American fast food is a favorite meal for many people because it is convenient, delicious and cheaper than western restaurants. Since the opening of McDonald's in Taiwan in 1984, fast food culture has become popular. Whether it is the American chain KFC, Burger King and Subway, or the local Dandan Burger and Dingguagua, or the Japanese-American Morse, they are all deeply loved by Taiwanese people. However, according to the year of entry of American fast food chains, McDonald's and KFC entered some Southeast Asian countries earlier than Taiwan. Singapore, the Philippines and Malaysia had McDonald's locations in 1979, 1981 and 1982 respectively, while KFC entered the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore in 1967, 1973 and 1977, earlier than Taiwan's entry in 1985. . As a former colony of the United States, the food culture of the Philippines is deeply influenced by the United States. Similar to British Hong Kong, Singapore, as a cosmopolitan city, attracts American capital. Why is Malaysia so popular with McDonald's and KFC? In terms of the number of branches,
there are about 295 McDonald’s branches in Malaysia (2019), second only to the fast-food giant Philippines with 669, more than Thailand’s 235 and Indonesia’s 217 (Taiwan has 398). Malaysia has the most KFC branches (2015) with 590, more than Thailand's 531 and Indonesia's 500. Comparing the number of branches per capita, it can be said that Malaysia has the largest number of McDonald's and KFC per person in Southeast Asia. Why are American fast food restaurants so popular in Malaysia? Malaysia has a relatively large number of American-style Wedding Photo Editing chain fast food restaurants. In addition to the direct reasons— the early entry time, economic, commercial, globalization, religious and cultural factors have all contributed to the formation of this phenomenon. American fast food for Asian countries is not as simple fast food as Americans think of it, that is, fast and cheap. Asians see it as a higher-level dining place than regular restaurants and local fast food restaurants. In his book Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia ,
Harvard professor James L. Watson discussed McDonald's cleanliness standards, customer experience, family-centered orientation, and localization, which allowed American fast food restaurants to penetrate into Asia. everywhere (such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul, and Japan discussed in the book). In Malaysia, traditional western food restaurants used to be expensive because they served colonial officials and wealthy people, while local Hainanese and Malay food did not have a standardized operation model like McDonald's. Entering an American-style fast food restaurant was a new experience, and it became part of the emerging middle-class consumer culture after the Malaysian economy took off