McDonald's restaurants are found in over 100 countries, serving tens of millions of people each day. What are the cultural implications of this phenomenal success? The widely read--and widely acclaimed--"Golden Arches East" argues that McDonald's has largely become divorced from its American roots and become a "local" institution for an entire generation of affluent consumers in Hong Kong, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul, and Tokyo. In the second edition, James L. Watson also covers recent attacks on the fast-food chain as a symbol of American imperialism, and the company's role in the obesity controversy currently raging in the U.S. food industry, bringing the story of East Asian franchises into the twenty-first century. Praise for the First Edition: ""Golden Arches East" is a fascinating study that explores issues of globalization by focusing on the role of McDonald's in five Asian economies and concludes] that in many countries McDonald's has been absorbed by local communities and become assimilated, so that it is no longer thought of as a foreign restaurant and in some ways no longer functions as one." --Nicholas Kristof, "New York Times Book Review" "This is an important book because it shows accurately and with subtlety how transnational culture emerges. It must be read by anyone interested in globalization. It is concise enough to be used for courses in anthropology and Asian studies." --Joseph Bosco, "China Journal" "The strength of this book is that the contributors contextualize not just the food side of McDonald's, but the social and cultural activity on which this culture is embedded. These are culturally rich stories from the anthropology of everyday life." --Paul Noguchi, "Journal of Asian Studies" "Here is the rare academic study that belongs in every library."--"Library Journal"

詹姆斯·華生，美國哈佛大學人類學教授，曾擔任香港中文大學客座教授。著有《晚清帝國和現代中國的喪葬儀禮》(Death Ritual in Late Imperial and Modern China)、《海外移民與中國傢族世係》、(Emigration and the Chinese Lineage)等書。