February 25, 2002

BEIJING JOURNAL

Buicks, Starbucks and Fried Chicken. Still
China?

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

EIJING, Feb. 24 — Du Yun
maneuvered the large orange shopping
cart into PriceSmart's parking lot, where she
popped open the trunk of her gray economy
Buick and began to fill it with plastic-bagged
groceries.

"I come here once a week, sometimes twice
— it's so convenient," said Ms. Du, a working
actress, who wore her hair twisted up in a
casual clip. "There was nothing like this in
China in the past."

In the last two years, Ms. Du and her
husband — double income, no kids — have
taken out mortgages to buy an apartment as
well as the car, a Buick Sail, which they
consider economical. Her husband is waiting
for the day when they can afford a snappier
second vehicle — preferably a Jeep.

Ms. Du, 29, likes to cook traditional Chinese
food, but with her 6-year-old niece visiting,
they will probably go to Colonel Sanders KFC
this weekend. For anniversaries, she and her
husband favor T.G.I. Fridays. "I really like
the atmosphere there," she said.

During President Bush's visit to Beijing last
week, leaders of these two powerful nations
were politely at odds on many issues. But
ordinary people in China's cities have found
much common ground with Americans , with
the way they live converging rapidly in the
marketplace.

In the last few years, China's major cities
have sprouted American stores and
restaurants at prodigious rates, including
Starbucks, PriceSmart, Pizza Hut,
McDonald's and Esprit clothing outlets. New
housing compounds bear names like Orange
County and Manhattan Gardens. A high-end Buick is a sought-after luxury
car, a replacement for last year's Audi.

Europeans may be wont to view every Big Mac as a terrifying sign of
American cultural imperialism, but Chinese have mostly welcomed the invasion
— indeed they have internalized it

In one recent survey, nearly half of all Chinese children under 12 identified
McDonald's as a domestic brand, according to Beijing's Horizon Market
Research. Like a seed falling on fertile soil, each new Western chain store
seems to generate a group of slightly cheaper domestic clones nearby.

"Chinese people these days have a very positive impression of American
commercial culture and popular culture," said Victor Yuan, president of
Horizon. "American products have been a new approach to bridge the gap
between the cultures — a kind of commercial diplomacy."

It is in some ways an odd affection, given that most Chinese remain distrustful
of the American government, seeing it as something of a bully. Several years
back there was a short spate of press commentaries suggesting that China
should develop its own fast food products to defeat the intruders. But such
views are rarely heard today and the numbers speak for themselves.

There are now 80 McDonald's in Beijing alone, a figure that has accelerated
greatly in the past two years. The number of Kentucky Fried Chicken outlets
has increased by 100 a year for the last 2 years, to about 600.

Shanghai and Beijing each have more than two dozen Starbucks. Most
Chinese never drank coffee until Starbucks came to town in 1999, selling small
lattes for over $2. "They go there to impress a friend or because it's a symbol
of a new kind of lifestyle," Mr. Yuan said.

PriceSmart, which tentatively opened its first store here in 1997, now has 18,
and plans to have 70 by the end of 2003.

"My daughter, who's 16, wants to go to the U.S.," said Gao Fugui, a
businessman, "but for me there's no point — I have basically the same life
here." Mr. Gao, 45, was piling beer (domestic) and wine (imported) into his
brand new sport utility vehicle, with silhouettes of skiers on the side and faux
leopard covers on the seats.

"Comparing life 10 years ago to now is like heaven and earth," he said. "The
quality of life has improved, the country's improved, even people's ideas have
changed."

A decade ago no one would have predicted that the texture of leisure for
China's emerging urban middle class would have such an American feel.
There are hip bars for evening. Mall shopping and miniature golf for day. Ski
resorts for winter. Water parks for summer.

"I like American products, especially clothes and cosmetics — I really follow
the styles," said Jiang Sha, 24, who in a white down jacket and blue turtleneck
took a lunch break from her job at an environmental monitoring company.

Ms. Jiang said she ate Western fast food many times each week. "Why not?
It's simple and fast, suited to my lifestyle."

In the 1980's, companies from other Asian countries were far better poised to
enter the huge Chinese market, Mr. Yuan said; they shared a culture and, in
the case of Taiwan, a language. But, he said, the Western companies did a far
better job of getting to know the rapidly changing tastes of the Chinese
consumer, even picking local names with great care.

Perhaps the crowning example of brilliant naming is Coca-Cola — Ke Kou Ke
Le, which sounds quite similar to the product's English name but translates as
"really tasty really fun."

Over time, Western products and stores have gained a reputation for high
quality and good service, Mr. Yuan said. But he added that in some ways the
actual products were beside the point.

"The Americans here are selling not just products but a culture," Mr. Yuan
said, "and it is a culture that many Chinese want.

While the Western chains are thriving, it is often the lightning-fast emergence
of Chinese-owned copycat stores that has really spread lifestyle changes to
the masses. These stores tend to cater to Chinese who can not quite afford the
imports. Ms. Du, the actress, could now also buy her groceries at the domestic
Jing Kelong shopping warehouse that opened just next door to PriceSmart. It is
part of a rapidly expanding and aptly named chain: the "Jing" comes from
Beijing and the "Kelong" is pronounced the same as the Chinese word for
clone.