WARMINGTON: Hypocrisy bubbles to surface with Simu Liu’s ‘cultural appropriation’ claim

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Published Oct 16, 2024  •  4 minute read

Barbie stars Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu are pictured in Toronto in June. Photo by Getty Images /Bang Showbiz

It’s not Canadian bubble tea company Bobba that should be apologizing for the nonsensical allegation of cultural appropriation. 

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Who should be apologizing is hypocrite Canadian actor Simu Liu, who threw them to the wolves for “cultural appropriation” while prospering in an amazing career on the very thing he accused the Quebec City owners of Bobba of doing. 

This controversy occurred on Dragons’ Den during which Sebastien Fiset and Jess Frenette, who created a bubble tea-like product adding alcohol and pop to the traditional experience, were looking for a $1-million investment for 18% of the company. 

While he has played heroes, Liu is the villain in this scene. The talented actor and guest dragon seemed to dislike the pitch from the beginning. 

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“What respect is being given to this very Asian drink?” he asked. “I am studying your can and I am looking for anything that tells me where boba came from and where boba came from is Taiwan.” 

The actor and general partner of Markham Valley Ventures said “there is the issue of cultural appropriation and taking something that is very distinctly Asian in its identity and (with an attempt of) making it better which I have an issue with.

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“You know, I started this venture company for a lot of reasons, but really primarily to uplift minority entrepreneurs. And not only do I feel like this is not happening here, but that I would be uplifting a business that is profiting off of something that feels so dear to my cultural heritage. I want to be a part of bringing boba to the masses, but not like this. So for that reason, I’m out.” 

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Nasty. 

It’s not the first time the public has seen Liu’s feisty side. On Instagram in 2023, he called some Air Canada staff at Pearson International Airport “some of the most unpleasant and miserable, unprofessional human beings on the face of the earth.” He also complained that year that a celebrity look-alike segment comparing him to an Asian fan at the NBA All-Star Game “wasn’t cool.”

Simu Liu complained about Air Canada in a 2023 social media post. Photo by Instagram

This time is was a couple of businesspeople from Quebec who were on the receiving end of his barbs. The poor people, whose mother tongue is French and were doing their pitch in the best English they could deliver, deserved better. Fiset argued their changes to the Asian recipe no longer made it an “ethnical” drink, but they partner with people from Taiwan while manufacturing the product in Quebec. The bullying of these people, who are now getting death threats, is hard to watch. 

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They are owned an apology from Liu and Dragons’ Den. 

Instead, somehow, it’s them apologizing – saying “very valid points” were made on cultural appropriation and they will “commit to further learning about the impacts of cultural appropriation to ensure we are equipped with the skills to effectively work cross-culturally.” 

They should not have to bend to this. They did nothing wrong. They were wronged. 

Cultural appropriation is a made-up, woke concept. But if you argue it’s real, then don’t those same rules have to apply to Liu? 

Simu Liu. Photo by Getty Images /Bang Showbiz

Born in China, the Mississauga-raised actor has played a Korean character on Kim’s Convenience, an American CIA operative in Taken and an American Ken doll in Barbie. 

He’s good and that’s why they hire him. It doesn’t matter that he is a Chinese Canadian playing American or Korean characters. Being Canadian should not limited his career. But he, ironically and hypocritically, does not apply the same standard to himself that he applied to Bobba, which is now ridiculously being advised to rebrand after losing the investment pledge on the show by dragon Manjit Minhas, who has since dropped her investment offer.

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“Dragons’ Den brings investors and entrepreneurs together to learn from one another through honest feedback and healthy debate,” said CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson. “This particular segment (shot in April and aired last week with the panel of Arlene Dickinson, Wes Hall, Manjit Minhas, Michele Romanow and Brian Scudamore) has sparked an important conversation but unfortunately a lot of online bullying of show participants at the same time.”

Liu doubled down Wednesday on X by posting, “I truly do not care what you spend your money on, buy boba, or don’t, or buy bottled mass produced boba that feels weirdly appropriated, or don’t.”

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It’s mean-spirited and unfair to those fine people from Quebec City. Instead they are treated like pariahs. It’s wrong. It’s madness. 

Bobba didn’t do anything wrong by trying to improve and capitalize on a product in the way the U.S. took basketball, invented by a Canadian, and made it the great game it is today. Or fellow Canadians Ryan Gosling and Ryan Reynolds are starring in American movies or that poutine is now served in both Taiwan and Los Angeles. It’s a global market, where everybody trades everything — including Canada exporting top acting talent like Liu. 

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There is a positive outcome that could come from this publicity. Liu can make amends with his fellow Canadian entrepreneurs, Minhas can rekindle her investment and Bobba can keep its growing brand and take it to the world, making it the billion-dollar company Fiset and Frenette believe it can be, which is why they went to Dragons’ Den for help in the first place. It’s better than seeing another Canadian company cancelled for phony virtue-signalling that’s as fictional as the roles Liu plays in the movies. 

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