Globalization

Yifei Huang                                                          1

Professor Soomin Jwa

WR 098 C1

Mar 13th 2016

Paper 2 Final Draft

Accompanied by the rapid pace of social developments and progress, China has experienced enormous changes during the past few decades. In the essay written by Christina Larsen “The Startling Plight of China’s Leftover Ladies,” Larsen describes the modern China society with the discussion of left-over ladies. Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom writes in his essay “A Mickey Mouse Approach to Globalization” about China in the 1990s and the exploration of the truth of globalization. Comparing the two articles together, they show the overall development in China during these few decade, in the aspects of growth in economic conditions, increase in openness in people’s mind and improvement in modernization.

The growth of the economy in China can be described as significant since the late 1990s. At the very first time, McDonald’s entered China’s food market in the 1990s, the modernity and expensiveness McDonald’s brought to Chinese people was not widely acceptable. In the US, McDonald’s is concentrating on providing convenient and fast food to the relatively low-income community. However, McDonald’s came to China as a symbol of products from “ Western Developed countries”, and people consumed in McDonald’s only if they were at the special events or for romantic purposes: “University students thought of McDonald’s as a good place to go for a romantic night out”(Wasserstrom, 21). Because of the very poor economy situation in China, a woman can’t make their money, and most of them have no choice of their marriage because most of them rely on the man’s duty. Therefore, there’s no much

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left-over Ladies at that period. However, the economic situation in present time China, many years later from that period is entirely different. The increasing population of Left-over ladies in China can be one of the representation because women nowadays in China are more capable of making money and taking care of themselves, they have no needs to find a husband to rely on until they eventually find the one they really love. “But today women have more wealth and education: they have better jobs, and higher requirements for men”(Larsen, 284).This subtle combination of these two essays represents the raising of the economy in China, the directing phenomena being shown here is the comparison between people’s attitude towards McDonald’s in the past and increasing the population of Left-over ladies nowadays.

As the economic conditions getting better in China, the people’s mind are more open than the past, representing by their attitudes towards new stuff coming to them and the changes of standard in woman’s marriage. When Mickey Mouse came to China in the mid-1980s, where Disney was intending to offer free cartoons and trying to make money by selling authorize products to the customers. “Disney was trying to make money, offering Chinese state television free cartoons to show in the hope that viewers would rush out and buy authorized products”(Wasserstrom, 21). People in China were rejecting the Mickey Mouse cartoons and making fake products because the alien idea couldn’t be widely accepted by the general public and local people rejected to make the international transaction in order to ensure local benefit. Failing to making advertising effects in China’s market, Mickey Mouse was even made to

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shown on posters to fighting rats, “because he was the most famous rodent in China”(Wasserstrom, 22). On the other hand, the people’s attitudes were changed completely two decades later described by Larsen in her articles. In the past when women have no basic human rights: women needed to be married as a certificate as an adult.“Until you married, there were no basic human rights, No right to have sex before marriage. No house allocated by your danwei before marriage”(Larsen, 285). However, Chinese women gained their rights fully nowadays that they were capable of choose who they actually want to marry. Becoming more and more wealthy and well-educated, Chinese women have better jobs and ability to sustain their own life by themselves. As a result, they raise their marriage standard and refuse to follow the old ways to find their husband. “Today those barriers were crumbled, with rising sexual freedom and a booming private real estate market”(Larsen, 285). Chinese people’s mind are much freer and open than before that they get rid of their customs and develop into a more open-minded country.