YUNXIANG YAN Actually, the local response to the"invasion"of Western fast food begar in the late 198os, right after the initial success of KFC. It quickly developed into what some reporters called a war of fried chickens"in Beijing. Following the model of KFC, nearly a hundred local fast-food shops featuring more than a dozen kinds of fried chicken appeared between 198g and 19go. One of the earliest such establishments was Lingzhi Roast Chicken, which began business in 1989; this was followed by Chinese Garden Chicken, Huaxiang Chicken, and Xiangfei Chicken in 199o. The chicken war reached its peak when the Ronghua Fried Chicken company of Shanghai opened its first chain store directly opposite one of the kFC restaurants in Beijing. The manager of Ronghua Chicken proudly announced a challenge to kFC: "Wherever KFC opens a store, we will open another Ronghua Fried chicken next door. All of the local fried chicken variations were no more than simple imita- tions of the KFC food. Their only localizing strategy was to emphasize spe- cial Chinese species and sacred recipes that supposedly added an extra med icinal value to their dishes. thus, consumers were told that the chinese Garden Chicken might prevent cancer and that Huaxiang Chicken could strengthen the yin-yang balance inside one's body. This strategy did not work well; KFC and McDonald's won out in that first wave of competition. Only a small proportion of the local fried chicken shops managed to sur vive, while KFC and McDonald,'s became more and more popular. Realizing thatsimply imitating Western fast food was a dead end, the emerg ing local fast-food industry turned to exploring resources within Chinese cui sine. Among the pioneers, Jinghua Shaomai Restaurantin 1991 tried to trans- form some traditional Beijing foods into fast foods. This was followed by the entry of a large number of local fast-food restaurants, such as the Beijing Beef Noodle King(not to be confused with the California Beef Noodle King). The Jinghe Kuaican company made the first domestic attempt to develop a fast food business on a large scale. with the support of the Beijing municipal gow ernment, this company built its own farms and processing facilities, butit chose to sell boxed fast foods in mobile vans parked on streets and in residential areas. Thus it fell into the preexisting category of hefan(boxed rice)pur veyors. Although the price of boxed fast foods was much lower than that of imported fast food, the boxed fast foods did not meet consumers'expecta tions of fast food. The Jinghe Kuaican Company disappeared as quickly as it had emerged. In October 1992, nearly a thousand state-owned restaurants united under the flag of the Jingshi Fast Food Company, offering five sets of value meals and more than 5o fast foodsitems, allofwhichrwererderived from traditional Chinese cuisines. This company was also the first fast-food enter- prise to be run by the Beijing municipal government, thus indicating the im- 9. Duan Gang 1991 20. Zhang Zhaonan 1g92a