When Cowboy Chicken Came To Town

In the short story, “When Cowboy Chicken Came To Town,” the plot is about how an old American man named Mr. Shapiro, pushes for an American style ‘Chinese’ restaurant located in Muji City, in contemporary China. Mr. Shapiro hired a man named, Peter (Peihai), to be the manager of his restaurant because he fulfilled an education degree in business in the United States. The story also shows a deeper connection between Peter and Mr. Shapiro, Peter persuades Mr. Shapiro in making more American changes to a Chinese restaurant. Such examples, American restaurants have buffets that allow you to eat as much as you want but only paying a small  price. Mr. Shapiro takes to the persuasion and admires the journey of incorporating the American ways in his restaurant in hopes for a better restaurant than surrounding restaurants. This competitive drive relates to the issues in the US on how businesses such as Walmart, drive out local businesses as shown in this article. The short story states, “We got so much business that cooked-meat stands on the streets had to move farther and farther away from our restaurant.” This is an ignored issue seen in America since local business owners make a living from their sales, and when a big industry builds a store right in the middle of that area, it takes away their local profits. Moreover, today in China we still see American style ‘Chinese’ restaurants driving away the local authentic food stands. As stated in this article, “Those inside China would probably argue that none of those dishes resemble anything from a traditional Chinese menu.” In contrast, some may favor the American-Chinese food style but what matters is that the culture and history around Chinese food is not fully lost to American ways.