All Sugar, No Substance: Unpacking Boba Liberalism

Thursday evenings were ideal for social gatherings: meeting up with friends from your university’s Asian student organization at a local boba tea shop was the perfect setting. The ambience of the shop was inviting. The menu’s welcoming font detailed the limitless options—mochi waffles, Thai tea, taro macarons, Taiwanese boba and other choices from various cultures—helped create the ideal atmosphere to hang out with friends and meet other Asians from your school.

Groups formed all around the now bustling boba shop; friends of friends clustered in a corner to play Chinese board games, the girls at the neighboring table sang along to the K-pop songs playing on the speakers and groups of people lined up with boba-themed captions in mind posed against the picturesque walls. And while you were sipping on milk tea, as your friends typed away on their sticker-covered laptops, you wonder:

Is this who we are? Is this what we represent? Is this all it means to be Asian American?

The concept of the Asian American identity has always been a part of life for many young members of the Asian American community. Many Asian Americans grew up having a complicated relationship with their cultural heritages, from being alienated by peers for being different to rejecting one’s Asian culture in favor of their American one.

Over the years, with the growing popularity of Asian media and pop-culture representation, many young Asian Americans have learned to overcome their internalized racism and embrace their identities. Kids who were once ashamed of bringing their ethnic lunches to school became hotpot and Korean barbeque chain regulars, the ones bullied for their interests became trendsetters for their proximity to Anime and K-pop, and boba tea, the once simple, sugary drink with tapioca pearls, became a unifying element for young Asian Americans to identify with.

This new wave of self-love among first and second generation Asian Americans led to the drive to fight for acceptance as Asians, but also as Americans. They are no longer hiding their Asian-ness but celebrating it—forming clubs and communities of their own. However, with a newfound sense of community comes a new, complicated identity: The Boba Liberal.

What is Boba Liberalism?

Boba Liberalism is a relatively new concept, first introduced into Asian American and liberal/leftist discourse by Twitter user @diaspora_is_red who defined mainstream Asian American Liberalism as one that is shallow and consumerist. On Plan A Magazine’s podcast, they describe Asian American Liberalism as “a sweet, popular thing. It’s not very offensive […] thinking the university Key Club and API student associations will lead the way in fighting for the dignity of the Asian diaspora, in securing real material benefits to their communities, and rectifying the colonial crimes of the host country...thinking t-shirts, products and merchandise are the main way of affirming one’s racial identity. It’s capitalist consumption presented as API-ness…and wanting to reconnect with your roots by [...] drinking bubble tea, getting added to Subtle Asian Traits and organizing fundraisers for your Asian student association, but never studying your history and feeling solidarity with your homeland against imperialism…All Sugar, No Substance.”

Boba is used as a metaphor for this brand of liberalism as it is sweet, inoffensive and a unifying element of the Asian American diaspora, making it easy to identify with. However, it’s a drink that is mostly sugar and contains “empty calories.” With no real nutritional value, boba is detrimental in the long run. Similarly, Boba Liberalism attempts to unify Asian Americans under an umbrella of Asian-ness, narrowly focused on assimilation into mainstream American culture while seeking the privileges associated with it through consumerism. This type of Asian American Liberalism promotes an identity to adopt that is sweet and without the “nutritional” value of putting in the work towards understanding one’s ethnic background, culture or history.

Boba Liberalism attempts to unify Asian Americans under an umbrella of Asian-ness, narrowly focused on assimilation into mainstream American culture while seeking the privileges associated with it through consumerism.

The term Boba Liberalism critiques Asian American politics as coming from a place of privilege, one that appears to address social issues while simultaneously benefitting from the systems that are the root of them. Instead it highlights the specific aspects that benefit them while ignoring the issues that don’t affect them directly. Boba Liberalism typically points towards middle and upper class light-skinned East Asians who are often seen as the ‘face’ of Asian Americanism. This, in turn, directly reflects the issues they experience—media representation, the model minority stereotype and outward racism and xenophobia—as the only issues Asian Americans face. Their struggles are often made more palatable to their White Liberal counterparts, giving them easy to solve, surface level social issues without challenging the status quo and feeding directly into the model minority stereotype. The mainstream perception of Asian ‘activism’ then becomes one that is demure and nondestructive, creating a false equivalency to weaponize against other minorities and their social justice movements.

As Boba Liberalism highlights a singular type of Asian American as representative of all Asians, erasing the experiences and struggles of other Asians, it leads to a refusal to acknowledge the other, larger issues within the Asian American community. This builds the perception that all Asian experiences are monolithic and allows Asian Americans to keep relying on the umbrella of Asian-ness, further cementing the “interchangeable-Asian" stereotype. In an attempt to create unity among Asian Americans, these efforts only divide the community further as other Asians, such as non-East and mixed-race Asians, working-class Asians and Asian activists, are alienated and devalued for not fitting into the boiled-down, compartmentalized idea of what counts as Asian.

Boba Liberalism is an Asian American extension of neoliberalism, an ideology that emphasizes free-market competition, adopting some aspects of social liberty but only for consumerist gain. Likewise, Boba Liberalism believes that the way towards social justice for Asians is through the market, tying one’s identities to store-bought and mass-produced affirmations of identity. They take popular and profitable parts of different Asian cultures as a way to represent all of Asia and appeal to the Western market while also selling these aspects to each other as ways to show off how “in-touch” one is with their culture. The boba industry is a prime example as it is a popular (East) Asian product where its consumption is directly tied to one’s Asian-ness.

Of course, Boba Liberalism, at its core, has some semblance of social activism, but it is far from Asian activism itself and has little space in it. Asian activism refers to the social justice, political and coalition-building work done by Asian Americans to combat oppressive institutionalized systems in the Western world, such as imperialism, racism, and classism, among others.

Unlike Asian activism, Boba Liberalism is a commodification of the Asian identity under a Westernized lens and is directly responsible for narrowing what is and isn’t Asian based on a limited perspective. This paints Asian identities as something that can be adopted and reaffirmed by consumption. However, Boba Liberals fail to recognize that there are institutionalized systems built into the American framework as means to oppress Asian Americans and other minorities; rather, they try to assimilate into such systems instead. An example of this is the belief that media representation is a “win” for all Asians without considering why it took so long or about the systems in place that made representation such a milestone to begin with. Asian Americans will celebrate the changes to systems once they are allowed to participate and forget the harm they caused and continue to cause, while also extending the harm onto groups that are still struggling against the systems. This leads to a shallow perception of activism where Boba Liberals believe that showing off your support is a form of activism—in other words, performative activism.

Commodification is a major component of Boba Liberalism that depends on trends to survive. Boba Liberalism rose with the growing visibility of the Asian Identity in the Western world, which made it fashionable to show off. As awareness and activism grows within the mainstream consciousnesses, performative activism becomes more rampant. Now, presenting oneself as “woke” and being an activist is a trend, a way to make oneself look better and something that can be mass produced, sold and bought to affirm their stance.

Much of performative activism is rooted in virtue signaling: Taking visible efforts to display one’s good character or moral superiority for their own benefit while doing nothing to address the issues they appear to advocate for—instead putting themselves at the focal point of the issue. Boba Liberals take this trend as an opportunity to use activism to look good while using their minority status as a shield against criticism. There have been several instances where social media influencers used activism for their own gain. They would share infographics and information about relevant movements, a way to signal to onlookers of their political and social awareness. In the end, this is all just a guise to attract more followers without putting much effort or care towards the issues they claim to advocate for. Even a few businesses, owned by Asian Americans, are guilty of this as they would create an image of “wokeness” and solidarity as means to drive up sales. This performativity, essentially, gives these accounts and businesses the virtual brownie points and traction they wanted; once again taking pieces of their identity to benefit themselves, without putting in any real effort.

As Boba Liberalism highlights a singular type of Asian American as representative of all Asians, erasing the experiences and struggles of other Asians, it leads to a refusal to acknowledge the other, larger issues within the Asian American community.

So why are there so many Boba Liberals if it only harms them in the end? Boba Liberalism is a safe spot between seeming “woke” and the discomfort of activism. Many Asian Americans have grown up struggling to value their cultures and have only just begun to love the ‘Asian’ part of their Asian American identity. However, they are in a precarious position between glorification and negligence. Shielded by the umbrella of Asian-ness, there grows a refusal to acknowledge the more difficult parts and complicated histories of one’s background, preferring to only accept the shinier, marketable parts, thus leaving them with a vulnerable and superficial sense of self. Learning the truth behind one’s cultural background, their history and traditions, can be overwhelming given the potential it has in changing one’s worldview. In order to truly be accepting of your identity, it is important to acknowledge its imperfections as well as have a deeper understanding of what you do acknowledge.

This unique struggle between identity and acceptance is what holds Asian Americans back from becoming true advocates for their community. Most Boba Liberals understand firsthand what it’s like to be discriminated against, but have yet to extend sympathy to other minorities. Instead, such discrimination is weaponized to gain sympathy for their own benefit and sometimes even to justify their discrimination towards others, making their claims of solidarity a transaction rather than true support.

The real difference between Boba Liberalism and Asian American activism is intersectionality. Not only is there no effort put into learning one’s background, but there is also little work put towards understanding the struggles of others because they are not the ones benefiting from it. A lack of intersectionality alienates minorities within the Asian community and those that don’t fit the westernized perception Asian Americans, such as darker-skinned Asians, Southern and Western Asians, mixed-race Asians, LGBTQ+ Asians, Asians of different faiths, et cetera. In intersectional issues, Boba Liberals have a tendency to center the activism around themselves and speak over other minorities. This, in turn, harms Asian Americans and other minorities, creating further division among and within minority and Asian American communities.

Intersectionality is at the heart of all movements, and while there is no doubt that Asian Americans contributed towards civil rights movements, there is a history of Asian Americans co-opting and centering movements for their own gain and ignoring the issues within their own communities, such as Anti-Blackness and colorism.

Intersectionality fosters equality within the Asian community as we are not a monolith but a group made up of various cultures unified by the country we live in.

As the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement neared its peak in the summer, many Asian Americans circulated the phrase “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” in order to show solidarity with the movement. However, many people are unaware of the history behind the Yellow Peril movement and its premise of the threats Asian American resilience and minority solidarity pose to mainstream American culture, White Supremacy and imperialism; instead reusing it as a quirky catch phrase. While there is nothing wrong with using the phrase, it disservices both the movement and the individual to adopt a movement without knowing what it stood for whilst having views opposite its premise. It is hypocritical to co-opt an anti-White Supremacy group while participating in upholding the very systems that allow White Supremacy to exist.

By blindly co-opting Yellow Peril and the Black Lives Matter movement, many Asian Americans not only revealed the performative nature of their activism through hypocrisy and ignorance, but centered the movement onto themselves. Because Boba Liberalism aims to make a place within the systems that oppress them rather than dismantling them, turning Yellow Peril into a catchphrase while denying systemic racism proves contradictory. As the BLM movement aligned with the rise of Anti-Asian sentiment due to COVID-19, “Yellow Peril” became a way to center anti-racism efforts on Asian Americans and speak over Black voices instead of standing alongside them, making solidarity a transaction and trivializing coalition efforts between the two communities.

So how can Asian Americans break away from Boba Liberalism and become better allies and activists? Activism in any form involves a constant uphill struggle of learning, unlearning and relearning. The first step towards distancing ourselves from Boba Liberalism is putting in the effort to engage with your community. This can be done by establishing ties with your local community and getting involved with clubs, campus resources and online resources.

Taking the time to continuously learn the complexities and truths hidden within history and critical texts is an integral part of becoming a well-rounded and intersectional activist. A key step in this learning process is learning about your own history—both Asian American history and the history of your home country—and cultural background to develop an understanding of the role they play in the lives and identities of Asian Americans. It is also important to learn about the systems that oppress us and other minorities, the histories behind them and their impact, and what can be done to reform or dismantle them in order to better serve society as a whole.

Activism exists on every level of society where every single action, no matter the size, makes a difference; making your own learning intersectional is vital to breaking out of the narrow focus of Boba Liberalism.

Not only is activism a personal struggle, it is a collective effort. Learning about the people around you in a country as diverse as America is imperative as the histories of every group are intertwined. Intersectionality fosters equality within the Asian community as we are not a monolith but a group made up of various cultures unified by the country we live in. Acknowledging and understanding the disparities between different groups within the same communities will allow us to better uplift the minorities that exist within our own communities.

There are many things we can do as Asian Americans to call out our own actions that harm other minority groups. Critical thinking and engagement asks you to question your actions, both online and offline; ask yourself how posting a black square is effective, or what’s the purpose of and intention behind posing for a picture at a peaceful protest? Reflecting on our own actions will only help us become better activists, and even better global citizens. There is much work that needs to be done in order to stand against and fight the oppressive, institutional systems that affect not only our lives, but the lives of other minority groups—our neighbors, our friends, our allies—and if we want to see an impactful change, we’re going to have to look at ourselves and question if there’s substance to what we’re doing, or if it’s all just sugar.