The American Way

“After Cowboy Chicken Came to Town” is a story that follows the narrator, Hongwen, as he works at the American restaurant Cowboy Chicken in China under the ownership of Mr. Shapiro, an American capitalist. Time and time again throughout the story, the author makes it easy to identify the differences between American culture and Chinese culture, particularly in terms of how a restaurant is operated.

At the beginning of the story, a customer eats two of his four pieces of chicken before complaining that he wants a full refund. The Chinese employees claim that the customer already ate some of his chicken so they wouldn’t offer him a refund. After hearing the commotion, Peter, the manager, comes out and explains the situation to Mr. Shapiro who doesn’t speak any Chinese. They offer the customer a half refund since he already ate half of the food, but even the half refund infuriates the employees. Mr. Shapiro explains that they need to follow the American way of doing business in the sense that the customer is always right and you should always try to satisfy the customers. The Chinese employees try to argue this point of view by stating that other people will now try to take advantage of them and that if you “let a devil into your house, he’ll get into your bed” (185).

Another example of a cultural difference occurs when Mr. Shapiro comes up with the idea of starting a buffet. None of the Chinese employees have ever heard of a buffet, but they are all for it. When Mr. Shapiro prices the buffet at nineteen yuan and ninety-five fen, the employees are again puzzled by the boss’s business tactics. Why not just price it to a whole number? Peter explains that this is the American way of pricing a product because “you don’t add the last straw to collapse the camel” (193). In other words, seeing nineteen yen is more attractive to the consumer than twenty yen, even if it is only a yen difference.