Abstract

The hand-shaken beverage bubble tea is one of the representative drinks
among Taiwanese beverages in recent years. It has gained considerable
popularity and created economic output value both in Taiwan and globally.
Approachable and readily available, bubble tea is the result of the
operation of multiple and complex social and cultural forces. This study
adopts a documentary analysis and field study approach as research
methods. Three stages are analyzed and presented: first, the budding
period of hand-shaken beverages in the 1980s; secondly, the rapid growth
period of hand-shaken beverage culture in the 1990s; and thirdly, the
international expansion period for hand-shaken beverages from 2000 to the
present. We also explore important factors that contribute to the
phenomenon of hand-shaken beverages from a sociological perspective,
including the liquidity of products; the liquidity of organizations; the
multi-domain liquidity of knowledge and technology supports; and the
liquidity and transformation of symbolic content. With these four aspects
of the characteristics and transformation processes, we deconstruct the
phenomenon of bubble tea food culture.
Keywords: Taiwan, hand shaken beverages, bubble tea, boba tea