Friday, November 03, 2006

"Golden Arches East"

I've got a review of Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia over at my Spot-on blog.

Here are the opening paragraphs:

Golden Arches East: McDonald's in East Asia was a surprise hit when it was first published almost ten years ago. An ethnographic study that not only advanced the scholarship in anthropology, it also appealed to and enlightened readers outside the academic world. Part of the reason for its success with the latter audience is obvious, at least in retrospect: we may know little about Asian societies but we do know McDonald's, and the book taught us a lot about these societies by showing how they adapted to an American institution and how that institution adjusted to them.

This book was a fresh study in "localization" as well as "globalization."

Now in a second edition with a new "Update" chapter by the editor, the Harvard anthropologist James L. Watson, Golden Arches East remains a valuable and accessible book. [click here to read the rest]

--Marshal Zeringue