208 YUNXIANG YAN ploy advanced technologies or modern management methods 26 From a Marxist perspective, Ling Dawei has concluded that the race between im ported and local fast foods in Beijing is a race between advanced and back ward forces of production; hence the development of the local fast-food in- dustry will rest ultimately on modernization. 27 There is no doubt that these views have a basis in everyday practice; yet they all regard food consumption as purely economic behavior and fast-food restaurants as mere eating places. A more complete understanding of the fast-food fever in Beijing also requires close scrutiny of the social context of consumption-the participants and social settings, because "The specific na- ture of the consumed substances surely matters; but it cannot, by itself, ex- plain why such substances may seem irresistible. THE SPATIAL CONTEXT OF FAST-FOOD CONSUMPTION As Giddens points out, most social life occurs in the context of the "fading away"of time and the"shading off"of space. 9 This is certainly true for fast- food consumption Fast-food restaurants, therefore, need to be examined both as eating places and as social spaces where social interactions occur. a hysical place accommodates objects and human agents and provides an arena for social interactions, and it follows that the use of space cannot be separated- from the objects and the physical environment However, space functions only as a context, not a determinant, of social interactions, and the space itself in some way is also socially constructed. In the following pages I consider, on the one hand, how spatial context shapes consumers behavior and social relations, and how, on the other hand, consumers ap propriate fast-food restaurants into their own space. Such an inquiry must begin with a brief review of Beijings restaurant sector in the late igos in order to assess the extent to which Western fast-food outlets differ from ex- isting local restaurants Socialist Canteens and Restaurants in the I9705 Eating out used to be a difficult venture for ordinary people in Beijing be- cause few restaurants were designed for mass consumption. As mentioned 26. For representative views on this issue, see Guo Jianying 1995: Huang Shengbing 19951 Jian Feng 1992: Xiao Hua 1993: Ye Xianning 1993: Yan Zhenguo and Liu. Yinsheng 1992a; and zhong Zhe 1993 27. Ling Dawei 1995 28.Min1993p.27L 29. Giddens 1984. P 132 30. See Sayer 1985. Pp.30-31 c Lechner 1991: Urry I 985