McDonaldization of Hong Kong - Essay Example

McDonaldization of Hong Kong Hong Kong is debatably the food center of the world with many restaurants that prepare cuisine from Nepal, Egypt, Russia and Brazil. However, Hong Kong residents love Western-style fast food so much (Watson, 4). The taste for pizzas, French fries and burgers have impacted on Hong Kong society, business and cuisine. Although McDonald’s franchise seems cheap, clean and convenient, it affects Hong Kong’s local cuisine. There are numerous negative aspects through which the business has impacted on the Hong Kong culture and population. Its unethical practices are well-known but do not appear to detract from the image and culture the corporation strives to project. This paper main focus will be on the impact fast food has on the people living in Hong Kong. Fast foods have been known to impact negatively on people’s health considering the main method of preparation of these fast foods is by deep-frying in cooking oils. Fast foods are also considered to have many calories, but limited nutrients such as minerals and vitamins. Additionally, most drinks and snacks in fast McDonald restaurants have a high sugar level. Therefore, Hong Kong residents who consume fast food often take in more calories than their body needs. Once the excess calories accumulate in the body there are great chances of a significant number of individuals being obese. Obesity increases the chances of an individual becoming diabetic as well as getting high blood pressure. It is unhealthy for people to eat franchise on a frequent basis. A worrying statistic is that it takes fifty one days for the body to digest fast-food French fries or chicken nuggets (Watson, 21). Despite McDonald’s franchise making efforts to sustain children with threatening diseases, the diet offered by the franchise contributes to heart disease, asthma and obesity.Hong Kong has been putting in measures to ensure its food industry embarks on activities that promote healthy lives among its people. However, McDonald’s has expanded rapidly which in turn had led to many children being hospitalized from poisoning of fast food. The expansion poses questions to Hong Kong’s policy on health foods since McDonald’s foods are known to lead to a number of illnesses (Schlosser, 123). The corporation’s operations are also tends to be dubious considering unlike the normal fresh ground beef patty found at a local Hong Kong butcher shop, a McDonald’s hamburger patty contains beef from more than a thousand different bulls. The bulls are established in as many as five countries and this elevates the possibility of a specific patty having foreign elements whose origin is unknown. From a public health perception, the use of meat from numerous sources makes it difficult to trace the source of contamination (Schlosser, 131) Fast food menus in Hong Kong are based on meat from slaughtered animals bred purposely for the fast food business. The animals provide calorie filled, unhealthy as well as chemically conditioned contents. Beef is the main source of most food poisoning incidents in Hong Kong because of the cheap production ways and means to get the food to the public at lower prices and large portions (Watson, 87). Moreover, the franchise does not promote the local businesses.For example, it does not use Hong Kong’s locally grown potatoes. Instead of using locally grown potatoes, it uses its own genetically modified potatoes. Genetically modified foods have had adverse impacts on the health of the Hong Kong people. They lead to food poisoning and this has been witnessed in Hong Kong. For example, Vibrioparahaemolyticus, a food poisoning pathogen accounted foraround 36% to 50% of all food poisoning outbreaks between 2001 and 2009 in the city. Another example is the 2008 incident when a local unit of U.S. fast food called McDonalds Restaurants, Hong Kong, was fined for selling ice cream that had bacterial count about five times the allowed level. It was reported the companys third breach of food safety rules in Hong Kong. Hong Kong foods are healthy, cheap and locally available unlike the McDonald’s franchise. They address the needs of the people unlike the American franchise that aims at marketing their own culture. Hong Kong residents consuming McDonald’s franchise have been described to take the ‘shape’ of the Americans by becoming obese and fat. McDonald’s products have an influence on the Hong Kong culture in that they undermine indigenous cuisines and create a homogenous, global culture. Hong Kong parents want to associate their children to the outside world. They reward their children with a trip to the McDonald’s. However, in so doing they are ‘taking away’ from their culture. The children in Hong Kong no longer mind about the unfamiliar origin of McDonald’s that serves ordinary food. They have abandoned their culture by not consuming the city’s meals that have a cultural experience (Watson, 109). Another notable undesirable change brought to Hong Kong by McDonald’s franchise is the increasing obsession with the American culture. Before the McDonald’s arrival, festivities celebrating children’s specific birth dates were not known in most of the city. For instance, lunar-calendar birth-dates were recorded for use later on in life. They were used to help in matchingpotential marriage partners’ horoscopes and choosing of a good burial date (Dunford, n.pg). The presence of McDonald’s restaurants in Hong Kong, and the associated American cultural customs led children in the city to recognize the potential for celebration of individual birthdays. In many respects, McDonald’s emergence in Hong Kong is in many ways permanently changing the culture where the past norms are being lost in McDonald’s party packages. Apart from health issues, the corporation has also had issues with its workers in Hong Kong. It pays low wages to their employees compared to other Hong Kong non-franchise restaurants despite it being worth billions. It, therefore, does not value the Hong Kong people’s labor but uses the labor to gain enormous profits for itself. The fast food chains promote poverty, exploit workers and torture animals. Adolescents are the main source of labor within Hong Kong’s fast food industries. Instead of relying on a small, well-paid, stable, and well trained workforce, McDonald’s franchises seek out part‑time unskilled workers willing to accept low wages. Teenagers are the perfect candidates for the jobs because they are cheap to hire than adults and also because of their youthful inexperience. The teenagers’ inexperience makes them easier to control. Hong Kong residents have tried to oppose this by forming a pressure group referred to as the Christian Industrial Council to prevent abuseof workers’ rights (Dunford, n.pg). The Hong Kong’s McDonald food industry does not live up to the expectation of environmental protection. It tends to use high quantities of paper products like paper bags, serviettes, paper cups and plastic products such as plastic bags and straws. The products are not separated and recovered after being used hence leading to the generation of a lot of waste. Styrofoam is the worst litter in Hong Kong because it takes at least nine hundred years for it to decompose in a landfill (Watson, 189). Statistics from the Hong Kong Department of Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs indicate that the food quantity transported via road doubled between 1974 and 2005. It implies that a lot of energy and fuel was used when it could have been prevented. A recent study in Hong Kong indicates that a McDonald’s restaurant making four hamburgers releases the same quantity of volatile organic compounds as driving a vehicle for one thousand miles. Public awareness is the best tool that can be used to help individuals be enlightened about the franchise’s practices and the effect they have on the environment, health and culture. Public awareness might help limit the impact of the corporation (Schlosser, 201). In conclusion, over the last four decades, McDonald’s franchise in Hong Kong has changed from a village burger stall serving fresh meat patties. It has transformed into a largecorporation using large production methods to produce and sell their products. The business has been a major success in terms of generating profits to the company. However, it has interfered with the local cuisines. The service does not address the local needs and has also led to erosion of the city’s cultural values. The nasty chemicals in the food, the large quantity of litter and the sickening amounts of pollution associated with the McDonald’s franchise should make the people in Hong Kong reduce the levels of consumption of McDonald’s foods. They ought to think about it as an occasional treat rather than a regular meal. Works Cited Dunford, L. The McDonaldization of Hong Kong. 2002. Web. 6 May 2014 Schlosser, E. Fast Food Nation. The Dark Side of the All American Meal. New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012. Print. Watson, J. L. Golden Arches East: McDonald’s in East Asia. New Jersey, NJ: Pearson Education, 2006. Print Read More