In “Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia” YunXiang Yan, James L. Watson, David Y.H. Wu, Sangmee Bak, and Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney provide insight into the impact that McDonald’s has had in East Asian societies. McDonald’s has caused Western culture to appear in East Asia and become normalized, or at least more normal. Thus, cultural awareness is very prevalent. However, for it to succeed in East Asia McDonald’s has “glocalized” their restaurant to account for the cultural differences, which has not affected the company outside of East Asia. The restaurant has also facilitated American cultural imperialism, but East Asia has only become slightly more American—in the sense that some cultural norms have been transferred to East Asian society. …show more content…
The expansion has caused citizens, particularly young people, in other countries to change some of their cultural habits. Sangmee Bak defines American cultural imperialism as “the encroachment of cultural practices and values that reflect American political and economic power” (151). Advertising to children is one of the main ways that McDonald’s has encroached upon the East Asian culture. As mentioned previously, birthday parties have become increasingly popular (even though birthdays were never previously celebrated before). It makes the children feel special and distinguishes them from their peers (62-63, 104). The “yang” of American culture was appealing when McDonald’s first opened (41). Also, McDonald’s purposely targeted the children upon the introduction of McDonald’s in East Asia because they knew that the children, the main consumers, would transform McDonald’s from a foreign place into a familiar environment until it no longer appeared foreign. Consequently, this means that the East Asian societies had to adjust to account for the cultural differences, which included the emergence of queues, self-provisioning, not eating rice with one’s meal, standing while eating, eating with one’s hands, etc. However, James L. Watson says, “…they become “Americanized” in any but the most superficial of ways” (79-80). Still, South Korea and Taiwan (at the publishing of the book) more than other East Asian countries view McDonald’s as a threat to their cultural