The McDonaldization, Disneyfication & Colazation of Society or Chinazation

The McDonaldization, Disneyfication & Colazation of Society

 or Chinazation

Michael Prosser

Department of English, Shanghai International Studies University

 

 

Abstract:

 

 International trade increases daily, especially in Asia, and particularly in China and India. With the McDonalds opening its first restaurant in Beijing In 1992,more and more western corporations such as KFC, Disney, and Coca Cola entered Asia market, especially Chinese market. But when we enter into the twenty-first century, both in Europe and in North America, we can often buy products that have been made in Asian societies, and even more from china. If the twentieth century was the American century, maybe the twenty-first century will be the Asian century or even Chinese century.

 

 

International trade increases daily, especially in Asia, and particularly in China and India. The leading multinational US corporations in 2001 included: Boeing, American Airlines, Nike, Pepsi Co., Coca Cola, Dow Chemical, Bank of America, IBM, Microsoft, General Electric, AOL Time Warner, McDonalds, Wal-Mart, Met Life, Mariott International, Procter and Gamble, UPS, General Motors,  Exxon Mobil. We note the presence of the airline industry, sports, finance, information technology, discount stores, hotels, various practical products, the auto industry, fast food, and entertainment and information.

 

In 1992, McDonalds opened its first restaurant in Beijing. The Beijing McDonalds had 700 seats, 2 kitchens, 29 cash registers, and 850 employees. It was the company’s largest restaurant. Beijing McDonalds had 40,000 customers on the first day, breaking the record established by the Moscow McDonalds two years earlier, which had 30,000 customers on the first day. Now, while the largest restaurant in Beijing no longer exists, many McDonalds in China and KFCs, Pizza Huts, Subways, Baskins Robins, Starbucks, and Taco Bells are present. In fact, KFC now has more restaurants in China than McDonalds.China has been McDonaldized, KFCed, and fast foodized. At many of these restaurants and fast food shops, the word from customers is often: “Supersize it, please.”

 

Its international expansion has been an important part of its business strategy. McDonalds’ first restaurant opened outside the US in 1967; in 1988: McDonalds had 2,600 stores outside  the US, with  $1.8 billion in annual revenues. By1994, there were 4,700 international franchises, producing $3.4 billion in annual revenues and by 2004 there were 35,000 restaurants, more outside US than inside.

 

 The McDonaldization of society can be seen by the company chairman’s widely publicized remark: “I want McDonalds to be more than a leader. I want McDonalds to dominate.” [in the world, that is] McDonalds is a symbol of the new post-modern dream across cultures as other fast foods and other fast service enterprises follow it quickly into world markets. George Ritzer in The McDonaldization of Society, revised in 1996, following Max Weber’s theory of rationalization, claims: McDonaldization is the process where fast food dominates not only the US, but much of the world. It affects not only food, but also education, work, health care, travel, leisure, politics, the family, religion, media, sports, pornography, and even death throughout society.

 

Ritzer argues that: McDonalds has four major characteristics: efficiency, calculability (quantity measures), predictability over time and space, and substitution of nonhuman for human technology leading to consistency. Ritzer notes that there are several advantages in the process of McDonalization: there is a greater availability of more goods and services, instant service, convenience, more uniform quality, more economical service and food, more certainty, a safe environment, the inclusion of entertainment and gifts, stability, and similar treatment as customers or workers, new innovations frequently,  and the process is more easily diffused to new cultures.                                                                                                                                                                            

At the same time in the McDonaldization of society Ritzer notes distinct disadvantages: as Max Weber would have called it, the irrationality of rationality, negative environmental factors, dehumanizing control of eaters and workers, robotization of workers and customers, a superficial concern for a happy quality of life, basically a fast-food factory, the illusion of quality, quantity, and intimacy, a loss of family cohesiveness in eating, a loss of traditional culture, more expensive cost than traditional foods, and the creation of a throw away culture, and long term negative effects on future.

 

Customers become pseudo employees, standing in line to order the food, and now more and more by pushing buttons on a computer for specific food items, and they also must empty their own food trays. Potential customers also long for the presence of a McDonalds or other fast food restaurants. When I was in Russia recently, many university students in a small city south of Moscow asked repeatedly, “Why is there no McDonalds in our city? It isn’t fair that we have been overlooked. Tell the leaders of McDonalds that we also deserve a McDonalds in our city too.” These students wanted also to share in the most post modern dream, an illusion of happiness.

 

There is a widely known of “McDonald Factor.” McDonalds enters a new cultural market because big profits can be made, and because the setting is safe and stable. McDonalds and other western fast food enterprises are not concerned with democracy or dictatorship and thus are essentially amoral. It promotes westernization, and thus Americanization, and thus whether it is McDonalds, KFC, or other fast food enterprises, it promotes the McDonaldization of society. Other Western multinational companies follow McDonalds’ judgment about profit, safety, and stability and therefore also enter the market. However, when McDonalds leaves a cultural market, it decides that it is either no longer profitable, or safe and stable. Other western companies follow, especially if they also are concerned about profit, safety, and stability. Anti-western protesters, mobs, or rioters are likely to burn western flags, hang western leaders in efficacy, and attack western businesses such as McDonalds. In China in 2005, protestors against Japan broke windows and equipment in Japanese owned and managed stores and restaurants, but ninety percent of the workers were Chinese. This is a similar pattern in developing countries, that when such protesters attack Western enterprises such as McDonalds, those hurt most are the local workers.

 

Disney’s impact on American, Chinese, French, Japanese and other cultures includes animation, architecture, art, computers, internet, dance, music, musicals, live theater educational contributions, management, entertainment, films, movies, TV series, hotels, business centers, magazines, newspapers, home videos, marketing, product placement, Television, radio, and cable networks.  Since the mid-1980s, Disney has branched into broadcasting, sports, Internet, publishing, and the retail business.  Disney owns four film companies: Walt Disney Pictures, Miramax Films, Touchstone Pictures, and Hollywood Pictures; as well as the videotape company Buena Vista Home Video; and Disneyland theme parks in California, Florida, Japan, France, and Hong Kong. A new Shanghai theme park is probable in 2010 to complement the Shanghai World Expo. Disney also owns: The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim professional hockey team; ABC Television Network; ABC Radio Network; ESPN and ESPN2, sports-oriented television cable networks; Kansas City Star in Missouri and Fort Worth Star-Telegram newspapers in Texas. Its Walt Disney and Capital Cities/ABC, Inc.’s 1995, $19 billion merger was the second largest acquisition in US history. Disney and Capital Cities/ABC, Inc. is the world’s largest multinational entertainment company. It has more annual wealth than the entire French government, and creates the expensive illusion of global happiness just as McDonalds and other fast food enterprises do, though far less expensively than Disney.

 

In 1995, Disney built and managed a public school at its 5,000-acre residential development near Walt Disney World, Florida. What would be the impact on Asian education if Disney builds and manages public schools near its Tokyo, Hong Kong, and probable Shanghai theme parks? Would Disneyfication compete with Asian educational values? While it is clear that Disney and such entertainment companies provide a great entertainment, and often-educational benefits, most of their contributions are promoting the illusion of happiness. This includes of course the very expensive theme parks that may cost a family much of its disposable income for a relatively short visit.

 

PepsiCo produces various soft drinks, snacks, and fast food. PepsiCo, Inc. is a major producer of carbonated soft drinks, teas, other beverages, and snack foods not only in North America, but also throughout the world. PepsiCo owns Frito-Lay Co. the leading snack-food maker in the United States, and Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC as well as, Quaker Oats and other cereals.

 

It is possible to say now that there are not only international and international wars, but also cola wars. Coca Cola continued its operations in Germany during WWII. Pepsi Cola obtained the first cola franchise in former Soviet Union in 1972. In 1984, both Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola had even sales. Coca Cola is presently the worldwide leader over Pepsi, with more than 80% in international market. McDonalds serves only Coca Cola drinks, and PepsiCo companies such as KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut sell only Pepsi Cola drinks.

 

Both sponsor sports events such as the Olympics, World Cups, boxing and wrestling matches, and car races. Both have exclusive agreements with different educational institutions in both North America and in Asia, and provide scholarships. Both have exclusive agreements with many different businesses, airlines, and travel companies. Some countries sell exclusively Coca Cola products and others sell only Pepsi Cola products. All colas of course have nothing more than empty calories, but no nutritional value all basically is colored sugar water. Only the juices and bottled water have any nutritional value, and then many of the juices only have ten percent juice.

 

McDonalds and many other western fast foods, Disney, and the colas all have in common: the empty illusion, but not the actual reality, of happiness. We could also mention tobacco and alcohol as producing the illusion of happiness. What does it mean for Asian cultures and values? What does it mean for Asian education? Will it have positive or negative effects on society?

 

In contrast to the westernization, Americanization, and McDonalization, Disneyfication and colazation, as illusions of happiness, it is often possible not to find such products in all of the developing countries, including Asia, but one almost always finds Chinese restaurants and business. Such food is typically healthier than many of the western fast foods. Also, Asia, especially in India’s extensive North American outsourced telemarketing, and Mumbai’s Bollywood, plus Indian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and Japanese computer hardware and software giants all are producing products specifically made by local workers. Both in Europe and in North America, we often buy products that have been made in Asian societies, and even more from China. Thus the question can be offered is Chinazation, and even Asianzation actually a more positive benefit for the world in general, and specifically for Asia than the westernized, Americanized, and McDonalization of society? Finally, we can ask, if the twentieth century was the American century, then will the twenty-first century be the Asian century. Will Asian societies and China primarily be westernized or will the West be more likely to become Asianizized or even Chinazized?

References

Encyclopedia Encarta, 2005

George Ritzer, The McDonaldization of Society, revised edition, 1996.