| dc.description |
Coffeehouse culture has hit China, most visibly in the form of Starbucks outlets spreading across major cityscapes, controversially even breaching the sanctum sanctorum of the Forbidden City, as the company seeks to penetrate (or arguably to create) a lucrative PRC coffee-drinking market. The alacrity with which Chinese urbanites have taken to coffeehouses has provoked Chinese and foreign observers alike to theorize about the meaning of the development. Is it an indicium of deep social change, or merely another instantiation of existing trends of rampant consumerism and faddish adoption of Western ways? Some, perhaps hoping to see rather more in this, ask whether it might have implications for political evolution. Others argue (approvingly or otherwise) that it should primarily be viewed through the lens of globalization, an example of yet another massive American brand pushing into China. |
