McDonald s restaurants are found in over 100 countries, serving tens of millions of people each day. What are the cultural implications of this phenomenal success? Does the introduction of American fast food undermine local cuisines, many of them celebrated for centuries? Does it, as some critics fear, presage a homogeneous, global culture? These are but a few of the questions confronted in this engaging study that vividly demonstrates how the theories and techniques of anthropology can be used not only to examine obscure peoples and exotic practices, but to shed light on the motivations and behavior of people conducting their daily lives in some of the major population centers of the world. Earlier studies of the fast food industry have emphasized production, focusing on labor or management. This book takes a fresh approach to the industry by concentrating on the perspective of the consumer. It analyzes consumers reactions to McDonald s in five East Asian cities: Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo. What do they have to say about McDonald s? How is fast food perceived by those who pay to eat it? How do their preferences and biases affect the system of production?

Inventing Japan : 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles) by Buruma, Ian

Essential for any overseas business or Asian holding.
McDonald's Restaurants are to be found world-wide and books have been written on their business success and approach - but GOLDEN ARCHES EAST: MCDONALD'S IN EAST ASIA is something different, providing college-level readers with a blend of cultural insights and business savvy as it traces McDonald's role in five Asian countries. Chapters provide the author's first-person insights as he journeys to five Asian countries and asks questions on McDonalds management, promotion strategies, and impact on local culture. Also included are reflections on food and marketing within these nations, making GOLDEN ARCHES EAST essential for any overseas business or Asian holding. Diane C. Donovan California Bookwatch

In this book, five authors look at the impact McDonald's has had in five different East Asian entities: China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan. Much of the early chapters is given over to looking at the material aspects of McDonald's in East Asia: the marketing aspects, the reconceptualization towards a standard Asian consumer, the effect on the Asian food industry, etc.. All of this makes for very fascinating reading and shows just how marketing has to be changed from country to country (or even region to region). Likewise, it deals with very nuts-and-bolts issues of how McDonald's has impacted the lives of the average Asian consumer - and the impact is bigger than you'd think.

However, later chapters (especially those dealing with Taiwan and Korea and the Afterword) move to more conceptual issues of McDonald's - issues of modernity. Americanization and cultural identity. In an anthropological context (which is what this book tries to maintain), these are all very important, but somehow the later efforts seem to either fall flat or fall back on the line used so often in studying Asia these days, "But things are changing now".

While the overall message of this book is positive, there are the standard overtones of just how much the world has changed in the past half-century. I really recommend this book for the nuts-and-bolts stuff in the first two or three chapters, but the later didacticism tends to fall a little flat. Nonetheless, this book offers useful information to both the business student and the cultural anthropologist. If either East Asia or McDonald's interest you, I recommend giving this book a shot.