinese living in Aus, which means I'm like four generations removed from my ancestors in China (back when Taiwan wasn’t a thing yet), and I was equally appalled because yes, bbt is absolutely an East Asian cultural product.
Having randos on the internet "correct" you on YOUR OWN CULTURE is WILD.
and them not realizing that 95-97% of the population in taiwan is han-chinese... taiwan and china are related and thats basic history
Genuinely.
As a first gen Chinese also living in Australia, it's absolutely wild some of the things people would say, wild.
I am glad to see that Manjit pulled out of investing in Bobba, but I am still so disappointed in her for not even acknowledging what Simu was saying. As a fellow Indian , I remember when people used to tell me that the indian food my mom packed me for lunch was gross and smelly, and now those same people have become yoga instructors or are selling turmeric shots. Culture is not a shopping mall where you can pick and choose. It is a part of our identity and should always be respected and acknowledged.
I didn't really know who she was before this, but yeah I was disappointed she had all that to say when her own heritages has been taken to hell and back just as all aspects of East Asian cultures have been too.....
She probably pulled out because she realized that this was not a unique product in the market at all. Pre packaged popping boba drinks already exists already and this company has nothing to differentiate them 😅
Also what happens when people internalise white supremacy. Some of the people who had those same experiences of being othered unfortunately end up just casting their culture aside so they can blend in and thus making things more bland overall.
She isn't truly sorry. Not one word in her "apology" was about dismissing Simu Liu and how he (rightfully) called out the inherent racism in this product. She's only sorry that her words backfired and now she's getting backlash for it.
@@solarmoth4628 based on what her business sells I don’t think that that would stop her, her business makes functionally knock off low quality alcohol 🤷🏼♀️
The way he tried his hardest to thoughtfully and carefully inform them and was still attacked is the story of every POC, black and indigenous person who tries to defend themselves or their culture. I found their pitch very tone deaf and I hope his 3 minute back and forth with these successful business people pushed them towards educating themselves more. AND YES SIS with the middle part was giving OPPPPPPPP.
the fact the she was also a POC was sending me like sis we should be sticking together have you not experienced the same things he did 😭
@@sarahxdesuWait, you think she cares?
We black people IMMEDIATELY recognized what was happening. Happens to us all the time.
What's funny is Asian culture is commonly appropriated BUT never talked about coz the stereotypes about Asians stop people from understanding our cultures. In fact, so many POC people also disrespect Asian culture a lot of the times. And when we defend ourselves, they laugh at us.
@@abnormalnox IMMEDIATELY. Even when the other person is “of color.” You know some only remember that when it’s time for a speaking engagement, or it boosts up a resume in some way.
not only is it cultural appropriation…those businesses already exist. Idk why they even act like when you go to a boba shop you can’t customize the sugar level. Also if you buy the canned stuff or your own kit, the calories and ingredients are listed. you can also get fruit tea with popping boba so idk what these people were thinking by presenting this on TV.
I have some some gripes with Simu Liu, but he wasn’t wrong.
Exactly, even if it wasn’t cultural appropriation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see that company fail since boba is already extremely popular and trendy among other companies
I'm curious to know what your gripes with Simu Liu are
@@Truttingturtle *Gripe, lol.
@@Truttingturtle same I'd like to know aswell
@@BewareTheLilyOfTheValley thanks lmao, I was multitasking when I typed that 😅
I am Taiwanese, and I love the fact the world has adopted bubble tea as one of the most popular drinks. It's like no one cares where coffee is actually from, I don't mind people not knowing it's Taiwanese. The problem with the business owners is not cultural, my problem with them is they don't understand the consumer problem they're seemingly trying to solve. I never had a problem knowing or thinking I know what's inside my bubble tea. The other thing is they don't need to "improve" a product that's already very good, it just reversed how I feel about their business, I'd rather drink a traditional bubble tea than their allegedly improved version.
I'm not a Simu fan but I enjoyed his movies, and I don't think he was being inappropriate with what he said.
Oh, did I mention I'm Taiwanese?
Don't come for me, internet.
lol
There was so many avenues they could have went with this... "ours has better flavor profile than the rest of the grab-and-go bobas!" "Some people just don't like the tea flavor so here's a popular fruity spin!" "Our brand is a popular alcohol mixer because of the fruity flavor versus traditional boba tea so we want to break ground in that market and make the original line more accessible to customers to boot!"
Literally textbook whitewashing a whole ass culturally significant drink without feeling an ounce of shame. There was literally no need to fix their lips to say anything close to how it's an "ethnic drink" they needed to "fix" because "nobody knows what's in it". I'm embarrassed for them as a white dude myself LMAO
I really appreciated this clear and thoughtful take. Thank you!
Bubble tea really isnt famous though. It was a Trend for a pretty short while that is all. Nobody cares about German Inventions either
At this point it's a reflex white people have with Asian and especially Chinese/Taiwanese food. "We can't eat at that restaurant they probably put msg or mystery chemicals in their food. They're sneaky!"
@@lunaris7342Boba is... extremely popular in many places. I don't even live in a proper big city and we have Boba places everywhere
Imagine if 2 white poeple came to shark tank to sell ‘ethical’ chicken tikka masala and called the company tika. I would lose it as an Indian 🙏🏽😭
So weird hearing people outside of Britian talk of Tikka Massala, it's a national dish over here more popular than fish n chips.
@@jaykilkenny5727haha! That’s why I used tikka masala and not other globally well known dishes , Indians know tikka masala as a British dish by now
@@jinisha_ nice to see that good food can be made by anyone as long as the origins are respected. Keep the vibes going!
More like naming it tikkka…WAIT
This comment thread is why I'm here for
Framing bubble tea as a problem having to be fixed and saved from being ethnic is crazy
Where have we seen that before? 🤔
I'm normally completely of the mind of "Ooo, nowadays everything is 'cultural appropriation' unless you swear up and down you 'don't see color', all abroad the ethnic erasure masking as virtue signaling train!" But I don't think I've ever seen (at least in my time) such a *textbook* definition of cultural appropriation. It's like a skit that could've been written by an HR department. "Let's profit off this successful cultural venture originating from a minority demographic- but first it's very important we make everyone forget that it came from minorities. Can't have them thinking whites are inferior!" .....wtaf
Not to mention the term ethnic is so weird and misapplied. If people knew anything about Taiwan they would know that “Taiwanese” is not an ethnicity. Moreover, food is tied to culture, NOT to ethnicity. Every food comes from a cultural group.
@@stephenpaul668 Exactly "Taiwanese” are ethnically Han Chinese/ Han Taiwanese or the majority are over 95% of the population
@@MsKaz1000 the people having the "taiwan is not chinese" war don't even know the historical ties between china and taiwan. Ignorant people are deathly allergic to research.
And the woman saying you can't blame them because no one told them about it when Simu JUST TOLD HER and she gave them the money!
She just wanted him to shut up. It was really gross.
I hope that investment works out as it deserves for her.
Simu himself was being gross. This makes me so angry. Good grief, he should be getting called out, not the couple making the drinks FOR GOD'S SAKE PEOPLE GET A GRIP
Yeah, that's the thing. Everyone makes mistakes, nothing wrong with that. But when you double down after having your mistake pointed out to you, that's the problem.
@@canadiangirrrrl whats gross and anger inducing for me, an asian person, is watching two non-asians walk on national television and insinuate that boba’s contents are in any way dubious or mysterious, and then watching a host of that show shut down the only asian person on the stage raising concerns without even listening to what he’s saying. asian-americans and canadians have traditionally been pressured to suppress their culture to fit in and it makes me mad seeing them try to cram simu into that box ON TV. how is it not racist to imply an ethnic drink is weird or suspicious? the couple on stage you’re defending are preying on preexisting stereotypes of “weird ethnic food” to sell their unoriginal juice. they’re profiting off of the implication that ethnic products are scary and the vibrant color white people product is wayy better, pure, and healthier
The thing is- if I, an Asian person, trademarked on a frozen pizza brand called “Pizzza” and said I made a NEW ONE OF A KIND PIZZA DISRUPTING THE PIZZA INDUSTRY and it’s just thin crust and thin crust already exists??? And I’m pitching the idea to an Italian guy??? I would only expect to be torn to shreds
Their pitch was terrible. They did not plan for any kind of pushback/challenge and their main selling point seemed like "ours is better than old school boba". How about, we are taking a beloved drink and making it more convenient, adding more uncommon fruit/juice and offering alcoholic version (if I understand correctly). We have fun marketing/promo aimed at...insert demographic here. Kids/teens really like boba (all the sugar) and a grab and go convenience store version (non-alcoholic) would be fair selling points. That said, these two were a little tired and feel late to the game.
I wonder if it's a language barrier. They're clearly ESL speakers and maybe there's some nuance lost in translation. Then again, I'm not interested in defending them. It's just a problem I've run into before speaking with Quebecois tourists in Maine. A kind of casual callousness in the way they phrase things. They're nice people and they don't act like their words might imply, but it causes friction.
@@chrisblake4198 The language issue could be a factor, but if you are trying to get a million dollars, put best foot forward. I would have taken some of that product package and website design money and hired a business plan/presentation coach prior to this very high profile event. They just came off very arrogant and a little entitled. FYI, I was in store today and came across Hello Kitty shelf stable boba, so the concept is already being done... smartly.
@@chrisblake4198 I can see that, like saying ethnical was crazy but I'm not putting it against them for that as I understood it as a language barrier (speaking as an east asian tho I have to admit I found it kind of hilarious). I feel it was their arrogance about "disrupting the industry" when everything they pitched has been done and been done better is what really rubbed people the wrong way.
Yeah and people are trying to claim Simu was being unreasonable, unfair and angry for the fact he gave pushback which he's _supposed to do._ The show is very much about critiquing sales pitches and the interplay between investors and pitchers. That he brought up an obvious problem with their marketing that showed him they don't _actually_ offer a million dollars in value is what he's supposed to do.
@@chrisblake4198nah its not a language thing. I'm from there and I speak French and they definitely say the same ignorant stuff in French. Pretty much all the racism and micro aggressions I've encountered in my life have been 99% white Quebecers specifically. Not white Anglo Quebecers.
I'm so glad Simu brought this up, as a South Asian there's so many white owned companies that try to make our food, drink and even spiritual practices "better" and more palatable for the white market because they see us as "dirty" and "backwards". Also manjit minhas is so embarrassing she gives pure coconut energy here
How is K-Pop any different?
@@senorc4416There’s many people who call out K-pop issues of appropriating black american culture
@@senorc4416 Many KPOP bands use other cultures and aesthetics in their videos and music. For instance, in one of blackpink’s videos they had a statue of a hindu god on the floor. They use parts of other cultures as an aesthetic without paying respects to the people they take from.
@@sammythewizard420 Pretty common among humans.
@@senorc4416 it's not different they culturally appropriate CONSTANTLY lmao
"We don't know whats in boba" they probably should've stopped their pitch from there. It just went down hill. The more I heard the worse it got. Its wild to me they asked for 1mil for something they didn't do any different and how they speak about it feels insulting. Definitely terrible wording. And its common knowledge what it's made out of and plenty of videos. For them to say that "while working with a team jn Taiwan" is disappointing.
Italians are known for being upset with how other people cook their food. Its literally what Italians on TikTok are known for. Their entire niche is criticism on people making italian food.
The other judges were irritating.
I'm on Simus side about it.
Yeah that example was crazy, a culture's dishes are like the number 1 most protected thing, but I guess it's only valid to see that between different European cultures.
And that's not even what Simu was doing, sure he didn't really like the tea but the issue was the marketing, they went up there and said the only different thing about our product that makes it worth your money is that we're calling traditional boba a problem that we fixed by removing its "ethnic" roots. Like bro what, nobody is out here denying pizza is Italian or that whiskey is Gaelic.
"But it was only invented 44 years ago" so? It took less time for record labels to take blues and rock and intentionally remove black identity from it for profit. Is it invalid to say boba's part of or originates from a culture then? When has anybody considered boba _not_ East Asian before this clip to die on this mission uncritical hill? How is it a "celebration and embracing of multiple cultures" when the entire idea is to call its culture the problem and remove it as the solution? How are the people saying the previous excuse seriously holding that opinion _and_ denying it has cultural heritage?
They could have made a pitch that they made the popping boba content more fruit based rather than syrup based/sugar. Made it about the ingreadients not cultural thing.
I have lived in Quebec as an Asian-canadian for over 10 years. Unfortunately ppl here are generally dismissive of asian communities and our experiences... I wasn't surprised at all when the owners refused to acknowledge and apologize for their mistake in branding, they simple don't care to learn or respect our culture
Do Asians respect black people? Or it is ok to disrespect black people but expect respect from whyte people?
@@evadburns is the strawman in your ass so far up its in your brain
@@evadburnsfirst of all ur point is irrelevant to this comment. secondly racism and colourism is a problem in every community and it shouldnt be that way, i agree with u on that. but just because some asians are racist doesnt mean they should also face such discriminations. if anything bipoc people should unit, which i hope to see more of in the future. btw my tone is sometimes off and i dont mean to come off aggressive, but i get where u initially come from.
@@evadburns I think they were talking about the owners (white) not respecting the Asian culture
@evadburns Respect goes both ways. Why are you perpetrating the notion that it’s only Asians that are disrespectful?
not specifically taiwanese but i grew up with boba (although my parents called it sago since we’re filipino), and i really hate the idea that you don’t know what’s in boba tea. most of the flavors are pretty easy to understand, AND you can adjust the sugar in most mainstream places. if you’re getting the slushies or the gong cha oreo flavors or anything else that’s crazy (no hate i love them), that’s on YOU. otherwise the boba itself is just tapioca. it’s giving the msg debate all over again
Right?? Not to mention that I’ve never been to a boba place and not been able to just ask about the ingredients in one of the crazier flavours. It’s really not that hard, people are so desperate to have things to be hateful over!
AUGHH 😫
BOBA IS NOT SAGO!
But fr, I groaned seeing this comment.
Right???? Like, it's LITERALLY just tea with a bit of juice, syrup and/or milk. Maaaaybe there are coffee variants for the wildchildren out there.
Hell, most Starbucks coffees probably have more different and questionable contents in them than the average cup of boba!
It feels like an extension of how white people stereotype Asian cuisines as weird, exotic and full of questionable crap. When it's literally just a bit of tea or syrup milk with some starch balls or juice pearls in there. I legit gasped in anger when they said that part!
@@oserodal2702 it’s not, but they conflated the two for whatever reason. they literally gave me boba and called it sago, idk why
AND WHERE IS TAPIOCA FROM SPEAK ON IT 🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷🇧🇷
everyone like "i went to an italian restaurant owned by vietnamese people" and all that and its like... and you knew it was italian.... bc the vietnamese people selling it to you aren't trying to convince you its actually vietnamese food and therefore better than the normal italian food and thats the like whole entire problem lol
im pretty sure a lot of americans do think their version of pizza (new york style pizza for example) is better than the original and people don't think of it as italian food so much as american pizza
@@Uragaan1i mean i’ve had this argument in a completely different context… like i was arguing about croissants because it’s believed that it originated from a polish cookie with the same shape and then was adapted into the croissants we know with the French using puff pastry instead. so some people argue that croissants arent French. my counter argument was “is the Boston deep-dish pizza not from Boston?” because it’s a completely different dish compare to authentic Italian pizza. now, watching these two goobers take everything that already existed and brand it as something new is (in my opinion) not the same thing as adapting a foreign dish to the local taste, but still, idk what to think anymore
@@businesszeus6864 Boston deep dish pizza is very very different from Italian Pizza, so you are not wrong in it being different and a lot of people hate it because of it. I think there is a level of acknowledgement of saying "this is Boston deep dish pizza" it acknowledges both that it is a type of pizza and that it is so far removed from the original that just calling it Pizza without specifying would feel disingenuous, it feels quite a bit more respectful to the OG as it is. But if Boston people went around talking crap about Italian pizza "you don't know what is in there" and saying you created shit that already exist or saying "this is no longer italian food so we don't need to pay any respects" that would be delulu. Most importantly Italian Americans were involved in Boston pizza's adoption right? A child inherits their parents culture, so it isn't weird to say "Hey I want to make something with italian roots but in an American way, just like me, for other people like me" vs "I have absolutely nothing to do with this culture but I want money, and I am also going to be disrespectful and lie"
Boom, there's the difference. Nobody's out there trying to make lasagne or moussaka less "ethnic", because *for some reason* everyone's fine acknowledging Italian and Greek cuisine.
Except that's exactly what those places do. Love how you aren't being honest.
i saw a bunch of east asian people online saying this but the idea that people "dont know what's in boba" is a huge microaggression. there are a lot of longstanding racist ideas against asian food being "unhealthy" or "bad for you" or "secretly gross" and a weird history of white people "fixing" asian food by making it "cleaner". boba is literally just tea, milk, sugar, and tapioca pearls
American Chinese food is unhealthy though lol. As for the microagression, maybe a counselor would help?
@@Freerider93sorry can someone genuinely explain this to me i can't determine if that last part is supposed to be "here's a bandage for your safe space liberal feelings being hurt🥺" or gen advice i'm actually so torn
@@scringlinbo freerider93 is calling us triggered and in need of mental help/sensitive for calling out racism. they're being an asshole.
a lot of the health scares around asian food is overblown. like the msg thing. ugh, white people fr need a reality check. i won't argue that every chinese restaurant is a bastion of health, but that goes for EVERY low income restaurant. it's not specific to chinese ones. :|
@@Freerider93you clearly don’t know much about Chinese food or you only eat the americanized Chinese food 😂
It is not even micro at this point...:(
The clarity and accuracy in your approach to this is so refreshing. Literally you voiced everything I was thinking and as POC we see this every. single. day and AAAAA I just hate having to explain it to an audience that's chooses to be blind 😂😭
As someone born and raised in Canada, this is a huge example of the casual racism in our coutry. The stereotype of Canadian politeness is generally true, but politeness is in no way kindness. People hold biases against poc and their experiences and use the societally expected baseline of politeness as a shield. That girl saying stuff like "you haven't given them a chance to change yet" is exactly that, pretending that it's more about being kind to these random people than even trying a little bit to understand where he's coming from.
It's not just in Canada, OR the U.S. it's EVERYWHERE. it's just the u.s. is starting the conversation...somewhat
@@abnormalnox when you complain you're the one rocking the boat. but that's how it works for *every* societal change. think the last 4 decades how it worked for other groups such as gay people fighting for rights in the western sphere. Or you know that black lady who refused to give up her seat on the bus.
So their thesis was “We have improved our perceived lack of quality control in boba tea by making it non-ethnic”. That’s not cultural appropriation; that’s just racist. And I feel like calling it cultural appropriation does a disservice to Simu by making it look like he has a problem with white people producing boba tea and not a problem with *the* white people producing boba tea
While I agree with your point he did say there is an issue of cultural appropriation at 5:30
@@Impath And it's also racist, white people colonizing and taking something that doesn't belong to them
Yeah. Screams taking something from one culture and then white washing it for perceived inferiority.
There is no such thing as cultural appropriation. Everyone borrows from other cultures. To call that as bad is the equivalence of telling people to stay in their own country . And telling black people to go back to Africa .
@@woobiefuntime Do you actually hear yourself? Like when you speak, do you actually hear words? Or is it just the WHOOSH of the vacuum inside your skull, sucking in air, every time you open your mouth?
It’s the fact that a woman of color was the one trying to say cultural appropriation isn’t real for me :/
Model minority pick me behavior
Eh, she's a capitalist on a show about gamifying private equity-type capitalist nonsense. Idk why you'd expect better. She smells a potential bag and that's all she cares about. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
She is also a woman of colour who made her money disrupting - let’s say a closed cultural beverage market - cheap beer sold in 2Ls. Her take might be interesting.
it's bc she's their "token" diversity card that makes the white people feel better abt themselves
Trickle down economics isn't real. Own people in high places doesn't really help. What else is news 🤷
I had to subscribe - I mean enroll - because of this video. I sometimes worry that the year 2024 in cyberspace has lost so much nuance of communication, and I so much appreciate that you have built this space to have so much contextualization. Groundedness. Nuance. Appreciation.
Thank you for calling out Manjit for her disrespectful behaviour here. Sometimes I see people wring their hands whenever they see POC disagreeing with each other on racialized issues and ultimately side with the one who stirs the pot less. Like, no. She was not willing to put in the work to sit with challenging, valid concerns and show Simu empathy. I've been shut down in situations like this before, and it's validating that someone sees this moment for what it was.
As part of the Hong Kong diaspora, here’s some history that I hope will still be known broadly about the boba years from now: The name 'boba' actually relates to a Hong Kong actress. Moreover, the Taiwanese bubble tea is one of the milk teas which has political significance as the symbol of a democratic protest movement. That's something that can have cultural significance in a uniquely existential register to some East and Southeast Asians and the Asian diaspora.
For that anonymous internet comment to say that isn't part of "culture" just because it's been invented in the 80s is to disregard meaningful snapshots of real, lived experiences and flatten the history and politics of forming meaningful identities with something as social and as commonplace as food.
crazy how they think they're product is so new and innovative, when you can go to any asian grocery and select from a variety of canned boba...
You can even get them at the gas station in western Canada 😒
Any chain grocery in the us will have them as well
it's hilarious how they think they invented popping boba like. you can already buy that. and you can make boba at home really easily by just buying tapioca pearls and boiling them over a stove.
Yes and you can also go to lots of Asian sweatshops ripping off western culture
We Italians complain endlessly about people disrupting the way we make our traditional pizzas. Like that's all we do online these days. That reddit user has never been on the Internet I fear
Or even "just" break spaghetti.
Let me be clear that I don't agree with that reddit user first. But I find some Italians doing that to be insufferably annoying. I'm Canadian, not American, but clearly in certain areas of North America and South America we share a cultural heritage with pizza and pasta--not the least of which because they often feature tomatoes, an essentially American vegetable. All the internet fuss over Chicago deep dish pizza or carbonara with cream and peas has made me never want to visit Italy ever lol. And I'm sure it's a lovely place. I'm sure the people who owned Pizzerias would have been happy to use whatever ingredients they saw fit. Tomato, basil, and mozzarella were their on-hand favourites but can't we all have different tastes? And I mean no shade to those Italian people who just find the differences funny or can't help but express how it's not to their tastes. You're fine. But boy I've casually witnessed it devolve into weird mud-slinging far too often. I could rant about it longer than anyone could rant about cream and peas in "carbonara". xD But yeah that guy was smoking rocks!
@@rawkhawk414
I mean, I'm against deep dish pizza, not because it's un-Italian or something, but because it's a crime against everything that is good and decent. Satan himself would tell the inventor of that dish he went a little bit too far.
Yeah I found that hilarious. Italy has like the biggest stereotype of being personally offended when people do thier food "wrong"
@@rawkhawk414 not sure why you're kind of... like... mad and annoyed over italians complaining. when italians online dont really complain that much. they're not the biggest complainers either, id say we arabs complain way more - even us HUNGARIANS do so much more (im kurd and hungarian). i think its disrespectful to make a dish not of your culture and fuck it up completely and then get MAD at people who find it offensive... yes you can make it different but so many who make it different claim they've "made it better" which is the disrespectful part
I haven’t finished the video but already, the business on dragons den does sound somewhat racist. I’m white but I can already see that what they’re saying is pretty suspicious being said by white people. They’re presenting their version of an Asian drink as healthier, cleaner even and saying the original version is suspicious or mysterious. That’s a common view of non white food that’s pretty racist, even if they aren’t conscious of it. White people often view ethnic food as dirty or unclean or mysterious and that’s because of racial biases.
100% agree and I haven’t even gotten to watch yet. This happens all the time; it’s literally food gentrification. I hate it so much.
In my city it’s only recently started happening because it’s pretty small but they also charge exorbitant amounts of $ for the same ingredients as a real Asian restaurant would as an example.
Yes, that alone makes me not like the pitch.
The panel of business "leaders" was quite a bit whiter in early seasons. Kevin O'Leary was a Canadian Dragon for 8 seasons. 😬
@@gerilyn EVERYTHING DANGLEO HAS ON IS A CULTURAL APPROpriation of other cultures, he’s a literal capitalist appropriator for $$$
@@et4920 huh? he didn’t say he took the style and “made it better”. like what? do you not know what culture appropriate means?
Hi D'Angelo, I loved your video as someone of East Asian descent and Canadian! Although, I think reading through r/Canada is not the best place in understanding how a general audience feels. As someone who uses Reddit a lot, the r/Canada subreddit is generally an older-male focused and conservative space. The comments you read are not a great reflection of the Canadian reaction but it was still entertaining. Unfortunately, I don' think there is a great place to gather the online Canadian reaction, but I would have loved if you pulled from the r/aznidentity subreddit to hear more from the Asian diaspora! Lovely video
Why are ppl mad at him? Simu really brings out great points. Cultural appropriation is different than cultural appreciation. You can ABSOLUTELY appreciate a culture without appropriation.
This!
No, there is no such thing as cultural appropriation.
@@lunavioleta001yeah there is.. now what
@@lunavioleta001just because you haven’t personally experienced something, doesn’t mean it’s not real
@@lunavioleta001yeah there is Disney tried to trade mark the name “Dia de Los muertos” or “Day of the Dead” meaning only them could make profit out of the holiday. Which batshit crazy it’s a matinal holy day in Mexico. Basic tea soon for us Mexicans. They obviously couldn’t pull it off but they try to make money out of our holiday.
Also German crocked hook comes from the Manji Kanji in Japan. The Nazis took the symbol changed it and now must people when they see a Manji in Japan they think it’s a Nazi symbol. The manga series Tokyo Revengers uses the Manji a lot for a symbol of their gang but it has been heavily censored to international audiences
Disclaimer I'm white, but best longest friend is Taiwanese, grew up drinking boba and lived in Asia. There is no innovation here. Fruit tea, been done for decades, prepacked boba, done to death, popping boba, old news. Hell, I was just in Taiwan last year and canned milk tea cocktails were in 7/11. He was 100% right this ain't it they didn't innovate anything here other than bad taste. The worst part is they bought into the racist cultural trope of "mysterious/suspicious Asian food" which has been used for decades to denegrate and dismiss Asian people and their food as dirty, unhealthy and lesser than western food. (See Chinese restaurant syndrome and "jokes" about Asian restaurants serving cat and dog) I work in the food industry and have little issue with people owning and operating restaurants serving food not of their own culture IF there is love and respect of the culture it's from. They did the opposite. Just for buying into that racist trope alone Simu had every right to rip them to shreds, he was way nicer than he needed to be as far as I'm concerned.
Dude it’s so ubiquitous now that SONIC, the mid fast food chain, has popping boba.
oh my god you hit this nail on the head and with the whole “mysterious asian food”
@@truckerdave8465wait since when? Is it a new thing? I worked at a sonic last year and didn’t see anything like that
YES!! Thank you! I was wondering why that line about not knowing what was in it made my skin crawl in an all too familiar way. It was such a stereotype growing up, I heard it often enough at school. I'm black with Trinidadian parents, but a lot of my good friends growing up were and are south Korean. I would trade my elementary school lunches of curry channa for roasted seaweed and rice, or we'd mix them and eat seaweed, curry, and rice. "Mystery" foods and "smelly" curry, our lunches were always delicious but as kids you could never get past the feeling of being judged by your other friends who had peanut butter and jelly or pizza. Man... I hate that sentiment is still around. It's gotten better, but it's wild to get smacked in the face by it now in 2024.
@@user-iy3nt5mm2v At the beginning of summer…but I’m pretty sure they’ve had them before too.
I think what's most ironic about this is that the French Canadian couple who pitched the business seemed confused about someone being annoyed by cultural appropriation when the Quebecois are, by far, the loudest group of Canadians when it comes to preservation and respect of Quebec culture. Anyway, carry on.
THIS. I wonder if they have thoughts on “better” poutine 😂
Lol, the irony.
Seriously. As a black Vancouverite this entire thing just seems insane. It genuinely feels like a joke. It's like a couple of Canadians saying Mexican cuisine is hard to understand so they're going to create Taco Ti...
Fuck.
It's so telling, honestly.
This is such a perfect distillation of what racism really is.
You have everything in that clip, and it's... Well, really, it's quite frightening
@@MyWorldIsSquarewait really?, I always thought it was an American taco company.
Omg, thank you for making this one. I thought I was going crazy. All the asian creators and my mates had the same reaction to that clip, we saw what we saw. I don't think the Bobba owners did it on purpose, but they pretty much hit all the bingo phrases.
As asians, we immediately recognise the very harmful (and persistent) racist rhetoric of asian food somehow being "unknown" or "unhealthy" (i.e. msg/umami), and a white person gotta come along and gentrify it to be "better". Especially those of us who grew up as immigrants in western countries, a lot of us know the experience of feeling ashamed of our own food as children, and not wanting to pull out a bento our parents made, because other ppl would call it "gross" or it "looks/smells weird".
the people saying he's Chinese so he can't say anything are so stupid omg. I'm Puerto Rican and Colombian but if I were in his shoes and someone was saying blatantly nasty stuff about any other LatAm country's accomplishments, I hope I would have the wherewithal to call them out. ESPECIALLY as respectfully as he did, idk if I could be so kind lol. the reality is diaspora from the same region usually have similar experiences and share food/culture with one another. in turn, I hope that means we can have each other's backs.
100%, i’m brazilian but you best believe i would’ve jumped them if they were trying to make tacos or empanadas “better”
Exactly.
EXACTLY they're acting like the two cultures don't share many similarities and aren't right next to each other on the map :/
It’s especially hilarious because China and Taiwan are probably the most intertwined East Asian cultures. The majority of Taiwan’s population are straight up Chinese immigrants who migrated due to communism in the 50’s
the moment they used the "chinese" scape to validate their profit argument against Liu, I knew it's terrifying and I'm from a country that had fought china for thousands of years but the Chinese argument is just vague and more of a defensive attack than actually constructive criticism
as a native american this whole situation is so 😭like. people will do anything but listen to what people are ACTUALLY say
!!!
people don't like to think critically! it's very scary, Iike lets just pause and LISTEN omg
I’m East Asian. It’s not about having to be East Asian to make boba. It’s about how unoriginal the ideas are, the way they frame their product as being a solution to the ‘issues’ of boba, as well as the general lack of respect they have for the drink and its origins despite relying on its name for their own brand. Imagine if I started a company called Croissantt with the extra ‘t,’ said that it was innovative because I added filling and I made sure to fix its ‘problems,’ and insisted that it’s no longer a French dessert.
The Croissant is actually just the French adaptation of an Austrian dish, which was introduced during the late 1700s. It uses a different dough than the original, that's the main difference.
2:59 No way. The framing of the shot even makes it look like the word "Racist" behind them
Bro 😂
As somebody who is from Québec, I can say with certainty that these people are speaking out of their arses, have done minimal market research, and don't have any appreciation for boba culture-
Not because they're not Taiwanese, but because popping boba has been a thing in boba cafés everywhere in the country. Hell, you can buy DIY boba kits in shops with popping boba options.
There are so many varieties of pearls, gels, and fruit jellies available in every boba shop in the province.
Heck, boba is so prolific and popular that there are at least three different bubble tea chains in Québec. (Likely more, but I can think of 3 in my area off the top of my head.)
Chain or individually owned, basically all shops have everything that you can imagine as options to mix and match, except for alcohol. And even then, there are a few individual cafés in metropolitan areas that *do* offer alcoholic boba.
These two "entrepreneurs" are clearly just trying to cash in on the trend by claiming their stolen ideas are unique and groundbreaking whilst simultaneously trying to "demystify" boba and make it palateable to the masses as a "non-ethnical" drink.
Simu Liu doesn't deserve the riddiculous amounts backlash for being wary of two Québecois trying to take credit for and cash in on an East Asian innovation without any regard for the origin and culture behind boba, nor for the existing market trends.
Especially iffy seeing as the company name "boba" seems like a purposeful attempt to monopolise SEO and push out any and all competitors from search engine results.
i’m from Montréal, and i swear you can’t walk downtown more than 5 streets without seeing a boba shop. they were already getting big here back in 2017, and now they’re in every mall, every foodcourt, i’ve even seen a kebab place that shared the their counter with a brand of boba. now, it might be because they’re from Québec city (i’m sorry but it’s true they’re much more closed off and weird there) but still i can’t fathom the idea that they’ve never been in a boba shop that offers all of this. somehow they believed it was small enough of a thing (even though it travelled *all the way from Taiwan to mf Québec*) that they could just… claim to have invented it? and then they didn’t translate their speech properly before pitching it on international tv??? i mean “ethnical” is one for the ages man you don’t even know how to say “ethnic” 😂 this was so awfully lazy, neither of them bothered to open google for ANYTHING before drafting this
ugh, it's so sickening. sometimes things people say and do make me so angry I have to take a break
You would make a great journalist or art historian
Soooo true, I like how this is worded. “Demystifying” a cultural… *anything* is an insane way to say gentrification 😭
@vikingunicorn I grew up in Quebec, and it's crazy how they want to profit off a cultural drink, but at the provincial level, they put in a law that bans visible religious clothes/symbols. So you can violate the charter of rights, but taking ethnic food is ok?
@6:47 as an east asian who grew up drinking boba, asian tea shops have always had fruit juices and fruit infused teas available and have always had plenty of toppings besides tapioca... including popping boba 😭😭Not only are they framing the drink's Asianness as something to be fixed, but they're doing something that isn't even actually changing the drink in any new or innovative way
For real!! The first boba i ever drank was a lemonade type drink with popping boba and that was like 4 years ago, this has been a thing for so long already and for them to act like they invented it is insane to me
My thoughts exactly.
Fr, I live in SEA and boba shops are EVERYWHERE. Its very competitive but they always try and make themselves standout. Not only do they just sell either tea or juices, theres shops that sell boba ice cream, boba lemonade, boba mango juice and even at one point, spicy noodle boba. What theyre doing is not anything new, maybe perhaps from a Western perspective. But what gives me the ick was saying them saying theyre making it "less ethnic"
Fr I didn't live in an area with boba shops, but my introduction to popping boba was in like 2013 with a cherry berry frozen yogurt shop. It had to be pretty big already to be commodified that way by fro yo and it was 2013!
Exactly. Even Starbucks already has this. Hibiscus tea with pomegranate pearls. It's already a juice plus popping Boba. Those idiots have not made anything new
It's not even a matter of "being offensive" or whatever people seem to think. It's about protecting a service that many small-businesses revolve around when it's being threatened by a less authentic copycat. Worse yet, a copycat who is literally in the process of seeking corporate backing to further overshadow one of the last bastions of small brick-and-mortar businesses, *particularly* for the Asian community.
Maybe it's just a me thing, but the idea of grab-and-go boba from a grocery store/gas station is just so soulless in comparison to going to a tea shop. And there's no way a drink like that is healthier than what you can get and customize in a real tea shop.
Frozen yogurt chains have been doing popping boba for well over a decade it is nothing new. I remember trying it when I was 7 but I guess I'm not some sheltered rich woman who probably never stepped foot in a chain place in her life. Also, I'm side eying the company name. It makes me think they'll want to abuse that trademark to attack other boba sellers.
@@P.eac.hThat's a good point. The name is very problematic
That’s not how the market works. Critizing someone because their product is in competition with small, traditional businesses is not valid because it’s not that person’s or persons’ responsability to protect those businesses. The people will decide what product they prefer. If the small businesses’ product loses the competition it won’t be their fault.
@@rafanochi4173 okay bro we get it, you invest in crypto - but we're talking about the CULTURAL aspect. I know it can be hard to understand, but these concepts don't exist in a vacuum, and there can be more issues at play than a purely objective, "economics devoid of existing in reality" perspective.
I didn’t watch the shows of this actor, but he is so very right. The company brought down and falsely claimed that people are unaware of the contents of boba, which is most likely not true because it’s tapioca, second of all it’s not the idea itself it’s the marketing “healthier” even if it’s a healthier alternative it should not be said in this way to put down a cultural drink, and third of all one million dollars for a business that did indeed NOT invent any new ideas on the market, and what made my blood boil is the other “judges” that immediately shut down what this actor had to say before he continued. That is infact cultural appropriation and not appreciation because they did not respect the original boba that they took the idea from.
The whole argument about “not knowing what’s in your drink” reminds me so much of the whole “msg is bad for you” argument.
Just people trying to paint Asian food as mysterious and “unhealthy” to feed into subtle racism….when you’re just publicising how ignorant you are
Also, how many people that drink Coke actually know what's in Coca Cola? I mean, I can guess sugar and water, but what else? Idk. You can't sell anything for consumption in my country (and most countries) if it hasn't been cleared by whatever the local equivalent of the FDA is. So by definition it's going to be safe for me to consume. Hence I don't bother finding out whats all in Coca Cola. Same with boba, I don't know but if I wanted to know I could Google it. Fact my gov lets it be sold to me tells me enough about its safety. I'm not a fan of tapioca pearls myself but I'm not worried about the food safety aspect.
im an immigrant to the US and my mom spent my whole childhood trying to keep me away from american candy because its "sugar and paint" 🙄 but yeah tea and fruit juice with some tapioca in it is so mysterious and bad. better stick to good ol red lake 40 like nature intended
@@Saibellus🤣 NOT RED LAKE 40 LIKE NATURE INTENDED I'M ROLLING (no but fr though omg)
“We don’t know what’s _really_ in MSG!!” Dawg… if you read the name, you know exactly what’s in it. Monosodium Glutamate. One sodium molecule attached to an amino acid - one that your body naturally synthesizes, no less.
"hey, it's not good to try and reinvent a food from a certain culture under the guise of it being 'scary.'"
"oh so you cant be white and make boba tea. heh 😏 well... pizza. checkmate."
literally summed this up so well
Pizza came to America from Italian immigrants
That’s like saying tacos aren’t an ethnical product anymore 😭💀 like how are you going to un Mexican a taco ??? Like you don’t have to be Mexican to make tacos but at least make them good! And don’t act like you’re inventing anything when it’s already been around like… ?
This is such an amazing comparison. People acting as if Simu isn’t making any sense when he CLEARLY (and respectfully) stated his gripes with the product.
White people have been trying to unmexican tacos forever. Look up ramen taco. It's nasty but white people gotta white 🤷♀️
@@alpacafish1269 it’s so annoying 🙄 I don’t mean to be an armchair psychiatrist but I think people are just upset because he said cultural appropriation and sometimes people hear that and get so defensive like bruh i understand some people say stuff is cultural appropriation when it isn’t but this is not the case… did no one listen to what they said about “fixing the issue”?! What issue ? We know what’s in boba tea… tea and boba like what 💀😭 also if they were Mexican instead I would assume he would say the same exact thing to them bc what they said was the problem not the color of their skin 🙄 sorry for rant
This exactly. Imagine Y. T. McWhiterson showing up and saying “we all know that taco stands are scary because there's no way to know what's in them, but at Tacco, you can be sure _our_ tacos are clean because the people who make them look like us :)” And then imagine if the only person on the panel who spoke up was Puerto Rican and all these commenters were like, “uh, tacos are _Mexican,_ why is _he_ talking about this?”
@@mars-guajardo2507 It's especially funny because like. You can just look it up? You can even ask? It's black tea, milk, brown sugar tapioca for the bubbles, and then flavored jelly to make it taste like whatever you asked for. It's not some mystery.
If I was a business owner I’d actually value Simu Liu’s criticism. Culture is important to people and will affect how your product is received. They can take or leave it, but as a judge and someone being asked to invest in the company, he had the right to say it.
Using pizzerias as an example is crazy to me. If a non-Italian person said, “You’re welcome, Italy. I fixed pizza,” I’m pretty sure that would be a problem. It’s exactly what those people were doing.
Well intentioned or not, they were wrong. I think it’s okay to point out, as long as we don’t go as far as literal death threats. 😩
As an Italian I had to fight against many Americans and Canadians because of that.
Actually they went even further with their claims, they told me that they were the ones who invented pizza first disregarding completely centuries of history. They also said that pizza became popular in Italy because of them and all these claims was supported by the fact that people in the States eat more pizza than in Italy so they conclude that of course they must invented it first. They treated Southern Italians like shit back in the days like most immigrants were and now they are appropriating their food culture.
EXACTLY and it’s literally a running joke that litalians r extremely particular w their food and is disgusted by the “American way” for example ketchup in pasta(which i find unacceptable as well)
11:24 I don’t think Simu is angry; he seems so disappointed.
yeah i mean how are you going to invite someone on your show as a guest host and then interrupt and shoot down their unique (to the other hosts) insight on a pitch? its beyond rude even if racism werent an issue here
He looked so exhausted and drained throughout the entire thing. The others were so dismissive 😢
@@GraceCleo someone else points out it's probably calculated, show now gets attention.
as a Canadian, I really want to put it out there that this isn't just cultural appropriation, this is a large part of how we practice our racism. we have a very progressive, falsely mutual idea where we pretend like we all enrich each other and care about being multicultural but in reality it's just another way of promoting homogeneity instead of equilibrium. The idea that everything that Canadians adopt becomes Canadian because we are all immigrants is one of the big ways that racists and white supremacists blend cultural appropriation and benevolent racism together. Even our concentration camps are disguised as education systems.
Probably because they are saying they are improving on it, as if there was something wrong with it to begin with. That's the problem.
@@chimaican01 I don't know what you're responding to, that's a very vague response to my rambling. If we are both intoxicated and rambling just for the vibes, let me know. If it's just me and you really meant something, I would love clarity
@@dizzylilthingI believe they're agreeing with you, just adding onto it by saying that when the Bobba people (or in general any people trying to capitalize on cultural aspects and making them into a product to make money off of) said that they wanted to make it better, insinuating that something's wrong with it when there was never an issue with it in the first place (which is why its racist because they're indirectly saying an ethnic product is mysterious or icky or bad which is obviously a wrong thing to do and also by trying to "white-ify" the product they're trying to erase the cultural aspect of it whether it be intentionally or not) 😅
If not and I'm totally wrong in explaining their comment I'm sorry 😂
Yes!!! From the business’s attitude to the judges responses, this is very clearly and distinctly Canadian racism. It is full of gaslighting and silencing people who speak out! I recognized it right away.
Man you got a subscriber today. You said everything I couldn't get why people just want to bring anyone down, for having an honest opinion, and in this case it was correct!!! Sad reality.
As a québécois, their drink isn’t even good lmao I work at circle K where they sell them and they taste like shit😭 We have thousands of real boba tea shops everywhere that are 100x better than this
Tokébecicit c’est Couche Tard, en plus c’est eu qui on acheté Circle K. Mais pour de vrai, c’est pas si mauvais que cela, mais pour le prix y’a décidément de meilleur boisson.
@@emilyylab circle K c couche tard pr les anglophones, c la mm compagnie anyways big so on s’en fou tant que les anglos comprennent se que je dit🤣
@@fentymoonlightz oui c ca que jai dit mais au Québec c couche tard, tokébecicit tabarnak (je suis pas tres bonne avec l’ironie)
@@emilyylabgirl read the room c’est pas le moment de faire une « tokebekicitte » joke quand on parle de racisme et d’appropriation culturelle…
Aussi, leurs drinks sont 100% deg ils goûtent le fond de poubelle
@@emaroz sont vraiment decalissant même les perles qui vendent pr mettre dans les slush, je ruinerais plus jamais un de mes drinks aek ca😭 Legit personnes achète leurs drinks déjà fait ils pourrissent toute dans nos frigos depuis des mois oops
This is just a lesson that everything can get misconstrued on social media. You can speak in the clearest terms, be the calmest possible person and just be well-spoken - but there were will be someone taking things out of context (even when it seems LITERALLY impossible).
the internet will take the clearest statement in existence and twist it whatever they want fr
Especially when talking about racism, some people (especially white people) seem to hear any term related to racism and their ears immediately turn off
Completely.
so you hate waffles? 🙄
Never doubt the lengths people will go to deliberately and maliciously twist your words into something they can attack you on when they want a fight.
"this isn't some thousand year old recipe, it's from the 80's" not everything thats part of someone's culture has to be old bro 😭 cultures expand on themselves, they don't stay stagnant. just because something is a newer addition to a culture doesn't mean it shouldn't be treated with the same respect as the older parts.
There werent even chilis in Asia before the 16th century and noodles weren't an Italian staple until the 14th many identifiably cultural food staples arent more than a few hundred years old!
@@omgmo1962 Italy didn't have tomatoes either until the 16th century either, and it took until the 18th century for all of Italy to agree that they were not poisonous (the upper class were too scared of nightshades), and the 19th century for them to become a staple. Before then, a lot of those same dishes existed, but using fish, mushrooms, or dairy instead. Most food everywhere is just a modern adaptation of an existing thing, the same way boba tea is just a modern twist on both tea and shaped tapioca starch.
I hate how these people make culture less important by saying it's not ancient so it doesn't matter. f*ck them.
Wait until they hear about music and animation and comic books.
Just because your culture made a drink doesn't mean I can't profit off of it.
I watched people on a short on the situation comment ‘didn’t he play a Korean on TV?’ and sat there wondering where I was and how that at all had to do with anything 😭
oh man people ABSOLUTELY missed what he was saying and it's been driving me insane. He was absolutely right. It's one thing to say "Hey we really like bubble tea and we want to add our twist to it, it's a super cool thing" it's another to barge in like "WE MADE IT BETTER, IT's NO LONGER A WEIRD ETHNICAL DRINK." The whole pitch is gross. Also those poc fighting against him, racists aren't going to sleep with you, why are you siding with them? They'll come for you next.
Racists might sleep with them, but only if it's a weird, colonized/colonizer raceplay thing that's violently unpleasant.
The assertion that an Asian drink is "confusing" or you couldn't possibly know the ingredients or sugar content in them is just plain racist. Like, "Who knows what these people all the way on the other side of the world are putting in this? We're gonna clear that up for you." was definitely the vibe I was getting, even if it wasn't their intention. Also, you don't need to rebrand boba to figure out its ingredients or sugar content. Google exists, or you can just ask the shop owner! It's not rocket science.
it’s giving “omg i could NEVER eat food from an Indian street vendor” lmfao
what r they talking abt with not knowing what’s in it? Girl u choose the flavor?
That sentence definitely has racist undertones (what they’re saying about not knowing what’s in it, not you)
I wonder what's in the BROWN SUGAR MILK TEA with TAPIOCA PEARLS I just bought.
@@ewlynnnWhen Taro Milk Tea has Taro Milk:😱😱😱😱😱
@@luckiesttstarrOh, they are 100% full racists, that's not even up for debate.
This may be caused by sheer stupidity, but that doesn't change the fact.
it's giving white people when they refuse to learn words from other cultures because "omg I can't pronounce that" bestie it's like two syllables
im glad u made this video, i was worried how many people where being misinformed by another creators commentary. so many didnt watch the full vid and jumped to wagon to hate on simu liu. idk much about him but if i dont think theres much reason to hate him for his opinion on bobba since its valid.
Italians were a wild choice to use as a gotcha. My family (from Italy, in Italy, I was born here) went to Olive Garden ONCE when I was a kid, and I never, ever, ever heard the end of it. They complained for decades. And try saying ‘expresso’ in front of a person from Italy.
But also the dumb pizza example literally maintained the ethnic background of pizza. That’s massively different from someone saying “we’re French-Canadian and wtf is pizza even made of? Ewww! We’re here to fix pizza by completely changing it and erasing the Italian part. Plus, we just invented pepperoni. Don’t check Wikipedia.”
When I saw that clip, it made my skin crawl. Nobody in that room besides Simu understood how gross the whole thing was. Good for him for not backing down.
"They added a b" sent me. That is me when I'm just done with the conversation and want everyone to shut up.
Also, I relate to the statement of something Taiwanese being part of his cultural identity even though he isn't from Taiwan. I'm Middle Eastern but if I show empathy for a region I'm not from people are like "You're not 'insert random Middle East region here'!" It's still my culture.
I think what upsets me most is when Siu calls it cultural appropriation, everyone else in the room leaps to defend the people doing the appropriation. "That's not appropriation because I think it's okay." They're more concerned with making sure no one is unfairly identified as racist, than listening to or learning from the victims.
d'angelo is SO well spoken omg
As a taiwanese, thank you, thank you, D'Angelo, for making this video. Arguing online in foreign language is so exhausting and ineffective. Glad I can just smack people with this well done video and let it explain itself.
Hear hear!
Really? Tapioca pearls aren't Taiwanese in origin. Whenever a Taiwanese person makes boba, should they start out by thanking whichever nationality/ethnicity that came up with the idea to make tapioca pearls? Should they inform people about the origin of tapioca pearls?
Do Taiwanese movie makers remember to point out where movies, films and pictures originate from at any point in their movies? Do Taiwanese tv productions? Do Taiwanese radio productions remember to inform about the origin of radio?
Cultural appropriation is racist BS made up by people with inferiority complexes trying to feel better about themselves.
@@samvittighedsfuld7586With the other comments I’ve seen i don’t even know if this comment is a joke or not. 💀
@@samvittighedsfuld7586Lemme guess…you’re white and didn’t watch the entirety of this video, completely missing the point
@@samvittighedsfuld7586 Bro just search up "Where did boba tea come from?" on Google. The answer will be Taiwan. Also I do think cultural appropriation is usually used incorrectly to the point it just gatekeeps cultures, instead of "normalizing" and sharing cultures, but this company really fucked up and are most definitely racist. They took something from culture that is not theirs and even said fucked up shit like "it's no longer a ethnical product" as if that's a positive. It wouldn't be a problem if they were respectful about the way they marketed and framed their product and company.
If all he'd said was the cultural appropriation line than I'd get it, but he explained what he meant very clearly. The appropriation isn't white people making it, it's white people claiming theirs is better.
Which is what everyone else does. Including Asian countries who profit from foreign cuisine. Funny how he doesn't have a problem with that.
@@jamman9569 Saying "we changed it", or "I prefer it done in this way" is not the same as saying "we fixed it" or "ours will replace what's already available", which is what these people on the show were saying.
@@jamman9569I don’t see any Asian challenging with orginal pizza from italy and simu didn’t even talk about race white but people automatically bring white in topic for no reason . Sometime I feel like American are deliberately doing this because we are going toward multi polar world so west need excuse to unite west by making this kind of media narrative content ..
@stargateMimhi Except it is. Saying you've changed it and made it better is the exact same thing these French people did.
And "not ethnical anymore" 😂😂😂 it'd be funny if it wasn't so sad. And Simu having to now defend these people from idiots, when his own colleagues shat on him with no grace or even the decency to let him finish speaking...
I didn't know I could find Simu Liu any hotter than this but he was so articulate, he explained the issues so well (and still so many people didn't understand him!)
Seriously!! He was so clear and it feels like they are actively TRYING to not understand what he’s saying and treating it as “crazy”
Hard to convince people who financially benefit from not understanding a problem. That's the thing that comes to mind for me.
@@juliahiiri9713 he is gorg 😍 I don’t even care if the romantic dinner he cooked us has ‘pet cat’ and rat tail guuuuurl just hand me those chop sticks lol🤭
@@MrKurtykurt what the hell.....
@@MrKurtykurt how is that related to the video or my comment? I am always happy to talk about anyone's pet cats but you sound like there is some trauma there?
people on the internet that love to say the most awful things always talk about how “you cant say anything anymore or you’ll get cancelled” when in reality what happend in that clip was a very real example about how POC get shut down so quickly
The way people keep being like "oh yeah, well, the Italian pizza place I know is run by non Italians!" or a "Japanese sushi place run by Koreans!" as a gotcha when that would be delivering on exactly what Simu Liu was talking about. He took issue with how this product was claiming to improve on something while removing all cultural ties to that thing. The ITALIAN pizza place and JAPANESE sushi place make it pretty clear where the cultural origins of that food are and I highly doubt either would be claiming to have "improved" or reinvented the concepts of pizza or sushi. Meanwhile, these Bobba folks are downplaying if not outright ignoring the origins of their product while claiming that it is weird/mysterious and that they've made it better by packaging it in this corporate branding devoid of anything that speaks to its origins...all while also claiming that they invented/innovated several of the elements of their product that they, in fact, did not invent or innovate.
"We had no idea idea what was in mysterious dirty pizza, so we made it less scary by taking away the white and now it's Pizzza! Get this, with our improved version you can customize your toppings, you can decide what meat or vegetable or cheese goes on top!"
I guarantee if they'd done it to a European food people these same people would be at their throats, the same way they get up in arms about "redhead erasure."
It infuriates me how those people will always run around starting arguments thinking they’re the smartest ones in the room, when really everything went over their heads 🤦🏽♂️
I’ll be real too, respect to anyone who owns a business in good faith but I’ve never had a good sushi from a Japanese place run by a Korean or a good pizza from an Italian shop not owned by Italians 😂
I'm pretty sure the first time I had bubble tea like 15 years ago, it was with popping bubbles.
Also wdym u never know whats in it, it's literally tea. Reminds me of people freaking out because they don't understand what msg is
W
I literally said the same thing as soon as they brought up the popping boba. I had popping boba for the first time on top of frozen yogurt in like 2012/2013 🤣.
I am Taiwanese. I think Simu Liu calling out those two dumb ass is great.
No matter which land he was born on, he has shown his support and heart on bubble milk tea culture through his quick responses and reactions on the scene.
In Taiwan we have a picky taste in boba quality. We get all kinds of “healthier” ingredients like avocado foam, tea jelly, pineapple jelly…so many!
Welcome to Taiwan to try them all❤
I think Simu Liu had every right to be angry, heck I would say he had grounds to be angrier.
I feel bad for Simu. I think media is out against him because he is not afraid to call it out as it is.
P.S. As a Taiwanese, I think this does not need to be a cultural issue. Anyone who calls a product that does not have problem a problem or pretend your idea is original when it is not is tacky, no matter if it is on a cultural product or not.
Yeah. It's definitely not the first time the media had jumped on him for silly reasons.
Yeah take the culture part out of it and you've got people insisting they've come up with a brand new idea that's years behind what everyone else back in Asia have already done anyway. Just shows the owners had done very little corporate research.
some of these entrepreneurs just have the most obnoxious and nasty egos ever cause wdym yall just straight up STEALING the same shit thats existed for decades and are tryna claim its ur incredible new spin on an old product just because u added booze and organic fruit juices
omg baby dont piss me offfffff 😭😭😭😭they too unserious w it
And they added alcohol, which was WIIILD!!
I'll take my taro milk tea from that "scary" place I get it regularly, with the nice folks that know me, and these two can get organically stuffed. Lol
How can someone be that lacking of empathy and braincells is beyond me.
they're genuinely so gross and their fashion sense also sucks (looking at you leopard print dude)
Well it is a reality TV show, that's kind of the name of the game.
On top of it being cultural appropriation, why is everyone acting like canned boba is a novel item? I’ve definitely bought cans of boba from other brands before ever hearing about this one
I can get some at my local Safeway right now. It tastes horrible, and I much prefer the boba tea I can get from my local boba shop, but the fact is they didn’t “revolutionize” anything. Popping boba has been around since the 1990s, and I think was even created by an Asian food scientist, but my memory is a tad hazy on the particulars
Right??? I've been getting this great Taiwanese brand from my Asian/International market for years!!!
Idk about Canada, but it can be hard to find decent canned boba in parts of the US. There’s definitely room for an “American” bubble tea brand (not Americanized, but marketing designed for US’ians as that sort of thing is regional. Either someone starts a business or one of the big brands in East Asia expands to the US in a dedicated way) bubble tea brand in a can. The only place I ever see it sold alongside other drinks is at Five Below or at my local Asian Market. The ones at the Asian Market are SO much better than the ones at Five Below. I don’t think I can find premade boba at my local Walmart, even (only the boxes for $10).
So there’s room in the market. I just wouldn’t ever give these people money. Their comments were gross and that’s the crux of the problem with their interview. That’s not how you approach selling a product and I cannot comprehend how they thought their comments were appropriate.
I wasn’t always a huge fan of Simu Liu but my respect just went through the roof