()F IIAMBURGER AND SOCIAL SPACE. portance of this growing sector to the government. The Henan Province Red Sorghum Restaurant opened on Wangfujing Street in March 1996, immedi- ately across the street from the McDonalds flagship restaurant Specializing in country-style lamb noodles. the manager of Red Sorghum announced that twelve more restaurants were to be opened in Beijing by the end of 1996, all of which would be next to a mcDonalds outlet We want to fight McDon ald's, " the manager claimed, " we want to take back the fast-food market. "22 By 1996 the fast-food sector in Beijing consisted of three groups: The main group was made up of Mc Donalds, KFC, and other Western fast-food chains Although they no longer attracted the keen attention of the news media, their numbers were still growing. The second group consisted of the local KFC imitations, which managed to survive the 1991"chicken war. The most successful in this group is the Ronghua Chicken restaurant chain, which in 1 995 had eleven stores in several cities and more than 5oo employees. The third group included restaurants selling newly created Chinese fast foods, from simple noodle soups to beijing roast duck meals. many believe that the long tradition of a national cuisine will win out over the consumerstem- porary curiosity about Western-style fast food. Thus far, however, Chinese fast food has not been able to compete with Western fast food, even though it is cheaper and more appealing to the tastes of ordinary citizens in beijing Red Sorghum was the third business to an- nounce in public the ambitious goal of beating McDonald s and KFc (after the Shanghai Ronghua Chicken and Beijing Xiangfei Chicken), but so far none have come close. By August 1g96 it was clear that Red Sorghums lamb noodle soup could not compete in the hot summer with Big Mac, which was popular year-round. 24 The lack of competitiveness of Chinese fast food has drawn official at tention at high levels, and in 1996 efforts were made to support the devel- opment of a local fast-food sector. Concerned experts in the restaurant in- dustry and commentators in the media attribute the bad showing of the Chinese fast-food restauran ts to several things. In the mid-19gos, at least:(1) the quality, nutritional values, and preparation of Western fast foods were highly standardized, while Chinese fast foods were still prepared in traditional ways;(2)Chinese fast-food establishments did not offer the friendly, quick service of Western fast-food restaurants; (3)the local establishments were not as clean and comfortable as the Western fast-food restaurants; and (4) mostimportant, unlike McDonalds or KFC, Chinese restaurants did not em- 21. See Zhang Zhaonan 1992b; You Zi 1994: and Zhang Guoyun 1995. 22. Yu Bin 1996:"Honggaoliang yuyan zhongshi kuaican da qushi"1996. 23. Yu Weize 1995 24. See Liu Fen and Long Zaizu 1996 25. The development of Chinese fast food is incorporated into the eighth national five- year plan for scientific research. See Bi Yuhua 1g94: see also Ling Dawei 199