McDonalds has always been able to face the challenges that arise when trying to expand to foreign cultures. They have successfully expanded to over a hundred countries, including countries in East Asia. In the book “Golden Arches East” by James L. Watson, he studies different cities and how McDonalds has played a role in their cultures. Three places that he mentioned in his writing were Beijing, Seoul and Japan. They all share similarities in the way the culture was impacted positively and negatively, in society and politically. They have their differences in the way things were dealt with and how the public viewed the American company coming to their countries. In this paper, I will be talking about how McDonalds is involved in the
Japan’s McDonalds are the most closely related to the American version to because people in America don’t really look at the chain as a place to spend time with friends.
I believe that the trends created by the openings of McDonalds in these areas were a result of the market that they got into. Japan is a more modernized place than the other two and that’s why I think the trends in Japan are so closely related to America. In Beijing and Seoul, it was a different market that McDonalds was getting into. They were very popular in the media but the community never had a firsthand experience with the company. When McDonalds decided to get into the Chinese and Korean markets it was different for the cultures and they adapted in a different way. So I believe they created the trends the occurred in Beijing and Seoul but they didn’t want to change the culture just give them more options. As time goes by I believe both these markets with start to transform into a relaxed approach to McDonalds and it will eventually be like the fast-food style that we are accustomed to.
I wouldn’t say that what McDonalds is doing is an American-inspired, transnational culture crowding out indigenous cultures because of the way they have handled the communities they are in. In the Beijing case I wouldn’t say that the idea that McDonalds is a