Boba is all the craze nowadays. You all must have drank at least one Boba in your entire life, be it Tealive, Chatime, Xing Fu Tang or The Alley. Let’s not discuss which Boba is the superior because that requires an entire post exclusively for that intellectual and thorough discussion.
The question is, have you ever wondered where the word Boba comes from?
Before this, Malaysians call these drinks as bubble tea but why suddenly people are switching to boba in unison at once as if they have a secret society amongst themselves that revolves around the evolution of boba. If you don’t already know, the word Boba came from Taiwan and Boba is actually a slang used by Taiwanese to describe something much peculiar than you think?
According to a Twitter user by the username @mandarinjer the word Boba travels back to 1980s, where bubble tea or boba have not yet received a wide popularity amongst people outside of Taiwan. During that time, the word Boba has not yet being invented, instead bubbles of two sizes are referred as small bubbles or big bubbles.
At the same time, a rising actress Amy Yip starred in “The Inspector Wears Skirt II” directed by none other than the legendary Jackie Chan became the centre of attention. Her popularity sky rocketed when her voluptuous figure became adored by many. Starting that day onward, the word Boba came to birth through the combination of Chinese word of large breast and the movie’s title; making Boba to refer big-sized bubbles while small bubbles remain its original Chinese name.
Shocking isn’t it? Well, you know what they say, you’ll never stop learning.
For further explanation of the history, read through the Twitter thread created by the same user.
ASAL USUL BOBA
tahukah anda “boba” merupakan panggilan kepada perempuan? ??
takkan minum je? jom laoshi share sejarah BOBA
perkataan asal boba
波霸
? bō bà
maksud? jom laoshi ulas sikit? @hazifflatiff pic.twitter.com/ZCTwQzihyE
— MandarinJer (@mandarinjer) July 4, 2019
