Page 35 - CTI83_EN
P. 35

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.




 36                                                                                                    37
   30   31   32   33   34   35   36   37   38   39   40