 is Donald Glover's new Boba Shop. Appreciation, appropriation, or just globalization. I'm here with Phil Wang from Boa Pomol Cafe and Wong Fu Productions. We're over here in the Bay Area for the Bay Area Classic, Celebrity, Charity, Basketball Game. I'll show some highlights down below, but we gotta talk about this because you're a Boba Shop owner. Boa Pomol, yes. You're Taiwanese-American. And we've been talking about whether Donald Glover, AKA Childish Gambino, amazing artist, by the way, I love a lot of his songs and I always watch his comedy, but I guess he's doing a Boba Shop in Silver Lake, California now. Yeah, it was kind of wild when I heard that and I was like, oh my gosh, have we gotten to this point? Are we, has Boba arrived? Well, this weird, because like Jack in the Box and like all these other places I've already have done their boat, like these Boba drinks. People have already been debating, oh, like is Boba here? But I think this is the first time it was like a singular celebrity non-Asian that was like creating this business and I think it caused quite a stir. Right, and I think it's different than how the corporations did it because you could say, oh, they're, it's like they're doing it for clearly profits where Donald Glover, he's probably, I don't know why he's doing it. This doesn't look like a money grab because it's a very nice Boba Shop, drinks are very expensive, but also he has a lot of money. It doesn't seem like this is gonna be his business. He doesn't need this, yeah. Yeah, this is not his life. I think this is purely vanity, a vanity project for sure. And to answer the question, which is a loaded and nuanced question about whether it's appreciation or appropriation or possibly just globalization, you ask, why are you opening it? That's a key question for if it was an Asian person that was opening a soul food restaurant, if it was a white dude who wants to cook Chinese food, whatever it is, okay, because. What's the why? Yeah, and it's not wrong that any buddy outside of their ethnicity cooks or makes that food, but there is a question of, okay, what makes you wanna do it? That and the how too, right? It's like, how are you going about it, right? So like, I think like just what you brought up about like if there's an Asian person doing soul food, for example, even if it was like where they grew up or they have like this influence, it's like people would still question at step one, like, whoa, whoa, whoa, you're doing soul food, like there would be that scrutiny. And I'm just wondering if like Donald ever thought that he would, especially cause he literally made an episode in Atlanta about like a black guy opening up a sushi restaurant. And like, he must, like he's a cerebral guy, right? Oh, he's very deep. He must have thought about what this would look like optically. Right, right. It doesn't seem like there's been any kind of statement or acknowledgement of where Boba came from or having an Asian Taiwanese or Chinese partner. Do you think that he's thinking when, you look at the pictures of this boba shop, all right? It doesn't look like your average boba shop. There's not anything Chinese or Taiwanese about it. It looks like a totally different, like a Coachella booth or some type of installation. It got like canoes and like different lights. And I heard that he hires very like just good looking like influencers to serve Boba. It's more like a, it seems like he's not trying to like be Taiwanese. Oh, definitely not. He's just trying to be like ooh. This is the style, but. Right, right, right. This is a bare bones Taiwanese like boba shop. But I'm saying like, I guess it seems like maybe he just thinks, and is it right or wrong that Boba is like this fun drink? How deep is Boba? And because I'm not saying that you're mad about it. And nobody, I think needs to be mad about it. But I think you can ask like, I guess how, like where's, how is Boba being viewed now? I guess he must just think like, it's just like a cool like scene, or like it's a cool hip product to want to jump into. Which I think that is a net positive for the overall like product and the market and the industry. But I mean, there's also the jokes that it's like, it was just like, it was just a leader for Asian girls. Donald Glover does have a history of liking Asian girls. I didn't know that. I didn't quote that. Well, I know that there was that one line like UCLA or whatever. There's multiple lines. Multiple lines. I mean, he's made a lot of songs, let's be honest. I think that. In that way, it's a little creepy. That makes it good. That was years ago. Do we, how much do we hold that against? Debatable, it's up to you. I think that's your personal preference on it. But let's get into some comments real quick, all right? From people who saw the news that Donald Glover was opening a Boba show. Because I haven't been. You haven't been there. Someone says, yo man, can we just get some music, Donald? That has been a while, yeah. Someone said, man, there's nothing that this man can't do. Opening a Boba shop is not that. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. No, no, no, no. Opening a culturally important Boba shop is hard. Well, that's literally. Opening, serving Boba is not complicated. No, him signing his name to something is not hard. Let's just say that. Okay, all right. If he was actually opening up his own, then that would be very difficult. Donald Glover opened up a Boba shop in Silver Lake. Why is that actually so on brand for him? What the F? He has a Boba shop. Is that on brand for him? One thing about Donald Glover is he'll do anything for those Asian girls for real. There it is, see. All right, other people know. Yeah, is it just meet Asian women? I don't know. Hey, Asian guys like Boba too. Actually, although I don't have any Boba in here. That's not why. I don't know, I'm gonna say some Asian guys might open up Boba shops to meet Asian girls too, but it's different when it's coming from the other side. Remember when he was hella racist towards Asian girls? This is LOL. I don't know about races, it was more like a fetish. All right, so there's a lot of people calling this out. Yeah, so I'm not gonna get into this whole racism versus fetish thing, because that's like a different video. Or let the Asian girls, that's their fight. Right, right, they have to discuss that. We're just talking about Boba, right. Last one, this reeks of appropriation, but it's not against black people, so it doesn't matter. Dude is known to have yellow fever and talk crap about Asian men. That's not happening at Jelly Man. That's not happening at Donald Glover's spot. They should hire an old Chinese or old Asian lady to just yell at people. Yo, don't give them my, that would actually be hilarious. You guys should do that too. No, I think- That would give them street cred, honestly. That's super authentic, yeah. No, that would actually, would that quell you're like? Dude, that would be so dope if actually he partnered with like a Taiwanese grandma to open up- Oh. And just like a random, this was like his gift to her, you know? I could see, all right, I'm not gonna lie, if he did that I could see some criticism of that being try-hard, right? You know, anyways, that's a funny idea. You're always gonna upset someone. Whatever happened, that's very like, that's a real Taiwanese lady. That's a real Taiwanese mom right there. All right, keep going, keep going. Anyways, no, that's it for the comment. So I think that, I think let's answer the question in our opinion, and these are, we're people who do think about this culture being shared and I think that there's, I always say that there's a sense of Asian America and maybe it differs for the Asian, but that in general Asian Americans wanna be part of America. We're talking about like, hey, when are we gonna get accepted? So we have this culture and this product that gets shared and it does get placed onto the table of potluck, right? It's a potluck table of everything else and people can grab from it, somebody else sees it and be like, oh, I wanna serve that too next time. I might bring that to the potluck. That's not wrong in itself, right? Yeah, I think that's what America is, right? It's like, it used to be like a melting pot, now it's actually like a salad or like you're saying it's a potluck table. It's a potluck, what do you bring to the table? So I think that's great. I think it's, like, so that's what I was saying. I think overall, like, it's unavoidable, we're gonna get to a point where Boba is gonna be served by non-Asian people. Are we at that point? Jack in the box, dunkin' donuts. Clearly we are, right? So the only thing is like, I just hope that as it rises up that we don't lose where like the information and the appreciation where it came from and, you know, just that acknowledgement, I guess. But I think, again, maybe that's also unavoidable. Like, for example, like, as I eat Chipotle, as I eat Chipotle, do I like know exactly, you know, what type of cuisine that this was inspired by when the white guy made his first burrito? You know, I guess I would say. Right, is it, what region of Mexico does the Chipotle burrito? Well, I guess Chipotle, I don't know. So I guess Phil, how serious should we take Boba? Now, I think different Asians, depending on maybe if you're Taiwanese or Chinese, you may feel a little closer to Boba than other types of Asians, right? Whom, you know, this is like clearly like, every boat, like, it's Chinese, but it's Chinese, it's in Chinese. So I guess, how serious is Boba? Is it like pizza? Can we, like, you know how all different people make pizza? All Asians make pizza, brain pizza's pretty trendy. I like, I wanna see more Asian-flavored pizza. I know, yeah, in New York, though as serious as pizza is, we do, there are some Caribbean like Trinidadian people who make their own take on pizza now, but they got some heat for it, but they stood through it. So, how serious is Boba? Because even within Asians, there's gonna be a variance of how people feel. Some people are gonna feel closer to it. I've been to Taichung, which is the birthplace of Boba, you visited too. Does that mean that we're like, me or you? Well, see, it's also like other Asians even are doing Boba their own way too, right? Yeah, a lot of Vietnamese don't do Boba shops. So it's not even like, is that even appropriation, right? So it's like, it's... Can you interappropriate amongst Asians? To be honest, I think, is that a question? Well, ultimately when it comes back to Boba, I think we definitely are at a point where it is hitting the mainstream way. And we've come so far from just five years ago when Jimmy Fallon was gagging on late night, right? So that's kind of wild to me that in such a short period of time, it has transformed from this exotic, weird, gooey thing in the drink. Oh, chewy tea. Yeah, so now it's like, we're literally Bopamofo, we catered a bar mitzvah like a couple months ago. Is that crazy? Like, you know, teenage, pre-teen kids, Jewish kids are asking for the bone, right? So yeah, I think we're gonna get to a place where, yeah, it's unavoidable and ultimately like, that's, there's a net benefit for I think the overall community, but at some point, yeah, it is just more personal because it's like our culture that we just have to kind of release into the world. But overall, it's gonna lift everyone up, I think. So to be clear, Phil Wang, not gang keeping. I'm not gang keeping. Yeah, just asking. Just asking why. I just want people to think a little bit before they do it, you know, like, I just want people to, like. Do you want it to be on the website, like, hey, by the way, Boba is a tasty drink. It originates from Taiwan, Taichung, Taiwan. I don't know, man. I mean, tea, where does tea come from? We got to talk about it comes from the region of. A lot of it comes from Vietnam these days, actually. That's the truth, actually. I guess, yeah, I think that's fair. I think it's funny. I think for me, I'm always interested to see how people, I guess, play with or, I don't want to say use in a negative way, but use Asian culture. I'm very curious. Yeah, ultimately, like, this isn't like, yes, we're talking about Boba. Like, we're not like, it's not like that, like, oh my God, this is Boba. We're talking about this overall, like, are we being erased from narratives? Is our stuff getting taken away from history? But I think it's because we have to acknowledge that Boba is one of those symbols of Asian America. That has made it. Like, any of our foods, right? Any of our food can be slowly diluted and take, like, for us, for Asian people, food is our main export of culture, I think, to the West, right? I will say, and I'm gonna finish up here, I think Boba is one of those interesting products that actually, even all other Asians that I've met don't even know exactly where it comes from. Like, some other people who are outside of the Asian community think it's like Japanese. Oh. To be honest, no, not, I mean, because not everybody is even familiar with, like, Taiwan as a place, to be honest, you know? Like, they're not as familiar, so I think a lot of people either think it's like Japanese or is it, you know, from China or whatever, you know? So I guess, like, even that, I can see why you want that information to be out there, and I think it's fair, because if that's where it originates, you know? And it's confusing, too, because like, people say let's go get Boba, but I didn't even get Boba, you know, now Boba has just become like this in general, like a drink lifestyle, you know what I'm saying? What are we even talking about anymore? Guys, anyways, yeah, let us know what you thought about that episode. Let us know what you think about, you know, non-Asian people opening up Asian businesses. We've talked about it on our channel before, obviously, in general, I'm cool with it, as long as they don't stand there and say, oh, this is the best Boba, I'm innovating Boba, as long as Donald Glover doesn't make the Boba Anthem and try to trump Boba life. Yeah, you guys have that. They did that. But anyways, guys, we're out in the Bay Area. We're here for the Bay Area Classic. Shout out to Dan, aka Dan, who has, you know, organized it, shout out to Teespot. It is one of the most authentic bogey shops in the area. And Phil, what's going on with it? Dude, both mofo, yeah, we're still, we don't have a Donald Glover, but you have me. You're not, not Donald Glover. No, we're doing great. We're actually opening up our third location in San Diego and we have some other locations in the works also. Wow. Yeah, we're expanding. Wow, so. Yeah, to be fair, you do own a Boba chain, that's why. That's why I'm a little bit more, I take this a little bit more personal and I have a little bit more to say. Again, not gay people, just asking why. But all right, everybody, thank you so much for watching the video. Please hit that like button. Let us know if you like the walk and talk videos outside more, obviously, you know, we're shooting on a little Osmo three and we're just trying to do something different because we want to make content on the go. So shout out to the Bay Area. Here's some highlights of the game.