China Food & Drinks

McDonald’s Hamburger Crisis

Trending Topic of July 30, 2014: Besides the big news about the formal investigation into China’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang, there are more mundane topics Sina Weibo’s netizens are concerned about, such as the current state of McDonald’s hamburgers.

Published

5 years ago

July 30, 2014

Manya Koetse

Trending Topic of July 30, 2014: Besides the big news about the formal investigation into China’s former security chief Zhou Yongkang, there are more mundane topics Sina Weibo’s netizens are concerned about, such as the current state of McDonald’s hamburgers.

Netizens are complaining that their hamburgers have tragically changed into ‘meat buns’ (汉堡惨变肉夹馍). McDonald’s China currently serves hamburgers without ingredients such as lettuce, onion or pickles, due to serious problems with its supplier.

Recently, local Chinese media exposed how supplier Shanghai Fuxi (上海福喜) provided inferior and expired meat products to China’s biggest fast food chains, including McDonald’s, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. On July 28, McDonald’s announced it was no longer working with the Fuxi company since the 25th. This led to a stock deficiency in restaurants all over the country. Some restaurants only serve drinks and fries, while others are serving bare hamburgers without bacon, lettuce or onions. McDonald’s has stated that it hopes to find a different supplier as soon as possible and continue business as normal by the beginning of August (Sina 2014).

In the midst of the McDonald’s hamburger crisis, a picture has gone viral over Weibo of a restaurant next to a KFC; the shop has put up a banner saying: “With the kind of meat you’re selling, I feel ashamed to be your neighbour.” There are also netizens who object to the comparison of the hamburger with the Chinese ‘meat bun’ (roujiamo, 肉夹馍) – a famous type of street food: “I personally feel that this topic is an insult to the roujiamo, which is both delicious and nutritious. How can you compare it with that trash food?!”

References

Sina. 2014. “厦门洋快餐部分产品断货涉事餐馆公示表清白.” Sina News, July 29. http://fj.sina.com.cn/news/s/2014-07-29/080762878.html.

– by Manya Koetse

China Food & Drinks

Coca Cola Introduces “Ocean Plastic Bottles” to Combat Marine Waste Problem

Coca Cola’s innovative ocean plastic bottles have become top trending on Weibo.

Published

4 days ago

October 17, 2019

Manya Koetse

As Coca Cola introduced the world’s first bottles made from recycled ocean plastic waste this week, the topic has risen to the top trending on China’s Sina Weibo.

As reported by Business Insider, Coca Cola has released 300 sample bottles showing the potential of its new technology that is able to transform lower-grade recycables into high-quality food packages.

The Coca Cola bottles were produced using 25% recycled marine waste, collected by volunteers and fishermen during 84 beach cleanups in Spain and Portugal, the report says, with the company’s long-term goal being to have all its plastic bottles be made from 50% recycled plastics by 2030.

Coca Cola will start to use more recycled plastic for its bottles from 2020 on.

With the topic now having reached 140 million views on Weibo, many people are discussing the issue. The majority of commenters applaud the environment-friendly initiative, but there are also some who say they fear the bottles would somehow contain “more pollutants” or start to “taste like the ocean.”

Others write they do not necessarily want to drink Coca Cola, but would like to obtain one of their ‘ocean plastic’ bottles as a collector’s item.

The Chinese news reports about the new Coca Cola initiative raise awareness on the problems of how plastic waste in oceans jeopardizes marine life.

“Environmental problems require immediate action,” one Weibo users writes: “A good company will take on the responsibility to do something.”

Some 200 billion plastic bottles are sold in China every year – many of them are already being recycled. Coca Cola, however, will reportedly be the world’s first company to use ocean plastic waste for its bottles.

Coca Cola is an important player in the Chinese beverage market; the company has introduced more than 60 products under 20 brands within mainland China.

China Food & Drinks

This Is the BBQ Restaurant Jack Ma Visited in Zhengzhou

Jack Ma’s late-night snack means overnight success for this Zhengzhou skewer place.

Published

2 months ago

August 29, 2019

Manya Koetse

Whatever Jack Ma does or says makes headlines in China. The superstar Alibaba founder has especially been a topic of discussion over the past week since his meeting with Tesla’s Elon Musk at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, where the two billionaires had a discussion about the risks and rewards of AI development.

But on social media platform Weibo, Chinese netizens have not just been discussing what Jack Ma has been saying over the past few days – what he has been eating has also become a topic that has attracted thousands of views and comments this week.

A BBQ skewer restaurant in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, gained overnight fame after a visit from the business magnate and his group. The Alibaba delegation visited Zhengzhou for a meeting concerning a strategic partnership between Alibaba and the local government.

Jack Ma visited the barbecue skewer restaurant around one o’clock in the morning, and was photographed and filmed by many people standing around.

Ma visited Dehua Pedestrian Street and Zhengdong New Area before arriving at the Zheng Xiwang restaurant. Ma was with a small group of people and spent a total of 700 yuan (around 100 US dollars).

Grilled skewers are popular all across China, but especially in the Zhengzhou region, which is also nicknamed the “holy land of skewers.”

Image via Dianping.com.

The Zheng Xiwang restaurant visited by Ma was founded in 1991 – although it was just a street stall at the time – and has been thriving ever since.

Besides skewers, Jack Ma allegedly ordered stir-fried Hunan prawns and spicy clams.

As Ma’s visit to Zhengzhou and the restaurant has gone viral, some social media users write that they have also visited the restaurant immediately after, sharing photos and their receipts as proof.

Weibo user Jia Chengjun (@贾成军) from Henan shared photos of people lining up to get a table at the popular restaurant.

According to various reports on Weibo, the restaurant’s owner initially offered Jack Ma the dinner for free, but the billionaire refused and paid anyway. His payment method will not come as a surprise; he paid with Alibaba’s online payment platform Alipay.

“Why would you offer him a free meal anyway?” some netizens wondered: “He surely has more money than you!”

Curious to try the same food as Ma? Zheng Xi Wang is located at the intersection of Fuyuan Street and Yingxie Street in Zhengzhou (福元路与英协路交叉口向西160米路北(银基王朝南门)).

By Manya Koetse
Follow @whatsonweibo

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