4.4. Consumption
However, the aforementioned Starbucks’ efforts were not necessarily fully appreciated by Chinese consumers. As Curtin and Gaither (2007) maintain, “What is being consumed is the symbol, not the manufacturing reality” (p. 125). Chinese online activists singled out Starbucks as an object of attack not because of its coffee but its underlying meaning–Western and in particular American.
As mentioned earlier, Chinese consumers view Starbucks as a destination restaurant rather than a coffee take-out joint, since its Day One in China. In the eyes of many Chinese people, the image of Starbucks is encoded with a meaning that might convey, like many fast food brands introduced from the U.S., “America, Western values, modernity,” a fashionable life style, as well as “the idea that a modern superstructure is arriving” in China (Curtin & Gaither, 2007, p. 85).
However, something “Western” associated with “modernity” may inherently contradict the meaning of the Forbidden City decoded by the Chinese, who regard the palace as a miniature of a traditional and well-protected society where they hold unchallengeable sovereignty. The presence of any foreign brands or products in this place may imply invasion of the Western culture assisted by Western corporate power.