Spill the Boba Tea by Qinglu (Luella) Lu

Over the past 30 years, bubble tea in America has gone from a niche Taiwanese beverage from first generation Asian immigrants to a mainstream iconic drink for Asian Americans. As beverage themself, bubble tea and boba, refer to the same tea-based beverage with toppings. However, in the context of Asian American cultural identity, the word boba has become so widely used in this community socially. It has become more than a popular connotation of the drink itself. The purpose of this study is to explore and visualize the transition from bubble tea to boba, which includes two main aspects: the reasons for the popularity of boba as a beverage in the United States, and the role of boba as a controversial noun in the discussion of Asian-ness in the Asian American community. It is hoped that through the cultural symbol created by a beverage in this era, it will trigger people to pay attention to and think about the Asian immigrant community.