In “Cafe Tunis,” Robert Cantwell writes, “In the coffeehouse, we must be what we are said to be” (89). The coffeehouse is not a restaurant for family gathering; rather, “it is a meeting place for familiars” and “it provides a setting in which social interactions may be experienced in and of themselves and cultivated as such, and in which new associations and alliances, and new antagonisms, may form” (88).
I still remembered the day Starbucks opened the first store in Taiwan. It was back in 1998. I had had my first sip of Starbucks coffee a year before in a class where the teacher bought a pot of Starbucks coffee for us to experience a sense of exoticness. Soon after the first Starbucks store opened, almost all the teachers on campus talked about that. These teachers were educated in US and were deeply influenced by the coffee culture. For them, Starbucks symbolized their youth, good old days and possible a sense of superiority because they had a chance to study and live abroad. So the class meeting no longer took place in the classroom. Instead, we went to Starbucks to discuss weekly schedule or monthly plan. Gradually, I have developed a habit of going to Starbucks either to enjoy my alone time or leisure time with friends. Several years have passed and more than 100 Starbucks stores are there in Taiwan. It is amazing because drinking coffee is never part of Asian/Taiwanese culture; however, it is so easy for people to accept it. So who goes to Starbucks? Yes, students, especially college students, people in their 30s and 40s, people with Macs (yes, Mac people are more than Pc people), people with books written in English. Starbucks stores have become a symbol of elite as if buying a cup of Starbucks coffee makes a person superior. It is not only a sign of globalization; moreover, it creates a form of culture and forms a dialogue with another culture.
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