r/BrandNewSentence • u/Tikkinger • 11h ago

Boba tea company apologises over Canada Dragon's Den row

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c3wp0175w9xo

I genuinely don't have any clue what this means. Like, not the slightest.

194 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

22 comments sorted by

39

u/LimeblueNostos 7h ago

There was some discussion about this a couple years ago when this was news

81

u/Arimm_The_Amazing 4h ago

Basically this company pitched thinly veiled "boba tea, but by white people, so you feel safe" on Dragon's Den (UK equivalent to Shark Tank, though this was the Canadian version) and one of the Dragons/Sharks Simu Liu rightly called them out on the entire concept and the way they framed normal bubble tea as this "mysterious, untrustworthy" product as the racist appropriative bullshit it absolutely was.

The company apologized in hopes to survive. Who didn't apologize but absolutely should have were the other dragons who acted like Simu was being totally unreasonable and overly sensitive.

15

u/banana_pencil 1h ago

People always feel like Asians shouldn’t be offended by anything.

7

u/SurelyNotLikeThis 1h ago

We aren't offended by jokes as much, but we hate white superiority complex, especially about our culture

3

u/SeaToTheBass 1h ago

“On an episode of CBC's Dragons' Den, the Canadian equivalent of the US show Shark Tank”

Lol what? Dragon’s Den (CAN) was based off of Dragon’s Den (UK). Shark Tank was based off both of them. From a BBC article too.

Also Simu Liu is a dragon now? Did he have money before he got into acting? He hasn’t been around for that long lol

7

u/Miserable-Hornet 11h ago

He went to a sex shop or something and drank tea ?

76

u/Sandoriah 10h ago

Omg Dragons Den is the Canadian Shark Tank.

Simu Liu was pointing out some things after some entrepreneurs wanted to capitalize on a very iconically popular South East Asian drink Bubble Tea or Boba by making it “healthier and better”. It just read as tone deaf and very white capitalist who loves to remove any context that makes a thing special in the first place and suck the soul out of it for some hot trend. Boba is boba if you want healthy tea drink herbal. The specialty drink market is flooded anyway…

37

u/PoppingPillls 7h ago

Actually shark tank is an American dragons den. As the original version was the British Dragons Den.

Dragons Den is much more business focused and actually goes through the numbers on businesses at least they did originally that's change abit. Sharks tank is far more vibes based and it's more about spectacle and showmanship than actual investment potential pitching.

Theres Canadian, Australian and Irish dragons den as well.

13

u/Aluxanatomy 5h ago

Actually, Dragon's Den and Shark Tank are the Earthling version of Xorblax's Gong Splice, which is

4

u/Miserable-Hornet 7h ago

Actually I'm a shark in a tank and they both stole my idea and didn't give me a dime

1

u/TheZenPsychopath 2h ago

I am a dragon in a den and I am in the same situation and very frustrated. I'm supposed to hoard gold and not a fuckin cent.

5

u/SinoSoul 4h ago

Boba milk tea is from Taiwan. That is a country-island-rogue state-rebel freedom land in Far East Asia.

0

u/Sandoriah 1h ago

Uh yeah sure

3

u/Specialist-Yak7209 2h ago

South East Asian??

1

u/Sandoriah 1h ago

Sorry East Asian

17

u/Ramlethal_Feet 10h ago

Canadian shark tank, Quebec based bubble tea brand talked about bubble tea really disrespectfully.

-25

u/Tikkinger 11h ago

I have ZERO clue.

33

u/Lalamedic 10h ago

It seems straightforward in the article.

25

u/septober32nd 10h ago

You have an inordinate amount of faith in the average Redditor's ability to read past a headline.

2

u/skymallow 45m ago

This is the first time I've seen OP admit to not reading his own link

-10

u/Lowenfall 1h ago

Simu Liu threw a hissy fit because white people wanted to make a Boba tea company.