Global Policy Forum

By Elisabeth Rosenthal

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 cannot 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.

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