Today we are living in a commercial world, where economic values surpass cultural values. It is very difficult for us to cope up with every change around us. China should be respected for their continuous and consistent belief in the norms and values of traditional culture. But is there a slight intrusion of western culture taking place?

The lifestyle, idea of fashion and entertainment of Chinese people has changed. Foreign brands have already outnumbered the Chinese brands in almost all big shopping malls in major cities of China. Most of the young people prefer to buy a foreign brand product rather than Chinese brand. The young generation has already heavily attracted to the foreign brands for their wide range of choice, better quality, reputation, brand value and significant identification. The Chinese brand comes at the second on the list of the preference and only because of their cheaper price label.

McDonalds and KFC, together have more than 2,000 outlets around China. It can be questioned that how many of the Chinese brand with Chinese food have this many outlets around China. The basic economy says supply always move in coordination with demand. This clearly draws a picture that shows how popular are the foods from these two food franchises. There are Chinese food chains but with a very questionable growth rate. There would be many different factors behind failure of Feichang cola, but most important factor would be people's preference towards Pepsi cola and Coca cola.

Not only fashion or food, western movies and music are also having a great ratio over Chinese movies and music. Many of the high school and university students wait for the release date of an English movie rather than Chinese movies. Most of these young people don't know who Peng Xiuwen was. Some of them don't even know Wong Ka Kui or Xie Tianxiao as they only listen to foreign music.

Even if only a small percentage of the young generation wear western clothes, eat western foods, follow western entertainment, then it is hard for them to restrict themselves from thinking like a westerner. That would influence their behavior, attitude and would affect the whole generation.

Before taking the decision to yell at the young generations or restricting their access to western food, music and fashion, one should think that what alternatives these young people have in their hand. If they want to buy better clothing then how many brands are there from China? If they want to buy a perfume then is there any Chinese perfume?

Finally how many parents proudly describe to their relatives and friends when their son/daughter fluently speaks English, watch English movie, listen to English music? At the verge of starting a new decade, it is expected by everybody that the Chinese traditional culture and its values will remain the same all through the time.

The blogger is a Phd student from Bangladesh. This blog was published on 1:54 am December 24, 2009.

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