Cultural Blending

Chinese Flavour in Western Food

By Nicole & Zhang Xinwen

"I would like to eat western-style food because it is much healthier than Chinese meals. I usually eat the salad with olive oil for the reason that I could get fewer calories than Chinese Stir-fried dishes." said He Shan, a Beijing native women who works in an international corporation in Chaoyang District, Beijing. Miss He had her lunch at a western-style restaurant named HOPS in Beijing on Nov 19th.

Making Toast


Since the 21st century, with the influx of western people and western companies, more and more Western restaurants have opened all over the China. The overall upward of social needs to make Western-style food market take off. According to Annual report of China's catering industry, 2014 national restaurant revenue reached 2786 billion yuan at a robust 9.7% above the last year.

Nowadays, with the rapid development of China's economy, China's catering industry is gradually changing. China's catering culture is broad and profound, however, the development trend of Western-style restaurant is consistent with China's overall economic development trend. Western food as one of the ubiquitous food occupy a place in the Chinese catering industry. Consumption of the Western-style food industry continues to grow. On the other hand, this change is not only a change in the catering industry, but also a reflection of cultural exchange between Chinese and Western.


It is never a good idea to eat without refining. The enthusiasm of Chinese people for eating is beyond imagination. Even if China were totally outplayed by the big western powers in the Late Qing Dynasty, Chinese food can still be used to satisfy self-esteem of some intellectuals. Nevertheless, with the open of treaty port, the Western-food culture which has been regarded as "barbaric" turned out to reverse unexpectedly! Over the course of a few decades, a large number of Western-style restaurant has been opened in concession and Chinese areas. At present, walking on the street and eating a better meal have been become a fashion symbol of modern city.




The overall upward of social needs to make Western-style food market take off. Western food is a breakthrough to thousands of years in traditional feudal color China diet culture. The ideas and values of the new generation of consumers are changing. This change has not only contributed to the breakthrough in the consumption of Western food, but also the breakthrough of traditional dining culture. Multi cultural color is based on the different local style food which produced by the western food companies. In order to distinguish it from other similar enterprises of Chinese food, western food pay more attention to the unique culture. So when the diversified western food industry in the face of the vast number of Chinese consumer groups, the Chinese-western food appears in order to closely link to market. This phenomenon represents an important direction of the development of Chinese food, which is the localization.


Foreigners can Find Western Food in China Easily