The re-examination of McDonald's in China: from university students' perspective

Since its economic reform and openness to the West world, China has been flowed into the global capitalist system, more and more foreign corporations come to exploit Chinese market in the past three decades; The McDonald’s, the world's largest chain of fast food restaurant is one of them. Its first Chinese outlet was opened in Shenzhen in 1990, then its largest one throughout the world at that time in Beijing in 1992. Once it was opened, it received over 40’000 customers that created a new record in McDonald’s history (cited from Zeng, 2004 and Yan, 1997). In Beijing in August 1997, it had around 35 McDonald’s restaurants (Yan, 1997; 2000), but increases to 97 ones in 2008 (McDonald’s China web, 2008). Until 2008 the amount of McDonald’s is added up to 797 outlets in 27 provinces, thus it becomes one of the most prosperous and profitable foreign restaurants in China (McDonald’s China web, 2008). Some researches were done at the beginning of McDonald’s investments, a specialized work named 《Golden Arches East》mapped a general picture of its developments in East Asian region. The researcher found, compared to other five markets like Japan and Hong Kong, McDonald’s in mainland China seemed to be not that localized but enjoyed some particular features, for instances, its advertising strategy was labelled as an international brand rather than a localized restaurant, while the customers viewed it as a symbol standing for American lifestyle and modernization, and went there to enjoy its atmosphere more than its food (Watson, 1997a). However, in the past two decades, few researches are done to tell whether it has integrated into the local market and acclimatized itself to the Chinese customers in a new way other than acting for American culture, as well as whether the Chinese customers have familiarized themselves with McDonald’s food and its corporation practices apart from its labelled American atmosphere. This paper aims to investigate whether this global corporation experiences a localization progress or somewhat through Chinese customers’ perspectives. In addition to that, it also concerns that have McDonald’s corporation practices affected customers’ behaviours during its expansion, for example, whether they have formed a relationship like the invisible contract between American customers and fast food industry that the latter provides convenient and fast productions and services, while the former consumes them more quickly to save the time and space. This invisible contract is recognized as the myth for the success of McDonald’s that makes systematic use of limited resources to maximize its profits (Robin, 1993; Watson, 1997a). It’s important to talk about this relationship because it demonstrates the way of interaction between global good producers and local consumers, that is the producers change or improve their products and marketing strategies according to the local conditions, especially the local market demands and perhaps the cultural practices of consumers; on the other hand, the consumers may be also affected by the suppliers in terms of what and how to consume, possibly experiencing a process of re-socialization; and the market acts as the linkage between the two actors.
The research question is whether McDonald’s in China experiencing changes (maintenance of its global corporation practices, localization or somewhat) in consumers’ perspective, and are its corporation practices on the other side influencing consumers. It will be examined in three aspects: 1) Any changes in its products (food, services and advertising strategy); 2) Any changes of its images in consumers’ eyes; 3) Any changes of its effects on consumers’ views, behaviours and other socio-cultural practices in McDonald’s restaurants.
This paper is organized as follows: first it reviews 3 themes of globalization and the diverse approaches to global consumer culture, after that it refers to the methodology of this research and its limitations; second it reviews the pervious work on McDonald’s China in 1990s and establishes a framework for comparison; Section 3 will be the research data and comparisons. Finally it will be the discussion and conclusion.
2.1 The theoretical review and methodology
2.1.1 There are three themes on globalization, namely the globalist, traditionalist and transformationalist perspectives. The globalists believe that along with the extension of integration of global economy, all parts of world highly interrelate and interact with each other with political, social and cultural consequences. They claim that through globalization, the world experiences homogenization, in terms of culture, a more homogenous global culture is emerging. In contrast to the globalists, the traditionalists stress the importance of the nation states and the heterogeneity of them, for these scholars there are strong the local responses against global processes. In between the two extreme themes, transformationalists think these is an integration and interpenetration of the global and the local as “glocalization”, in cultural aspect it creates various cultural hybrids rather than borders separating the global and local forces (Chan, 2008)
In terms of consumer culture, the paradigm of global homogenization argues for the domination of the western-dominated world market system. It suggests cultural differences are increasingly being eroded through worldwide replacement of local products with mass-produced goods that usually originate from the West, and all local consumption markets follow the way of western consumerism or Americanism (David, 1996). The paradigm of local heterogenization however stresses the strong local cultural forces against the unique global culture that the local consumers for many reasons (e.g. consumer nationalism) only buy local or national products (Jackson, 2004). Taking a closer look at the commodities nowadays in local market supplied by transnational producers, David (1996) finds the meanings and uses given to specific imported goods within specific “local contexts” or “realities” have been transformed, at least in part, in accordance with the values of the receiving culture. In this regard, he thinks the global production and marketing strategies, to some extent, need to be contextualized, or as he defines the process of “hybridization” (David, 1996).
There was no doubt that McDonald’s had followed the trend of globalization, particularly the economic process to exploit Chinese market, and then itself became a force promoting the trend at the beginning of its entry. In this paper I would like to take a position seeing the Chinese market as a “globalizing” instead of a “globalized” one, by this I can get a transitional period to examine whether McDonald’s contextualizes itself in the local settings and accords with local culture in its global corporation conducts and practices.
 
2.1.2 The methodology in this research involves news content analysis for the first aspect on the changes of McDonald’s products, and E-survey for the changes of McDonald’s images as well as the effects of its corporation practices on consumers. The survey is conducted through a website in Chinese (www.xiaonei.com) that is similar to face-book with software for voting. Its main users are mainland Chinese university students from 18 to 24 years old and thus being targeted as the research population. The sampling is done by selecting respondents that finish all questions.
The research limitations are as follows: 1) the target population is only Chinese university students, the findings therefore can just show the attitudes and behaviours of this group of people which may be quite different from others such as immigrant workers. The basic assumption here is that people with different socioeconomic statuses and prestige are stratified in consumption patterns in terms of personal preferences or the so-called distinctions (Bourdieu, 1986); 2) For the comparison, respondents in the pervious studies include McDonald’s customers of university students background and others (middle and upper income people) all living in one city of Beijing, but those are only university students in this study nationwide located with different urban life experiences. However, considering the development of McDonald’s in 1990s and the after, as well as the locations of university students in China, I believe the findings are still meaningful for understanding the changes of brand images and consumption behaviours of this group of Chinese customers. It is because in the 1994 research, McDonald’s only had outlets in Shenzhen and Beijing; but in the following years, McDonald’s expanded nationwide, 797 outlets in main cities in 29 provinces in 2008 as mentioned before where are also most universities located in. In this situation, Beijing university students that consumed McDonald’s could represent almost all university students who had consumed it in 1990s for its limited outlets, which is comparable to the nationwide university students that consume it in 2008.
3.1 The pervious studies on McDonald’s China and the research framework
Making a reference to the pervious studies on McDonald’s in China, this part talks about how was this fast food restaurant operated, its images in customers’ eyes and how they behaved in the restaurant.
3.1.1 The products of McDonald’s: in Yan’s research, he found the menu of McDonald’s in Beijing in 1994 was almost the same as those in the Western countries, including hamburger, fries, fried chicken and drinks like Coca-cola (Yan, 1997, 2000; Watson, 1997b). It also happened in other East Asian markets that usually at the beginning of its entries in the East Asian market; McDonald’s maintained its western menu (Watson, 1997a, b; Wu, 1997; Emiko, 1997). With an exception to children, scholars found customers in East Asian economies including China did not like McDonald’s food very much, some of them just consumed for its “cultural atmosphere”. Apart from food, Yan wrote:
“they [customers] were all thrilled by the eating experience, the encounter with friendly employees, quick service, spotless floors, climate-controlled and brightly dining areas, and of course, smiling Colonel Sanders standing in front of the main gate.” (Yan, 2000)
He pointed out the friendly and routinized services like all employees wear uniforms, as well as the humanized restaurant environment impressed and attracted customers (Yan, 1997, 2000). Definitely for these customers, they were consuming experiences and symbols rather than its products.
3.1.2 The image of McDonald’s: scholars ever found in Taiwan and Hong Kong many customers consumed McDonald’s because they felt it represented the American lifestyle and enjoyed the diverse cultural atmosphere showed in the fast food restaurant (Watson, 1997; Wu, 1997). Watson also stressed McDonald’s might be also a symbol for modern cosmopolitan culture, for instance, compared to local restaurants, McDonald’s physical setting matched the lifestyle of new rising middle class better (Watson, 1997). Similar consumers’ understandings were also found in mainland, some educated and high-income youths mentioned they preferred McDonald’s because they thought themselves as “new humans” who should be “Yang (洋)” and never go to local and traditional restaurants that were so “Tu (土)” (Yan, 2000). Going beyond, many Chinese customers felt being respected in McDonald’s restaurant, some of them highlighted it was an atmosphere filled with human equality and democracy (Yan, 1997, 2000). According to Yang (2005), after the 1989 political crisis, the proportion of converts to Protestant Christianity in urban China rose over 50% than that in 1988, and most of the new converts with higher educational level preferred gathering in McDonald’s partially because of their identification with this restaurant as a sign of modernity and westernization, and the core of western modernity to them was democracy (Yang, 2005). In this regard, we can see the symbolic meanings of McDonald’s are interpreted by Chinese customers in three dimensions, economically (social status), societal and culturally (identity and lifestyle) as well as politically (political modernity in terms of freedom, human equality and democracy).
3.1.3 Consumer behaviours in McDonald’s: this part concerns the consumer behaviours in McDonald’s restaurants for two reasons. First, it is assumed that the different local cultures are reflected in the local customers’ behaviours, for instance, the Hong Kong customers in McDonald’s in 1970s didn’t queue to buy food as what American ones did, while American visitors could not understand why Hong Kong customers took seats before buying food (Watson, 1997). So it’s important to know how the McDonald’s responds to consumers’ behaviours which is helpful to explore whether it has contextualized itself in the local markets or not. Second, the corporation practices may also affect the consumers and even form new local cultures. In Hong Kong’s case, the customers in McDonald’s began to queue in 1980s and the after, and this new “custom” later on spread around in all occasions that keeping order is in demand (Watson, 1997). In contrast to the impacts of local on the global, it concentrates on that of global on the local, in terms of how global market and its key actors, the transnational corporations shape local consumers’ ideas of consumption as well as re-socialize them of the ways to consume.
In Beijing, Yan (1997) found that different from United States, Chinese customers in McDonald’s stayed in the fast food restaurant for long time: ordinary friends had cups of coffee and chatted for hours, so did boy and girl friends sat in the corner which was considered as “lovers’ seats”; students wrote homework in McDonald’s, while the younger children played in the McDonald’s paradise with toys in it, and their parents sat and watched them nearby. In this regard, the fast food restaurant only means the fast provision of food for the sellers, but not the fast eating and leaving for the customers. Yan explained the customers thought they had paid for the long-time stay and the use of facilities together with the food; they treated the restaurant as a public space for leisure, and family and friends’ gatherings (Yan, 2000). In response to this, the McDonald’s normally tolerated customers’ long-stay (Yan, 2000), but the waiters might arrange new customers besides those stayed too long in order to remind them to leave at times, especially during the peak (Liu, 2003). Besides, more customers thought McDonald’s food was a snack rather than a dinner, and they usually didn’t feel full after it. They thought the food was clean, nutritional and healthy as what the advertisements propagandized, but might be not tasted well. For the price, some respondents said they had to save money for days so as to have a meal in McDonald’s, and most of others agreed that only middle-income and above families could afford to have it frequently. For the manners, customers responded that they usually restrained themselves in McDonald’s, queuing to buy food, being polite to others and speaking at a low voice. However, although McDonald’s encouraged them to tidy up the table by themselves, they never did it because they already paid for it (Yan, 1997, 2000). In Hong Kong McDonald’s, some older customers ever got all the napkins; so in order to prevent from waste, the manager decided to delegate one employee to hand out napkins after customers received their food (Watson, 1997). Similar things also happened in Beijing’s so employees delivered napkins together with food, but most customers said they felt shamed at these behaviours of “presuming small advantages” and never did them (Yan, 2000).
4.1 The current research data and comparisons
4.1.1 In Feb. 18th, 2008, The 21 Century Economic Report, one of the most famous financial newspapers in mainland China, published a report on the localization of McDonald’s in mainland market. The author wrote that in 2008, Chinese customers could clearly feel the change of McDonald’s, especially its localization strategy: it established the Beijing 2008 Olympic groups that would provide McDonald’s Olympic food and services during the game period; And during the Spring Festival, McDonald’s delivered gifts in Chinese styles to customers, such as the toys of “animals of Chinese birth years”（生肖）and pocket money that usually given to children during Chinese new year（压岁钱）and so on. The author thought those were the efforts made by the McDonald’s attempted to localize its services and image (Han, 2008). However, according to a report in another famous Chinese financial newspaper, the author compared the degree of localization of McDonald’s to another American fast food brand, the Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC); he found the latter was highly commended by Chinese customers for its localized menu. For instance, in KFC’s breakfast menu, it has the twisted cruller and congee in Chinese style; and rice and vegetables in the lunch menu, which Chinese customers are used to. On the other hand, McDonald’s in its food seems less diverse and sticks to its menu originating from America. Besides, the author also referred to the corporations’ developmental strategies, for KFC, it established its first Chinese outlet in Beijing dated back to 1987, and relocated its head office in Shanghai in early 1990s; but for McDonald’s, its first outlet came out in Shenzhen in 1992 and just moved its Chinese head office from Hong Kong to mainland recently. Therefore, He thought it was reasonable the first global fast food brand—McDonald’s could only be ranked 2nd both in the outlet amount and gross sales in mainland China (Hui, 2008). Apart from the newspaper reports, I also make a reference to the McDonald’s Chinese main website. Although in its 2007 annual report, McDonald’s decided to do locally-relevant core menu extensions, in Chinese market it sold the new products—“Filet-O-Fish” and the like, but no information of the new food menu is mentioned in the website. For the existing new food choices, I suppose they are all similar to the pervious ones with the only difference in the cores, for instance, in hamburgers they change from pork and chicken to beef and fish (McDonald’s China web, 2008). In my questionnaire, there are three questions on the fast food choices at the beginning (see Table 1, 2& 3).
Table 1: Do you like McDonald’s?
 Yes No Total
No. 123 78 201
Percentage (%) 61.20 38.80 100.00
Table 2: Which is the most important reason that you like McDonald’s?
Reasons No. Percentage (%)
Well-tasted and sinicized food 2 1.63
Well-tasted and westernized food 37 30.08
The convenient location and environment 47 38.21
Good image 7 5.69
Cheap price 13 10.57
Good publicity 4 3.25
Good services 7 5.69
Others 6 4.88
Total 123 100.00
Table 3: When stepping into McDonald’s outlets located in China, you identify it as
 No. Percentage (%)
Chinese restaurant 13 10.57
American-style restaurant 25 20.33
Chinese restaurant in American style 75 60.98
Others 10 8.13
Total 123 100.01 100.00
In Table 1, 201 people answer this question, and I select the 123 respondents who like McDonald’s, and have also finished all the following questions as my research samples. In table 2, they identify the reasons that they like McDonald’s. The three most important ones for the university student customers are: 1) The convenient location and environment; 2) Well-tasted and westernized food; 3) Cheap price. And only 2 respondents think McDonald’s food is sinicized. In table 3, more than 50 % respondents identify it as Chinese restaurant in American style which balancing the Chinese belonging and American style, while around 20% stress the American-style as well as 10% concentrate on the “Chineseness” or Chinese ownership of the restaurant. In this regard, this paper holds the view that although McDonald’s in its annual report is determined to localize its food menu; it has not realized it at this stage, but trended to maintain most of its American-style and universal practices used around the world in its food and the restaurant decoration in China, at least not in the Chinese public image. Apart from these, the services to a certain extent have experienced localization as some newspapers reported.
4.1.2 To explore McDonald’s brand images, especially its symbolic meanings in Chinese university student customers’ eyes nowadays, the paper goes in three dimensions, first in socio-cultural realm, is having McDonald’s still representing the American or westernized lifestyle; then in socio-economic realm, is it a consumption pattern for the middle and upper income (class) customers; and finally in political realm, is it still viewed as a sign for political modernity, especially the American liberal-democracy.
In table 3 we know that around 80% respondents agree that McDonald’s restaurants are in American style; but it does not necessarily mean that consuming McDonald’s is experiencing the westernized/ American lifestyle. In table 4, about 65% of my respondents consider it not. It tends to be a culturally-American but ordinary restaurant in the local market, to some extent, with Chinese belonging in terms of its ownership and location. In the socio-economic realm, there are almost 96% respondents holding the view that McDonald’s does not represent middle or upper class status in China in the current times (see table 5). This change may be rooted in the expansion of McDonald’s investments and therefore more and more people get the chance to consume it on one hand, while the increasing incomes of urban residents (e.g. the university student/graduate customers) enhance their consumer abilities that can afford to consume the goods that once sound expensive to them. In the political realm, 64% of the respondents feel respected in the McDonald’s setting and 55% consider the politeness from others representing an equal relationship among people (see table 6 & 7) similar to those in 1990s. But not many (22%) respondents think McDonald’s as a sign standing for American democracy in table 8. Compared to 14 years ago, the image of McDonald’s has experienced great changes in terms of its symbolic meanings in American lifestyle, stratification and some in the political modernity, and the cultural and symbolical experience therefore recedes its attraction to the customers. But Zeng’s study interestingly finds that McDonald’s advertising strategies today still crack itself up as a middle-class consumption pattern going against what university student customers imagine (Zeng, 2004).
Table 4: Do you think consuming McDonald’s is a behaviour experiencing Westernized/American lifestyle?
 Yes No Total
No. 42 81 123
Percentage (%) 34.15 65.85 100.00
Table 5: Do you think consuming McDonald’s represents a middle/upper class status?
 Yes No Total
No. 5 4.07 123
Percentage (%) 118 95.93 100.00
Table 6: Do you feel respected when you consume in McDonald’s?
 Yes No Total
No. 44 79 123
Percentage (%) 35.77 64.23 100.00
Table 7: Do you think others’ politeness to you in McDonald’s represents human equality?
 Yes No Total
No. 55 68 123
Percentage (%) 44.72 55.28 100.00
Table 8: Do you think McDonald’s can be a symbol of American democracy?
 Yes No Total
No. 27 96 123
Percentage (%) 21.95 78.05 100.00
4.1.3 For consumers’ behaviours in McDonald’s, this paper examines how customers behave in its restaurants and then how McDonald’s responds to them. According to my research (see table 9), around 60% of the sampled Chinese university student customers in McDonald’s usually do not leave the restaurants soon after they have had food, but most of them just stay for a short period of time, while not many customers ever experience to be reminded or implied by waiters to leave, lower than 10% (see table 10). In this regard, it is clear that McDonald’s tolerates customers’ long-stay as before.
Table 9: Do you leave soon after you have had food in McDonald’s?
 No, I usually stay long No, I stay for a short period before leaving Yes Total
No. 6 68 49 123
Percentage (%) 4.88 55.28 39.84 100.00
Table 10: Have you been reminded or implied by waiters in McDonald’s to leave?
 Yes No Total
No. 11 112 123
Percentage (%) 8.94 91.06 100.00
For the food there, although the selected respondents all like McDonald’s, over 90% of them do not think is a health diet (see table 11), which is quite different from the view of customers in 1990s that believed it was healthy, clean and nutritional. This may be due to the awareness of Chinese customers of fast food; they now label McDonald’s and KFC food as “Rubbish food” and this opinion is so widely received that even to be published in official press like People Daily. Chinese food experts highly criticize these American fast foods non-nutritive, and even doing harms to children’s health a lot (Zhao, 2007). In response, McDonald’s now adds information about food health in its advertisements and publications for customers’ reference in the restaurants, while still claims it tries its best to provide healthy diets for Chinese consumers (Zeng, 2004). It’s interesting that, although being aware of its unhealthy food, the respondents still like to have McDonald’s. Interviewees in one piece of news tell that it is because McDonald’s food has a good taste, and its restaurant locations are convenient as well as the restaurant environment is comfortable. At the mean time, a more important reason raised is that they think if they eat infrequently, it will not do much harm to their health (Zhao, 2007).
In United States and Hong Kong, as Watson wrote, people had McDonald’s for meals, and the fast food restaurant became normal consumer food in daily life which might help to increase its sales and enlarge influences on customers (Watson, 1997b). But in Yan’s 1994 research in mainland China, more customers thought it was a snack, and they usually didn’t feel full after it (Yan, 1997). It has few changes after 14 years, in table 12 & 13, we can find that around 60% respondents still think that having McDonald’s food as a snack rather than a meal, but most of them (81%) find it is enough for them no matter as a snack or a meal.
For the food price, more than a half respondents think it is ok and affordable for them (see table 14). As mentioned before in table 5, for the university student customers nowadays, they don’t think McDonald’s is a consumption pattern for the middle and upper class any more. Being able to afford to have it possibly contributes to this new understanding.
Table 11: Do you think McDonald’s food is a health diet?
 Yes No Total
No. 11 112 123
Percentage (%) 8.94 91.06 100.00
Table 12: Is McDonald’s food a snack or a meal for you?
 No. Percentage (%)
A snack 21 17.07
A meal 7 5.69
Usually snack, sometimes meal 53 43.09
Usually meal, sometimes snack 26 21.14
Others 16 13.01
Total 123 100.00
Table 13: Do you usually feel full after having McDonald’s food?
 Yes No, but it’s ok for me because I don’t like eating full No, I need other food later Total
No. 89 11 23 123
Percentage (%) 72.36 8.94 18.70 100.00
Table 14: How do you think McDonald’s price, is it expensive or cheap?
 Expensive It’s ok, affordable. Cheap Total
No. 40 69 14 123
Percentage (%) 32.52 56.10 11.38 100.00
Overall speaking, the customers’ behaviours in McDonald’s do not change a lot from that in 1990s, but this study still has some interesting findings. For instance, most of the sampled customers respond that they usually do not speak aloud in McDonald’s restaurants, or lower their voices when they find themselves discourteous (about 76%, see table 15), which is almost the same as Yan’s finding that customers attempted to perform polite and gentle in the setting. And then, since napkin nowadays in McDonald’s is delivered together with food, customers could not help themselves to it, I use another two similar but common behaviours to study customers’ thinking when consuming the food and services (see table 16 & 17). First, in the case whether respondents request no ices in the drinks , about 63% of them tell they ever do it and 30% do it frequently. The second question is that do they request more tomato pastes beyond their needs, and 74% of my samples respond that they do it. These two behaviours do not necessarily belong to the category labelled by customers in 1990s as “presuming small advantages”, but the underlying story behind all three behaviours is that the customers think they should at least get what they have paid for and extras if possible.
American McDonald’s customers, according to Watson (1997b) and Yan (1997), usually take away the food or consume it quickly and clean the remains by themselves following the invisible contract between them and the fast food brand in the small size restaurant . Chinese ones in 1994 didn’t do this since they thought they had already paid for the cleaners (Watson, 1997b; Yan, 1997). However, referring to table 18, more than 85% customers tidy up their remains; and about 42% of them reach what the American ones do. Compared to the situation in 1994, it seems customers today make more sense of McDonald’s corporation practices and the contract, and are willing to follow it.
Table 15: Do you speak aloud in McDonald’s?
 No. Percentage (%)
No 75 60.98
Yes, at my normal voice in other places 23 18.70
Yes, but I will lower if finding myself discourteous 19 15.45
Yes, but I will keep on 6 4.88
Total 123 100.01 100.00
Table 16: Do you request no ices in the drink when you buy McDonald’s food?
 Yes, always Yes, sometimes No Total
No. 37 41 45 123
Percentage (%) 30.08 33.33 36.59 100.00
Table 17: Do you request more tomato pastes than you need when you buy McDonald’s food?
 Yes, always Yes, sometimes No Total
No. 38 54 31 123
Percentage (%) 30.89 43.90 25.20 99.99 100.00
Table 18: Do you tidy up the remains after having McDonald’s food?
 No. Percentage (%)
Yes, put remains in the tray then leave. 53 43.09
Yes, put remains in the tray and bring it to the bin, then leave. 52 42.28
No 18 14.63
Total 123 100.00
Clearly we can see that, there are great changes in customers’ view on whether it is healthy food and its price, and their behaviours in the fast food restaurant; most importantly they begin to follow McDonald’s corporation practices that differ from the situation in 1990s. But on the other hand, few changes have taken places in the way receiving McDonald’s food as a meal, and other consumer behaviours such as the long-time stay in the restaurant, speaking in a low voice and the thinking of consumption.
5.1 Discussion and conclusion
In response to the three aspects detail the research question, my findings are 1) for the products, except some services, McDonald’s has not realized its determination to contextualize itself in the Chinese local market, both in its food menu and corporation practices; 2) for the brand image, great changes have taken places in Chinese university student customers in its symbolic meanings of American lifestyle and class identification, as well as some in the understanding of political modernity. Generally speaking they turn to consume its food, facilities and environment instead of the attraction of cultural and symbolic experiences, but McDonald’s interestingly continues publicizing itself as a middle-class consumption pattern that goes in the other way of many customers’ imagination; 3) for customers’ views and behaviours in McDonald’s setting, customers have changed their ideas of its diet and price, and some behaviours as well like beginning to clean remains on their owns which thanks to its re-socialization practices. But they also maintain local customs and thinking that force the foreign corporation to rethink its globally universal practices and receive the local contexts.
   Throughout the study, there is no doubt that the McDonald’s has broadened and deepened its investments and practices in China context; along with this process, its images and selling points are changing in Chinese consumers’ eyes. However, this paper takes the position seeing that its marketing strategies in local Chinese market, no matter in itself or from customers’ perspective, not completely maintain its global practices or experience totally localization process, but going in the way of hybridization of the global and the changing local. In its products, the key word is “global”; when coming to the changing brand images, it becomes the “changing local”. The consumers’ views and behaviours in the restaurant are far more complicated because they originate from the interplay between the two. Taking the study of customers’ behaviours as an example, McDonald’s has a certain level of capacity to influence customers’ performance or even re-socialize them how to behave and cooperate with it in its restaurants. So to certain extent, it begins to form new customs for Chinese consumers. But the further study shows that its capacity is limited because customers still practise their local culture and daily customs (except speaking in a low voice) that opposing its direction universally practised in the western world, it seems to tolerate these local conditions and now plays quite well as a public space— its new focus that increasing attract customers enjoy its good-taste food, affordable price, convenient location and comfortable environment. Here we can see its advantages and limits as a transnational fast-food corporation practising its localization strategies by interacting and interpenetrating with the local market demand and cultural practices, the result seems bringing about a new hybrid type of Chinese-contextualized McDonald’s and its especial interrelation between the foreign restaurant and the customers, at least to the present-day period.
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