From New York to Tokyo, from Mecca to Cape Town, McDonald's golden arches and KFC's red and white stripes have become iconic symbols of global cities. Today, as the call for "Guangdong invites the world to eat pre-made food" echoes, Chinese pre-made food has embarked on an equally spectacular global journey.

Chinese pre-made food going overseas is not just about packing Zhanjiang chicken, lion head goose, fish head with chopped peppers, and Kung Pao chicken into boxes with sauce packets. It's about how to make Chinese dining tables take root in different cultural regions, just like hamburgers and fried chicken have done.

Insights from KFC and McDonald's Global Expansion

In 1987, the first KFC opened its doors at Beijing's Qianmen; three years later, Shenzhen welcomed its first McDonald's. They brought not only unfamiliar flavors but also an imagination of standardization: beef patties processed uniformly in central factories and delivered frozen to various locations; bread pre-made in advance, requiring only heating and assembly at stores. Every action had a time measurement, and every taste could be replicated.

Before that, Chinese dining emphasized craftsmanship and "wok hei" (the breath of the wok). After that, consumers realized that dining could also be served through industrialization.

McDonald's captured children with "Uncle McDonald," and KFC won over office workers with "Colonel Sanders" - they used brand images and pursued precise control over certainty. This control was reflected in providing consumers with consistent quality and experience anytime, anywhere, eliminating uncertainty in choices and building strong consumer trust.

Meanwhile, they established mature supply chain systems: beef patties produced uniformly in central factories, frozen and delivered to stores; hamburger buns pre-made in factories, with stores only needing to heat and assemble. This model ensured stable quality while achieving cost control.

Consumers' Mental Accounting

The success of McDonald's and KFC is essentially a victory in managing consumer expectations. They don't just sell food; they sell certainty.

When people walk into fast food restaurants, they don't expect chefs to stir-fry on the spot. They want predictable, clean, quick, nutritious, and delicious meals.

Transparent pricing, open kitchens, nutritious and tasty food, and timely service - these are sources of trust.

Interestingly, many people are averse to Chinese restaurants using pre-made food but have no qualms about the standardization of Western fast food.

The reason isn't "pre-made" but "expectations": people go to fast food restaurants for speed and convenience, while they often expect fresh cooking when entering Chinese restaurants.

Price transparency and open kitchens are also key. Open kitchens make the preparation process clear at a glance, and meal sets priced at 30-40 yuan meet consumers' psychological expectations for fast food. This honesty actually builds solid trust relationships.

The Chinese Story of Pre-made Food: Chinese Cuisine Crossing Oceans

In fact, China's pre-made food industry has accumulated over 30 years of experience. In the late 1980s, accompanying the domestic expansion of KFC and McDonald's, a batch of local enterprises gradually grew by providing support services, learning another lesson from the catering industry: cold chain, packaging, and standards.

In recent years, driven by the realistic and massive demands of "post-00s" generation and the elderly, as well as industry visionaries, pre-made food has surged like a Qiantang tide.

Now, Chinese pre-made food is expanding globally just like KFC and McDonald's did back then. Guangdong, known as the birthplace of pre-made food, has seen Hengxing Group's aquatic pre-made food enter Europe, America, and the Middle East. Guolian Food has become a stable supplier of Chinese cuisine to European and American markets, while Pinzhen Technology has brought its "Yuxianfeng" brand into Australian and New Zealand supermarkets.

Exported Chinese pre-made food represents not only Chinese flavors but also a redefinition of standardized Chinese cuisine.

Four Keywords for Going Global

Chinese culture needs high-level translators to reach the world. Who are the "translators" for Chinese pre-made food to flourish worldwide, translating the complex temperatures, layers, and aromas of Chinese cuisine into a "language" that modern industry and modern life can integrate?

• Localization: Making Kung Pao chicken a bit milder in London, adding lemon to steamed fish in Sydney.

• Standardization: Ensuring the same dish from Dongguan to Toronto has stable taste and consistent temperature.

• Supply Chain: Setting up factories overseas and hiring local employees is not just about cost savings but also a process of cultural integration.

• Storytelling: Making even a small Cantonese dumpling tell stories of "reunion" and "home."

These four words speak to industrial logic but ultimately rest on emotional logic. Only by making people eat well, trust, and remember can Chinese cuisine go far.

When Chinese Pre-made Food Forms a Tripod with KFC and McDonald's

Looking ahead, we anticipate seeing such scenarios: At the supply chain level, the "shared factory" model will land globally, just like Guangdong's "Five Star" successfully producing Cantonese dumplings in New Zealand, realizing a new overseas model of "light capital, high efficiency."

At the consumption scenario level, we can imagine such scenes:

A Chinese nutritious lunch appears on the cafeteria menu of a London university;

Modified Kung Pao chicken sits in the frozen section of New York supermarkets;

Office workers in Tokyo convenience stores buy Yangzhou buns in the morning.

And in gentler corners, Chinese students in Paris share Cantonese basin dishes with French friends on New Year's Eve; elderly overseas Chinese in Toronto find childhood flavors through a box of pre-made New Year's dinner.

At that time, Chinese pre-made food and KFC and McDonald's will no longer be competitors but will jointly write the ecological chain of global dining language. What they tell is not just the victory of industry and modernization, but also the extension, integration, and sublimation of culture.

Food is the gentlest form of cultural export. Perhaps it penetrates national boundaries faster than language and art and is more easily understood.

As McDonald's and KFC penetrate the world through standardization, Chinese pre-made food is also finding its own international grammar through human touch and cultural memory.

At that moment, what goes out is not just delicious dishes, but also Chinese people's pursuit of a better life.