YUNXIANG YAN he everyday life of ordinary consumers when Western fast-food chains opened restaurants in the beijing market. Kuaican, the Chinese translation or fast food, which literally means"fast meal"or"fast eating, contradicts the ancient principle in Chinese culinary culture that regards slow eating as healthy and elegant. There are a great variety of traditional snack foods called ciaochi(small eats), but the term"small eats"implies that they cannot be taken Ls meals. During the late 1970s, hefan(boxed rice)was introduced to solve he serious " dining problems" created by the lack of public dining facilities and the record number of visitors to Beijing. The inexpensive and convenient hefan--rice with a small quantity of vegetables or meat in a styrofoam box uickly became popular in train stations, in commercial areas, and at tourist attractions. However, thus far boxed rice remains a special category of con- venience food-it does not fall into the category of kuaican(fast food),even though it is consumed much faster than any of the fast foods discussed in the following pages. The intriguing point here is that in Beijing the notion of fast. food refers only to Western-style fast food and the new Chinese imitations. More important, as a new cultural construct, the notion of fast food includes nonfood elements such as eating manners, environment, and patterns of so- cial interaction. The popularity of fast food among Beijing consumers has lit tle to do with either the food itself or the speed with which it is consumed. American fast-food chains began to display interest in the huge market in China in the early 198os. As early as 1983, McDonald's used apples from China to supply its restaurants in Japan; thereafter it began to build up distribution and processing facilities in northern China. However, Kentucky Fried Chicken took the lead in the Beijing market On October 6, 1g87, KFC opened its first outlet at a commercial center just one block from Tiananmen square The three-story building, which seats more than 5oo customers, at the time was the largest KFC restaurant On the day of the grand opening, hundreds of customers stood in line outside the restaurant, waiting to taste the world- famous American food. Although few were really impressed with the food it- self, they were all thrilled by the eating experience: the encounter with friendly employees, quick service, spotless floors, climate-controlled and brightly-lit dining areas, and of course, smiling Colonel Sanders standing in front of the main gate. From 1987 to 1991, KFC restaurants in Beijing enjoyed celebrity status, and the flagship outlet scored first for both single-day and annual sales in 1988 among the more than g, ooo KFC outlets throughout the world In the restaurant business in Beijing during the early Igos, architecture andinternal decoration had to match the rank of a restaurant in an officially prescribed hierarchy, ranging from star-rated hotel restaurants for foreign- ers to formal restaurants, mass eateries, and simple street stalls. There were strict codes regarding what a restaurant should provide, at what pnce,and 14. See Love 1986. P 448