You know what’s not kawaii? Culture vultures, of which East Asia has been the recent target. Non-Asian audiences continue to steal and repackage Asian culture like boba and matcha. Constantly ignoring the centuries of history behind them while reducing meaningful practices to simple trends when they deserve real understanding and respect.
An instance of this recently happened on “Dragons’ Den,” the Canadian sister of America’s “Shark Tank,” when the company Bobba pitched the investors a one million dollar investment on their product. Investor Simu Liu was hesitant right off the bat, questioning the authenticity of the drink and arguing that it isn’t authentic or true to its Taiwanese origins. The owners of Bobba then retaliated, saying because the drink was popping boba, it “isn’t ethnical anymore.”
Bubble tea, also known as boba, originated in Taiwan in the 1980s, but its exact origins are debated. Liu Han-Chieh credited his employees for inventing it by adding tapioca pearls to iced tea while around the same time, Hanlin Tea Room claims its owner created it first, inspired by tapioca at a local market. The ongoing fight for credit remains a part of boba’s cultural legacy.
By trying to separate boba from its Taiwanese origins, Bobba stripped away the drink’s identity. The blatant disregard of boba’s original creators pays no mind to the people who created it first.
Although syncretism between cultures happens naturally with globalization, this is completely different. This is cultural appropriation. It’s completely disrespectful and sadly a common occurrence. This lack of understanding of culture commodifies ethnic products as people blatantly overlook their significance. I guarantee you that most people didn’t even know the political origins of the creation of boba, which takes away from the drink’s cultural implications.
Another example of this appropriation is the matcha epidemic which has caused the bastardization of the drink as a cash grab. I know that everyone loves to pair an ice-cold matcha with a nice expensive-looking quarter zip, but the recent uptick in matcha has caused a massive surge in prices. For example, Ippodo Tea, a reputable matcha seller, has exponentially raised the price of their matcha products, partially due to both Trump’s tariffs and the rise of matcha consumption. These factors have dramatically spiked the cost of this one sacred drink.
Before the rise in popularity of matcha, it was mostly consumed during tea ceremonies as a form of unwinding and to enjoy the company of others. Now, it has turned into a fast-paced mass-produced drink with no effort put into its production.
In most places, matcha features light orientalist concepts that don’t reflect Japan in a reasonable or authentic way. This again doesn’t pay its dues to the origins of matcha or what it means to the people of Japan who first cultivated the drink. People should still enjoy American matcha, but they should be aware of the influences and respect the multiculturalism that has brought about the modern culture that we experience today.
By co-opting and commodifying ethnic culture, we are removing their meaning. This removes its importance to the people whose culture is built on these practices. This lack of cultural understanding actively harms the broader Asian American community. Without an understanding of traditions that are behind our favorite Asian trends, we are creating an ill environment for the cultures in which these modern cultural landmarks originated.
This piece was originally published in Zephyrus’ print edition on Dec. 18, 2025
