In China, a big appetite for Americana
Elisabeth Rosenthal The New York Times
Tuesday, February 26, 2002
BEIJING Du Yun maneuvered the large orange shopping cart
into PriceSmart's parking lot, where she popped open the trunk of
her gray economy Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged
groceries.
"I come here once a week, sometimes twice - it's so convenient,"
said Du, a working actress, who wore her hair twisted up in a
casual clip. "There was nothing like this in China in the past."
In the last two years, Du and her husband - double income, no
kids - have taken out mortgages to buy an apartment as well as
the car, a Buick Sail, which they consider economical. Her
husband is waiting for the day when they can afford a snappier
second vehicle - preferably a Jeep.
Du, 29, likes to cook traditional Chinese food, but with her
6-year-old niece visiting, they will probably go to KFC this
weekend. For anniversaries, she and her husband favor TGI
Fridays. "I really like the atmosphere there," she said.
During President George W. Bush's visit to Beijing last week,
leaders of these two powerful nations were politely at odds on
many issues. But people in China's cities have found much
common ground with Americans, with the way they live
converging rapidly in the marketplace.
In the last few years, China's major cities have sprouted American
stores and restaurants at prodigious rates, including Starbucks,
PriceSmart, Pizza Hut, McDonald's and Esprit clothing outlets.
New housing compounds bear names like Orange County and
Manhattan Gardens. A high-end Buick is a sought-after luxury car,
a replacement for last year's Audi. Europeans may be wont to
view every Big Mac as a terrifying sign of American cultural
imperialism, but Chinese have mostly welcomed the invasion.
In one recent survey, nearly half of all Chinese children under 12
identified McDonald's as a domestic brand, according to Beijing's
Horizon Market Research. Like a seed falling on fertile soil, each
new Western chain store seems to generate a group of slightly
cheaper domestic clones nearby. "Chinese people these days have
a very positive impression of American commercial culture and
popular culture," said Victor Yuan, president of Horizon.
"American products have been a new approach to bridge the gap
between the cultures - a kind of commercial diplomacy."
It is in some ways an odd affection, given that most Chinese
remain distrustful of the U.S. government, seeing it as something of
a bully. Several years ago there was a short spate of newspaper
commentaries suggesting that China should develop its own fast
food products to defeat the intruders. But such views are rarely
heard today, and the numbers speak for themselves.
There are now 80 McDonald's in Beijing alone, a figure that has
accelerated greatly in the last two years.
The number of Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets in China has
increased by 100 a year for the last two years, to about 600.
Shanghai and Beijing each has more than two dozen Starbucks.
Most Chinese never drank coffee until Starbucks came to town,
selling small lattes for more than $2. "They go there to impress a
friend or because it's a symbol of a new kind of lifestyle," Yuan
said.
PriceSmart, which tentatively opened its first store in Beijing in
1997, now has 18, and plans to have 70 by the end of 2003.
"My daughter, who's 16, wants to go to the U.S.," said Gao
Fugui, a businessman, "but for me there's no point - I have
basically the same life here." Gao, 45, was piling beer (domestic)
and wine (imported) into his brand new sport utility vehicle, with
silhouettes of skiers on the side and faux leopard covers on the
seats.
"Comparing life 10 years ago to now is like heaven and earth," he
said. "The quality of life has improved, the country's improved,
even people's ideas have changed."
A decade ago no one would have predicted that leisure for
China's emerging urban middle class would have such an
American texture. There are hip bars for evening; mall shopping
and miniature golf for daytime; ski resorts for winter; water parks
for summer.
"The Americans here are selling not just products but a culture,"
Yuan said, "and it is a culture that many Chinese want. They're
saying, 'If you buy this, it will pull you into a new kind of life.'"
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