Matcha and the Hierarchy of East Asian Cultures in the UK

With matcha becoming more and more infiltrated into the British market, it’s interesting to watch reactions to the introduction of a new feature of Asian culture into the Western sphere. Unsurprisingly, there is a generational divide, as Matcha finds much of its popularity among younger generations, keeping up with new trends. Beyond this distinction, however, there’s something else that I have noticed about the branding and consumption of Matcha in the West.

When my friends and I started Matcha Society this year, whether through talking to attendees, or seeing how people we collaborated with promoted events as a ‘taste of Japan’, the perception held of Matcha as a product of Japanese origin became clear to me. Matcha is viewed as a product of a monolithic culture. While Japan is the country currently driving the matcha market, its roots are found in China, where matcha remains a large part of national cuisine. I can’t help but question whether this may be a purposeful marketing strategy, toying with a larger societal question: is there a hierarchy of Asian cultures in the UK?

Japanese culture is particularly widespread and emulated in the UK, particularly in the form of the enjoyment of Japanese art, music and ‘aesthetics’ – from Hokusai’s Great Wave of Kanagawa to Hello Kitty, or Manga and Anime. The welcomed presence and diffusion of Japanese culture, undoubtedly, is very exciting, in a predominantly white society in which the acceptance and celebration of foreign cultures is often met with friction. However, it is not lost on me that this perceived trendiness has equally manifested in damaging ways, through a continued fetishist gaze that appropriates East Asian cultures when taken too far.

Unlike Japanese culture, I would argue that Chinese culture is viewed as far less desirable, or, rather crudely, less cool. Last summer I had an encounter with a girl in a club, who upon meeting me, excitedly asked if I was also mixed race, with my response prompting the bizarre: “Yay! Where are you from? I’m just Chinese, so boring!”. Just Chinese. This notion mystified me, and I wondered what had made her think that this was less interesting than if she’d been from elsewhere. Since then, I’ve had conversations about race at university, where, once again, I’ve been told that being Chinese is comparatively “basic” and “boring”. I’m not entirely sure where this idea came from. Is this perceived ‘basicness’ a result of the large size of China’s population, or is there a deeper, more complex Sinophobia at play?

I have been led to wonder, is it possible that matcha has been branded as monolithically Japanese to exploit this perceived hierarchy, with a British clientele more likely to consume a Japanese product? Whether a result of purposeful, exploitative marketing, or simple ignorance, there is undoubtedly a gradient on which different Asian cultures are perceived, through the eyes of western societies.

Photo: Rosa Savage