LiAnne Yu — 18 February 2006
China's window to the world
In China, food is love. Food represents familial ties and status between people: the elderly and most prestigious guests are always served the first and best parts of the dish. Food represents commitment: business deals and marriages aren’t sealed with paperwork but by the opulence of the dinner banquet. Food represents all that Chinese parents feel but aren’t in the habit of saying: parents will spend without limit on fancy packaged snacks to show their love for their little emperors and empresses. And increasingly, food represents China’s window to the world.
In a recent ethnographic study we did on food in China, we found that people perceive foreign restaurants as more than just a different dining experience – they saw these places as windows to the world. Parents, in particular, believed that in taking their kids to foreign restaurants, they were giving their children new opportunities to experience the world outside of China, and that this would lead to a better future. “We don’t really like the taste of pizza, but we like going to Pizza Hut because our children can have the experience a modern environment,” several Chinese parents told us. Indeed, Pizza Hut in China is very different than the back here in the U.S. Young, ambitious waiters and waitresses in uniforms and aprons serve their customers with exuberance. Dark tables, soft cushioned sofas, and pictures on the wall give Pizza Hut the atmosphere of fine dining.
For China’s youths, foreign restaurants have become stages for enacting new behaviors tied to being modern and cool. “When I take my girlfriend out for Western food, we sometimes hold hands under the table or I put my arm around her. We would never do that in a traditional Chinese restaurant. It would feel strange!” said one young man. In the stylish Brazilian, Thai, and Italian restaurants we visited, we saw couples sitting next to one another in the dim light, giggling and nibbling on dishes together. It seemed the food was always secondary – having a place to enjoy private moments in a public setting was the more important.
China’s rising middle class dreams of travel and experiencing the world outside of their borders. Foreign restaurants are the start of such journeys.
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© 2008 Cheskin Added Value
Ms. Yu,
I think your observations regarding young chinese adults dining out at western eateries is very interesting. I just returned from a month long trip in China, most of which I spent in Shenzhen. I had many discussions with friends and expatriates regarding the implications of the chinese youths I saw hanging out at 9pm on a weeknight in KFC or Pizza Hut. Clearly, this trend is most evident in Shenzhen, Shanghai, and a few of the other major metropoli that dot the chinese landscape, perhaps not so much the farther west one travels. Among the people I spoke with on this subject, I heard a wide range of views as to the meaning of the trend. Some of the more cynical observers felt it was a way to show off wealth and status. One in particular, who is a chinese Studies academic, reasoned that nothing is really changing in their mindsets--rather, the trend right now is certain things that are expensive and associated with the West, are seen and used as status symbols in a very Chinese way. Chinese culture has been very resilient over it's 5,000 year history. On the other hand, others argued that such activities were indeed representative of the opening of minds to other cultures and places in the world. I probably fall somewhere in between--it seemed to me that eating and hanging out at Pizza Hut late might be very much a display of status and wealth (given that, as you mentioned, most don't really like the taste of the food). However, I would imagine that the simple act of "hanging out" in a place like this, and engaging in activities/expressions different from what they would otherwise do, will no doubt have a ripple effect into the cultural fabric that these urban youngsters grow up in. Of course, my communication abilities are limited and this is an observation from a distance and based on talking to both nationals and expatriates. Is the status that comes with luxury items, western brands, and high-priced activities more important when branding in China?
Posted by Ashton Udall on May 24, 2006 10:37 AM | Permalink to Comment