Hong Kong Foreign Culture Analysis

Nowadays, it is not surprised that Chinese-Western cultural relations appear all around the world because of the interaction. According to Tylor (1889), “culture is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by a human as a member of society”. It means that culture is livelihood. Hong Kong had a deep-seated traditional Chinese culture between 1850s and 1930s, with limited foreign cultural. However, Hong Kong changed to be hybrid culture, which contains Chinese culture, Hong Kong culture and western culture, between 1930s and 1960s. Thereafter, Hong Kong changes to local culture versus national and global culture because of globalization since 1970s. As stated

Although some related observations in the Skeptics’ perspective argue that the innate character of globalization is “Americanization” and it will lead to more conflicts between different cultures, globalization bringing convergence of cultures. “Disneyization” is one of the significant examples to explain how the cultures can be convergent because of globalization, even Disney is an America’s company. The word of “Disneyization” means “the process by which the principles of the Disney theme parks are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as the rest of the world” (Bryman, 2004). The business mode of Disney’s theme park is composed of the following four dimensions: Theming, Hybrid, Merchandising and Performative labor. Since there are six Disney’s theme parks built in five different countries and regions, those four characteristics have already promoted all around the world. In the past, experience is not the main determinant of consumption, but it only is the supporting role in the consumption process. However, “Disneyization” changed the mode of consumption. Consumption is no longer just a trick, but is the purpose itself. Nowadays,

While many people claims that the world is becoming more “Westernized” or “Americanized”, it is no doubt that the transformation of cultures is bringing new cultural goods (Tyler, 2003). For example, we can easily enjoy many specialty foods around the world. Even in some big cities, such as Hong Kong, Singapore and New York, there are some innovative “Fusion” dishes. Besides, as mentioned before, although McDonald’s stores are all over the world, in fact McDonald’s is not only selling American tastes (Erla, 1999). For example, the McDonald in Hong Kong have McRice Burger and twisty pasta which join the local unique characteristics of Cha chan teng; Norway have salmon sandwiches because Norway abound salmon; India have Maharaja Macs which is lamb burgers and McAloo Trkki which is vegetarian burger because Muslims do not eat pork and beef. Hence, McDonald’s product integrates different countries’ food culture to adapt the taste of local people. That means when multinational corporations input some products in other countries, the products will make appropriate adjustments which based on the local culture. As a result, when Western culture transforms to other places, the cultures of both sides will learn from each other and absorb each other’s essence. This mutual learning and integration process led to the emergence of cultural