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C Illustration / JiaZhen Cai
“It” in Cafes:
Pet Customers or Animal Staff?
C afes, with the original mission of rest and idling, are places where identity and occu-
pation become “frameless”. Triggered by a cup of coffee, one can talk about anything
to a total stranger. In the fast-paced modern society, the tag of “third space” has been
further attached on cafes, which are all about nice drinks and stress-free moments.
However, since the new millennium, specialty cafes in Asia have taken cues from the western trend
of bringing animals to the shared space. The 2 typical patterns are pet-friendly cafes and animal
themed ones. As the second pattern becomes even more popular, such cafes have blurred the bound-
ary between “pets” and “animals”, leaving a seemingly friendly gray zone where darkness may lurk.
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