China Big Mac Attack

James L. Watson, 2000

Presented by Snow Jiang

Emerging of American food chains and beverages in China

The cultural variant of globalism: McDonaldization in China

• As of June 1999, McDonald’s had opened 235 restautants in China. Hong Kong alone boasted 158 McDonald’s franchises, one for every 42,000 residents (compared to one for every 30,000 Americans).

• Now: 2008 – almost 700 restautants in China

Cultural imperialism through McDonald

• Thomas Friedman “McDonald’s and other manifestations of global cultures serve the interests of middle classes that are emerging in autocratic, undemocratic societies.”

• Not really the food, but the experience: eating in a cheerful, air-conditioned, child-friendly restaurant that offers the revolutionary innovation of clean toilets.

Localization of McDonald’s in Hong Kong and Beijing

• The history of McDonald’s in Hong Kong• Daniel Ng, an American-trained engineer,

opened Hong Kong’s first McDonald’s in 1975, promoting McDonald’s as an outpost to forget that they lived in a tiny colony on the rim of Maoist China.

• The signs outside his first restaurants were in English, the Chinese characters for McDonald’s didn’t appear until the business was safely established.

• In 20 years, Hong Kong youth considered McDonald’s as the comfort foods that they’ve eaten since early childhood and even forget the American origins.

• McDonald's become a mainstay of Hong Kong’s middle-class cultures.

Similar localization process in Beijing (the

first one opened in 1992)

• a symbol of “connecting” with the world outside of China

• a reward for good behavior or academic achievement

• parents see the restaurants as havens for their school-age children: no smoking, no alcohol, effectively eliminating drugs and gangs

The key to this process of localization: China’s changing family system and the emergence of a “singleton”

subculture • Economic changes: A new class of consumers

with money to spend on family entertainment.• Social changes:

The shift from living with groom’s parents to nuclear family or living with wife’s mother; (Collapse of an outdated Confucian family system.) Confucian norms to conjugality;

One child policy: the emergence of The Little Emperors and Empresses – selfish, maladjusted and spoiled.

• A combination of changes in family values and economic boom contributed to the “fever” for all things American: sports, clothing, films, food and so on.

• American-style birthday parties in McDonald’s

• A consumer revolution among young costumers: choosing their own food, spending their money

More than a purveyor of food: a saturated symbol of American culture.

“like the stars and stripes, the big Mac stands for America”

• McDonald’s – a force for improvement of urban life

• Clean toilets and the line which East Asian consumers associate the “Golden Arches” with public civility

The process of localization as a two-way street

changes in the local culture as well as modification of the company’s standard mode of operation

• Yong crew local workers into management’s ranks

• Accepting notably lining up and self-seating while changing fast food restaurants into leisure centers for seniors and after-school clubs for students.

Imitating McDonald’s

• Why McDonald’s attracts China’s new elites? Because its food is safe, clean, and reliable!

• New model of modernizaiotn, hygiene, and responsible management

• McDucks, Mcdonald’s , Nancy’s Express (N), Honggaoliang (H) : dressing uniforms coporate mascots, showing cleaniness

Future of McDonald’s with the graying of the population in China

• With the increasing of the elders, the locus of consumer power will soon shift generations as the parents of today’s little emperors retire.

• McDonald’s : from a child-centered industry to be a welcoming retreat from the isolation and loneliness of urban life.