Globalization of the American Fast Food Industry

The globalization of American fast food has made a significant impact on the world at large. According to the New Oxford American Dictionary, fast food is food that can be prepared quickly and easily and is sold in restaurants and snack bars as a quick meal or to be taken out. The second definition, listed by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, states that fast food is designed for ready availability, use or consumption and with little consideration given to quality or significance. The last definition is the main reason why fast food creates such a controversy in America. In order to prepare food quickly, little consideration is given to quality and therefore many people blame fast food for weight gain and health issues. The fast food restaurants that we have become familiar with in America are McDonald’s, Burger King, Taco Bell, Subway, and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) to name a few. These restaurants, regardless of the controversy they cause in America, have become very popular across the world. The National Restaurant Association reported that in 2006 the global fast food market grew by 4.8 percent and reached a value of 102.4 billion and a volume of 80.3 billion transactions (1). Considering that there are only seven billion people in the world, 80.3 billion fast food transactions between consumers and restaurants is quite extraordinary. In this paper, I will look at the globalization of American fast food restaurants around the world and the impact they have had on other cultures.

McDonald’s currently has over 30,000 franchise outlets in 121 countries, and serves about 46 million people a day (2). McDonald’s has become known worldwide for their golden arches, which has become as big an American symbol as the American flag. On April 23, 1992, the largest McDonald's restaurant in the world opened in Beijing, China. With 700 seats and 29 cash registers, the Beijing McDonald's served 40,000 customers on its first day of business (3). In a book titled Golden Arches East, James L. Watson discusses the influence that McDonald’s has had on East Asia. McDonald’s has worked with the communities in China where they are located to create a menu that fits their preferences. However, some worry that McDonald's is creating cultural homogenization around the globe. Otherwise known as “McDonaldization”, cultural homogenization is the concept that cultural diversity will be extinct because one corporation would have the power to dictate how everybody ate, read, and dressed.  In this case, the fear is that McDonald’s is controlling the eating patterns of those across the world by offering essentially the same menu to everybody. However, in his book, Watson argues against this by pointing out McDonald’s ability to adapt to the countries where they are located. McDonald’s offers espresso and cold pasta in Italy; chilled yogurt drinks in Turkey; teriyaki hamburgers in Japan, Taiwan, and Hong Kong; a grilled salmon sandwich called the McLak in Norway; and McSpaghetti in the Philippines (4). McDonald’s has been more than just a restaurant to those in East Asia. People in East Asia use the McDonald’s for after-school meeting places, leisure centers, and as a place for birthday parties. Local patrons have even started learning new eating habits through McDonald’s such as consuming french fries and eating with their hands. Eating with a person’s hands was once a rare occurrence in Japan. Even something as seemingly common as standing in a line to wait one’s turn to order from a pre-set and limited menu is in fact a cultural adaptation (4).

Kentucky Fried Chicken’s parent company, Yum! Brands Inc. operates 3,200 KFCs and 500 Pizza Huts in 650 Chinese cities (5). In addition to owning KFC, Yum! Brands Inc. is the parent company of A&W All-American Food Restaurants, Long John Silvers, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell restaurants. According to Euromonitor International, a London-based market research firm, Yum! has a 40 percent market share among fast-food chains in China compared with 16 percent for McDonald’s (5). The key to KFC’s success, as with McDonald’s, is their ability to adapt to their local markets. Yum! gives KFC customers in China the opportunity to purchase a bowl of congee, a rice porridge that can feature pork, pickles, mushrooms and preserved egg, as well as buy a bucket of its famous fried chicken. They also offer a Dragon Twister, a chicken wrap in a Peking duck-type sauce, and spicy tofu chicken rice based on the cuisine of Sichuan province, home of China’s hottest dishes (5). A big part of their success, which is noticed by customers, is that they bring a sense of cultural hybridity to their restaurants. KFC knows the importance of cultural hybridity in the China markets so much that they promoted the chairman of the China business, Sam Su, to vice chairman of the main board in Louisville. Yum hires Chinese managers for their stores who speak the same Mandarin Chinese as their customers. This also helps the company strengthen ties with other local companies. These managers are also a big part of creating the local cuisine for the menu as they bring their expertise in the culinary likes and dislikes of the culture. Su Yi, a Chinese KFC customer, notices what KFC is doing, “KFC is certainly doing better than McDonald’s at becoming more Chinese…I have lunch at KFC twice a week because there’s always one close by. (5)”

The concept of soft power can be applied to the globalization of American fast food. The notion of soft power refers to the cultural, social, intellectual, and ideological ideas, values, attitudes, and behaviors that influence human life (4). As mentioned, the McDonald’s golden arches have become a symbol of America for people in other countries. As one of Watson’s informants told him, "The Big Mac doesn't taste great; but the experience of eating in this place makes me feel good. Sometimes I even imagine that I am sitting in a restaurant in New York City or Paris. (3)" Patrons of the McDonald’s in China eat there more for the environment rather than the actual food itself. The soft power that fast food restaurants are having around the world is the ability to sell an image to a population that would not normally have access to the “American way of life”.  Therefore, those who like what they experience in the American fast food restaurants change their eating habits, areas of socialization and even ways of communication. A comparison of customer behavior in McDonald's and that in comparably priced or more expensive Chinese restaurants shows that people in McDonald's were, on the whole, more self-restrained and polite toward one another. One possible explanation for this difference is that the symbolic meanings of the new food, along with customers' willingness to accept the exotic culture associated with fast food, has affected people's table manners in particular and social behavior in general (3).

In the fourth week of our discussion questions, we looked at an article written by Benjamin R. Barber named “Jihad vs. McWorld”. The article essentially talks about how the world is being separated through religious conflicts between countries, otherwise known as a jihad, while being brought together simultaneously through a cultivation of fast music, fast computers, and fast food, otherwise known as the McWorld. Religious reasons, however, are not the only reasons why countries are falling apart. Barber cites many examples in his article of countries such as India and Yugoslavia who for political reasons are struggling as well. The main point in this article, which pertains to the globalization of fast food, is the universalizing of markets that American fast food restaurants are creating. Although the restaurants that I refer to in this paper do well at adapting to their local markets, they still bring the consistency of food, service, and their symbols wherever they go. The symbols of McDonald’s, for example, would be Ronald McDonald, the golden arches, and the bright yellow and red colors they use in every restaurant. People have been conditioned to identify these symbols with McDonald’s and on an even larger scale, America. One of the four imperatives which Barber mentions in his article is the information-technology imperative. The ever-growing technology in today’s world makes it easier for fast food restaurants, based out of the United States, to keep track of their global ventures. Scientific progress embodies and depends on open communication, a common discourse rooted in rationality, collaboration, and an easy and regular flow and exchange of information (6). In this case, the scientific progress would be the expansion of new stores, consumer based research through the Internet, and the ability to run thousands of restaurants simultaneously from one location.

            The fast food industry is growing at an ever-increasing speed throughout the world. The expansion of American fast food comes with much more than it appears the restaurants initially expected. The restaurants went into countries with the expectation of just serving food to customers at a fast pace and low price. However, they have slowly changed countries diets, social lives, and economic positions. The restaurants create job opportunities for people while at the same time causing other local businesses to close. They have done a great job at adapting to their local markets yet they remain the closest things to America that many of their customers have experienced. For this reason, the impact that the restaurants have on people goes far beyond the food being served. People go to KFC, McDonald’s, and Pizza Hut for the experience rather than the food. Young children in East Asia have begun incorporating french fries into their diet, which is very different from their typical diet of rice and vegetables. People center their social lives around McDonald’s such as having birthday parties there and even getting married. In January, McDonald's added wedding packages to its Hong Kong menu. This is the only city in the world where McDonald’s offers the service, prompted by frequent inquiries about fast food weddings from customers in recent years (7).  The influence of soft power that fast food restaurants bring with them can be noticed just by looking at the foreign populations that consume the food. The information-technology imperative shows us that the universalizing of the fast food markets around the world is growing. Fast food has become a staple in the lives of people all across the world and the more that restaurants adapt to their local markets the less cultural homogenization we will see.

References:

1. Duram, Leslie A. Encyclopedia of Organic, Sustainable, and Local Food.:

     Greenwood Publishing Group, 2010. Google eBooks. Web. 8 Mar. 2011.

2. http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specials/1616_fastfood/page2.shtml

3. http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/w/watson-arches.html

4. Crothers, Lane. Globalization & American Popular Culture . Rowman &      Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2010. Print.

5. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-26/mcdonald-s-no-match-for-kfc-in-china-where-colonel-sanders-rules-fast-food.html?cmpid=yhoo

6. http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/1992/03/jihad-vs-mcworld/3882/

7. http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2055444,00.html#ixzz1GKWQhKBg

The Tattoo #3

In the final chapters of "The Tattoo", we see the dynamics that make the characters Ken, Claudia, Koa and Kahala so strong collide together. Ken and Claudia flee to the Windward side of the island after Ken has a run in with Mama-san and her crew. At this point in the story Claudia is pregnant which upsets Mama-san and perpetuates there leaving to other side of the island. While on the Windward side there plan is to make enough money to support themselves, and the child, and head off to the mainland where they can start over. When Ken and Claudia meet up with Koa and Kahala for the first time at their house Claudia is reluctant to find out that Koa has been abusing Kahala. Ken, knowing Koa, is not too surprised. Koa ultimately tells Claudia to not get involved with there problems much to her dismay. Unfortunately, the gender expectations in today's society are for women to be complacent and inferior to men in every aspect. Friends and family can safely intervene to help women they know in violent situations by first and foremost letting them know that there is help and they do not need to stay in there current situation. Friends and family of the victim is there best asset in this situation. The victim needs to be aware there is help and in a dire situation be physically taken by a family member, or friend, to a shelter away from the perpetuator. I wouldn't advise anybody to confront them both, namely the perpetuator, in fear that when that person leaves the violence could escalate.

In order to prevent gender-based violence there needs to be a shift in the gender-role expectations in society. The United States has come a far way since the days before 1920 when women did not even have the right to vote. The problem is that many people, specifically men, are stuck in the traditional mentality that men are superior to women. Women need to know that they have a voice regardless of the situation they are in. A big component of this is understanding that information equals power. As a society, we need to spread the word about resources for help and rights of women in violent situations.

Taking into account how much the perception of race impacted the social dynamics in the novel I think that the book dispels stereotypes. In the end of the novel, Ken reflects on his past while talking to Cal and says, "It's funny, I think about race and sometimes feel that it would be a lot easier if we were actually that different from each other. I ain't here because of race, I'm here because I'm human. (McKinney, 217)" The ethnic stereotypes of groups play a big part on the dynamics in which the characters see themselves and others. For example, Koa and Ken would cruise around Kailua on a mission to be beat up haoles and Koa even had aspirations of beating up so many that they would one day leave the island. Another example is the dynamics between Claudia and Ken's father that play out when they move into his house on the windward side. At the dinner table Ken's father tells her, "You know, once da Japanese learned how fo' build da boats, dey built one of da most powerful navies in the world. What did Koreans do? Dey just kissed our asses and made more kim chee. (McKinney,198)"  His motives for not liking her are purely based on racial stereotypes. In order to diminish racial inequality in today’s society it is going to take some time. Racial inequality typically comes from historical events that happen between races. The dislikes for haoles comes from the time of Captain Cook when he arrived on the islands in 1778.  In a fight with Hawaiians Captain Cook died in 1779, but over the course of time haoles slowly took control of Hawaii. As a result of feeling oppressed by haoles over the course of these years, haoles are perceived by native Hawaiians to be arrogant and to not care about the people around then. To diminish racial inequality we need to educate each other on our differences and make people realize, as Ken said, that everybody is purely human.

I enjoyed reading this novel because it gave me insight into the side of Hawaii that I would have otherwise not been introduced to. It was interesting to read about the racial dynamics between the people living on the island. I had always heard that the locals, and native Hawaiians, have a distrust of haoles however I was not aware of the dislike they had between each other. As seen with Claudia and Ken's dad, Ken's dad was Japanese and did not like Claudia because she was Korean however to an outsider they would all appear to be locals. I found it useful for this course because it touched on everything we covered such as gender relations, ethnic stereotypes, and violence.

References

McKinney, Chris. The Tattoo. Mutual Publishing, 2000.

America's Next Top Model

            For this paper, I have decided to review and analyze the reality television show America's Next Top Model. The participants on the show compete for the title of America's Next Top Model and the opportunity to start their career in the modeling industry. The show is currently in its 16th cycle and has anywhere from 9-13 episodes a cycle. There are typically 10-14 women competing with one, two, or none of them getting eliminated in each episode. The judging panel consists of the editor for Vogue, a fashion photographer, Tyra Banks and in the past, models Janice Dickinson and Paulina have been on the show among others. All of these judges have background in the fashion or modeling industry and critique the contestants based solely their appearances. The consequences that are intended in the show are to make the contestants of the show have negative self-images in each episode in order to strive for more during the next week. Expressing her dislike for a photograph that one of the contestants took, Janice Dickinson said, "This looks like she escaped from a mental institution! This is the worst photograph I've ever seen! You look deranged. Your arms look amputeed, your legs look amputeed, and it looks like you have a penis! I'm sorry. (1)" This statement made by a well-known American model is intended to degrade the model who took the photo however the latent consequence of this statement  is that it makes those who are watching the show feel very self-conscience. The women watching the show start to think negative things about themselves since the contestants, all good looking, are being harshly criticized. Whitney Thompson, a plus-size America's Next Top Model winner, made this unintended consequence clear in a recent interview, "The reason I went on [Top Model] though is because I wanted to change the fashion industry. Because it obviously affects people and the way that they view themselves. I mean, when the majority of all 9-year-old girls have been on a diet, we're doing something wrong…it's obvious that the industry is affecting people and it does make women feel bad about themselves, or worse. (2)"

            There are a few different societal trends that affect the development of America's Next Top Model. One of these trends is the growing popularity of social networking websites such as Twitter and Facebook. Fans of the show are able to follow the contestants and judges through these websites which make them more accessible for the viewers. People across the world are able to tune into these social networking sites and see what it going on with their favorite contestant or past winner. I think that social networking sites had a big impact on getting versions of the Next Top Model show in 17 countries and in 170 markets worldwide (3). For example, on Tyra Banks website you must be a member of Facebook in order join her "Inner Circle" which gives a person inside information on contestants, shows, and photo shoots. Another societal trend that has affected America's Next Top Model is the recent flux in other reality television shows based on appearance and weight loss. Shows such as Biggest Loser, Bridalplasty, Heavy, and MTV's I Used to Be Fat give viewers insight on the process of what people are going through to be content with themselves. In order to be content with themselves, many Americans strive to have the look that is seen on America's Next Top Model. This show is only reinforcing the pressure that is put onto women by society to look a certain way. It is common sense that to become a model in today's society you must be good looking. The problem is that a majority of the good looking contestants on the show are all tall and skinny. This gives the impression to the public that to be beautiful you must be tall and skinny. This show only enhances the problems that women already go through such as anorexia, eating disorders and depression. 

References

1. http://www.xehra.com/MovieQuotes/americas-next-top-model.html

2.http://fitperez.com/2010-10-13-plus-size-americas-next-top-model-winner-talks-body-image-issues

3. http://www.tyra.com/view/ANTM_AROUND_THE_WORLD

Tattoo #2

In pages 94-159 of the novel The Tattoo, we are introduced to a character named Mama-san and her daughter Claudia. After witnessing an aggressive gentleman attack a stripper at Club Mirage that Ken was visiting in town he decided to take action. Ken had successfully detained the big aggressor and was offered a job as a bouncer by the owner of the place, Mama-san. Ken worked there for about four years and while working there he was introduced to her daughter Claudia. Ken and Claudia started dating which was fine with her mother until Ken got Claudia pregnant. As Ken and Claudia’s relationship progresses in the book we learn more about Mama-san and her relationship with her daughter Claudia. Claudia tells Ken about her Grandmother who was, "forced into the role of comfort woman for the Japanese during the occupation before the end of WWII. Raped by hundreds of soldiers. (McKinney, 129)" Unfortunately, 80,000 to 200,000 women are estimated to have been forced into this position during the war. The Korean women were tricked into this form of slavery the same way modern-day human traffickers trick their victims. Recruiters would promise these young Korean women, most of them under 18, employment in jobs such as factory work or nursing.  A majority of these women only realized what there true occupations were after they were brought to the comfort stations and raped. Having been the spawn of this woman, Mama-san was subjected to the same type of thing. Having fled to Korea she was raped by an American soldier while living in a brothel.

The slavery that Mama-sans mother went through had both a physical and psychological impact on Mama-san. Not only did she have to endure the same thing in a different context (Americans rather than Japanese) but also nurtured the idea of exploiting woman and profited from the idea. She ran three different businesses while in Honolulu, one being the strip club, another being a "massage" parlor and the last one, a loan sharking business. Mama-san would presumably trick women into working in her massage parlor only to have them solicit themselves for prostitution. Her loan sharking businesses would bring her lots of money from the recent Korean and Japanese immigrants looking to start their own businesses and those people who couldn't pay paid for it physically. While in her working life, Mama-san was really no better than the Japanese government who exploited her Mother, but in her personal life she was very protective of her daughter Claudia.  She made it clear that she did not want Claudia to come around the strip club, or get involved in any part of the business, and had very high exceptions for her. Claudia was expected to graduate from Stanford University and become a doctor or a lawyer. Having been fed up with living with these high exceptions her whole life, Claudia decided to stay in Hawaii and go to the University of Hawaii for an Art History degree. Mama-sans past carried over into her professional life and she profited off exploited woman even though you can see through her relationship with her daughter that she knew it was not right.

Racial stereotypes of ethnic races also come from social forces of the past. The stereotype of African-Americans being devious and law-breaking had been around since the days of slavery. This stereotype was reinforced in the minds of racist people during the new activism of the Civil Rights movement. During the Civil Rights movement, tens of thousand of African American people would gather in public places to make their cause known. Even here in Hawaii the stereotype of white people being greedy and only caring about themselves derived from the time of Captain Cook. To make a long story short, the newly arrived haoles went from landowners to essentially ruling the state in the last 200 years. This stereotype of haoles was only deepened during the Massie Affair of 1931, and in 1959, Hawaii was annexed into the United States to much the dismay of Native Hawaiians.

References

McKinney, Chris. The Tattoo. Mutual Publishing, 2000.

Global Poverty

Poverty is an issue that affects millions of Americans and even more worldwide. Poverty is defined as the state of not having enough money to take care of basic needs such as food, clothing, and housing. According to the US Census Bureau, 35.9 million people live below the poverty line in America, including 12.9 million children. There are three different sets of numbers that determine if someone is at the poverty level or not. The first set of number is for those living in the 48 contiguous states and the District of Columbia. The other two sets of numbers are for Hawaii and Alaska. In August 2008, the World Bank changed the international poverty line to $1.25 a day from $1.00. At the poverty line of $1.25 it is estimated that 1.4 billion people live at this poverty line or below. Poverty can be seen predominantly in third-world countries where more developed countries seem to do a better job at hiding there problem. Unfortunately, those who live at or under the poverty level have to deal with the lack of things most people take for granted.  Given this information, it is not hard to believe that the wealthiest 20% of the world’s population consumes 76.6% of the world’s goods while 80% of humanity gets the remainder (1). In developing countries some 2.5 billion people are forced to rely on biomass—fuelwood, charcoal and animal dung—to meet their energy needs for cooking. In sub-Saharan Africa, over 80 percent of the population depends on traditional biomass for cooking, as do over half of the populations of India and China (1). Literacy is another problem that goes hand in hand with poverty. According to the United Nations Children's Fund, nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their name. In a world where it is nearly essential to be able to sign your name on a document for income it is important to be literate in order to get out of poverty.

The socialization process is the process in which people adapt to their surroundings and acquire the social class and beliefs of those around them. This is one of the reasons why I think many stay in the situation that they are in. Obviously, there are many factors that contribute to those that stay in poverty but I think it makes it harder for those who have gone through the socialization process because poverty is the only thing they, and the people around them, know. People start the socialization process with an ascribed status, they are born into it, which lends the hand that being born into poverty not only makes it hard on the individual but on the family and community who are going to have to support that individual with the limited resources they have. Those who live in poverty typically rely on a nonmaterial culture to keep them motivated. Things such as beliefs, customs, ideas, and languages are examples of what keeps a nonmaterial culture striving.  Since material goods are seen as high luxury items to those in poverty they must depend on things such as religion and the support of others in their situation to make them feel like they have a purpose. 

 For those living in poverty who have jobs, there is little or no occupational mobility. The types of occupations that are held by those living in poverty are agricultural jobs and others like it with a fixed income. People living in poverty do not usually have the resources to find better jobs or to be higher paid within the one their already working in. Those who are living in poverty constantly deal with both social and institutional discrimination. In India, there is a caste system and so those who born into the Pariah group are known their as outcastes, or "untouchables". These people face social discrimination from those in other classes by not being even given the esteem to be able to associate or talk to them. The slums that the Pariah group live in and their type of lifestyle can be seen in the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire”. Those who live in poverty also face institutional discrimination in areas such as health care, education and housing. For example, about 72 million children of primary school age in the developing world were not in school in 2005 and 57 percent of them were girls (1). In Afghanistan, it is forbidden by law for girls to go to school. Hopefully this changes, but for now girls and others living in poverty have to deal with an extreme amount of setbacks before they can consider themselves equal to those in other classes. 

References

1.      http://www.globalissues.org/article/26/poverty-facts-and-stats