Golden Arches East Analysis

915 Words4 Pages
Cultural Transformation Golden Arches East examines McDonald’s outside of the United States and explores how cultures are accepting, and often times not so accepting of this new culture. McDonald’s is known worldwide; its golden arches are a familiar site all around the world. Although McDonald’s is now mainstream and globalized, this doesn’t mean everyone is accepting of this new culture. For Americans, McDonald’s is something you eat with your hands. It’s fast to consume when you’re in a hurry, it’s cheap if you can’t or don’t want to spend the money, and lastly you can get in and out quickly. This is normal for Americans and we don’t look at fast food in any other way. In other parts of the world this idea of fast food was not so easy to…show more content…
In other countries, similar to the United States, tradition is important. However, unlike Americans, Asians have traditions and practices regarding food and the way you’re supposed to eat. To begin, in many areas around the world, such as Beijing, McDonald’s was something brand new. For example, in chapter one of Golden Arches East, Yan, notices a couple taking a picture in front of the Golden Arches because it is so significant to them, “The experience of eating in a foreign restaurant struck them as so significant they had their picture taken in front of the Golden Arches and sent it to their hometown newspaper” (p. 40). The concept of eating “fast food” was something different for people in Beijing; they viewed eating at McDonald’s as a modern and exotic experience. Beijing had no issues accepting this new culture, but Watson explains that the “American style” was more appealing to customers rather than the food. In fact, many people didn’t even enjoy the food, and looked at the food as snacks instead of a meal. It’s explained that the Chinese food system is based on grains and starches, “According to these principles, the McDonald’s hamburger – a patty of meat between layers of bread – is not a
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