Globalization of Taste and Modernity: Tracing the Development of Western Fast Food Corporations in Urban China

Food globalization has become an important topic in the discourse on globalization. There has been a rapidly rising trend of multinational food corporations integrating and dominating foreign agro-food markets. A clear example of this trend is present in China, whose economy and food industry experienced an influx of foreign direct investment and multinational retail and restaurant branches during the country’s economic opening in the 1980s. The aim of this research is to analyze the development of food globalization through the lens of Western fast food corporations and their successful integration into the Chinese market. The research also assesses the companies’ integration strategies. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications China’s case of food globalization has for further rhetoric on globalization and its impact.