INTRODUCTION

Recent studies find out that the population in the United States has kept growing and become even more diversified since last decade.  According to the US Census, the total population of the nation has increased 10.34% from 248,791 thousands in 1990 to 274,520 thousands in 2000. It is suggested that one-third of the growth is coming from increased immigration and thus make the general population more diversified ethnically than ever before.  For instance, total nonwhite population in the United States in 1990 is 40,050 thousands, it increased to 48,695 thousands in 2000 with a growth rate of 21.59%.  Compared with the national general population the population growth rate of the ethnic minorities is 11.25% higher (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000).

The increased ethnic population not only make the national population more diversified but also contribute to diversity of the national cultures and lead the United Sates coming to a new multiculturalism age from its tradition of melting-pot (Herbing, 1998).  The multiculturalism demands both mainstream society and ethnic groups mutually respect and adapt the cultural values (Tian, 1999).  In terms of understanding cultures it is suggested that one of the best ways is to look at what types of foods do people consume and how do they consume (Asp, 1999; Kittler and Sucher, 1995; Schau and Gilly, 1997). In marketing implementation, the multiculturalism makes it increasingly necessary to understanding consumer behavior through a cross-cultural perspective in the United States (Sherry, 1995, p. 27).

Restaurants are suggested as one of the best places to study consumer behavior. It is in restaurants that consumers are not only consuming tangible goods (food and drink), but they are also consuming the intangible service. It is in restaurants that consumers will interact with the waiters/waitresses and with other consumers.  It is also suggested that many consumer behavior related concepts and theories could be tested in the restaurant site, such as consumption motivation, family/friends influences on consumer behavior, cultural influences on consumer behavior (Doern and Kates, 1998; Goffman 1959; Leidner, 1993; McCarty et. al., 1990; Mano and Davis, 1990; Schau and Gilly, 1997; Tian, 2000a).

This study presents an exploratory descriptive examination of the cultural awareness and cultural learning of the American consumers in a Chinese buffet restaurant through an anthropological approach.  It is designed to examine the process of cultural contact and acculturation in terms of food consumption and social order found in the culture of an ethnic restaurant. The paper begins with a discussion of the study and the method employed, followed by a brief description of the cultural participants, and the articulation of the main findings in terms of cultural awareness and learning, and finally ends with a summery and the concluding markets with some suggestions for the future studies.

THE STUDY

The Restaurant

Similar to recent research on consumer culture in the consumption field (Doern and Kates, 1998; Mano and Davis, 1990; McCarty et. al., 1990; Schau and Gilly, 1997), the primary site of investigation is a Chinese buffet restaurant in a small city of South Carolina.  It is located in a commercial complex on a heavily trafficked street that leads to two directions of a major interstate highway and three major inner state freeways.  There is another commercial plaza across the street within which a new pizza buffet is located.  There are several American restaurants and fast food services within walking distance of the restaurant.  The attached parking lot accommodates 85 cars, which is good enough to meet the current customers’ need.

This Chinese buffet restaurant is one of the several new ethnic restaurants that established in the city by the end of last century.  The premise was originally used as an American food restaurant named Shoney’s Restaurant, which due to the competition was closed in the winter of 1998. There was another similar Chinese restaurant nearby which had been established in this city for over 10years and used to be very popular in town, but within five months that one was driven out of the business because of this new competitor.    The owner of the restaurant, a new immigrant from the People’s Republic of China, has a limited education and is almost English illiterate.

The restaurant is designed to have a capacity of serving 180 customers at the same time.  There are 5 seating areas, among which, one is designated as a smoking area with 40 seats.  There was a beautiful waterfall screen between the waiting area and the eating areas.  According to one employee, the waterfall was built by following the instruction of a fengshui xianshen (the Chinese fortune master).  Fengshui, simply means wind and water, as a Chinese culture content originated from the Ancient Chinese belief that a kind of underlying essence of forces of things that tends to be dispelled at the chance of wind, while checked at the chance of water. As fengshui sign the waterfall screen does not only function as the decoration but also symbols that the money, like the water, will be consistently coming to the owner’s pocket.  There are two pictures on the wall.  One is a picture of Hong Kong that can be seen immediately upon entering the restaurant.  Another one is a picture of the Great Wall of China, which hangs on the wall in the smoking area.  It is easy for customers to observe as they go to the buffet area for food.  Chinese music is played most of the time as the background music.

Four buffet bars are located at the center area next to the kitchen; customers are able to come to the buffet area through several directions, of which one is designed for the smoking area.  The closest eating area is about 6-8 steps, while the farthest eating area is about 25 steps to the buffet area.  Usually bar A hosts 1 white rice, 1 fried rice, 1 fried Chinese noodles, and 15 stemmed or fried dishes; Bar B hosts 18 fried entrees; bar C has 18 entrees of various vegetables, fruits, boiled eggs and shrimps; bar D hosts 18 deserts and soups.  All entrees on each bar are even numbered according to the Chinese cultural value of hao shi cheng shuang (good things are in pairs).  During weekday lunch peak hours sometimes the buffet area becomes very congested and is not easily accessible.

The restaurant is under the management of four people: the owner, his partner, who usually stays in the waiting area to help the usher get the customers seated, and the manager who is from Malay and identifies himself as Malay Chinese.  It has 15 employees except two owners, among them 1 is the hostess, 1 is the manager, 7 are waiters/waitresses, 1 is a buss-boy and dish washer, 3 are kitchen helpers, and 2 are cooks.  The owner will help with cooking if the business becomes very busy.  Except for the manager and a few servers, the majority of the employees are unable to freely communicate with the customers in English.  According to one employee, the estimated visitors per week are about 3,500.

Methods

As indicated, this research is designed to study the cultural awareness of the consumers at this specific Chinese restaurant in South Carolina. It is important that the knowledge gained from examining the cultural awareness and contact process in a local ethnic restaurant can not be generalizable, but rather transferable to other focuses of inquiry as Schau and Gilly (1997) claimed.  The central task for this research is to describe and understand why customers are coming to this restaurant for food consumption?  Do they have any knowledge on Chinese culture and food?  Does it help the consumers become knowledgeable on Chinese culture and food by visiting this restaurant?  To fulfill this task the author employed an anthropological approach in his study.

The anthropological approach encompasses both a way of viewing the world and techniques for understanding that world.  The key concept in anthropology is culture.  For anthropologists, the cultural components are neither random nor haphazard but form an internally logical and consistent adaptive system that help individuals function successfully within their physical and social environment.  The primary technique anthropologists use to study culture is participant-observation, which involves living among a group of people, observing and recording their behaviour, and participating in their daily lives as much as possible.  The resulting account of a cultural system and its members is termed ethnography (Tian, 2000b).

While fully supporting the merits of extended participant-observation, the personal experience convinces the author that marketers can successfully employ many aspects of the anthropological perspective in consumer behavior studies in a shorter time frame.  The results may not be an ethnography (nor are they designed to be) but they can be complete enough to help the marketers to understand the driving forces that shape consumers’ belief and behaviors in a particular market (Griffith, 1998; Holt, 1998; Rossiter and Chan, 1998; Schau and Gilly, 1997; Tian 2000a).

The author carried out a participant-observation of consumer behavior at this restaurant as a regular customer for about 8 months.  During that period, the author visited the restaurant two to three times a week, randomly at different times and days.  Visits were planned for various lunch peaks, weekday dinner peaks and during weekend lunches and dinners, to record anthropological data on the manner in which cultural participants present themselves in this specific social stage and cultural site (Goffman, 1959).

Customer behaviors of arrival, lining up, waiting, seating, fetching, eating, tipping and exiting was observed.  Employee behaviors in terms of direct contact or interact with customers, such as the hostess seating customers and the waitpersons serving customers, were recorded.  Observed behaviors were categorized in rational (motivated) behaviors and unconscious (passive) behaviors in terms of cultural awareness.  Five employees were interviewed.  One was the hostess, two were waitresses, one was a waiter, and another was the cook.  35 customers who were willing to participate were informally interviewed at various times during the period.

The collected data are more qualitative oriented.  The resulting analysis is an anthropological study of consumer culture awareness in a local Chinese buffet restaurant.  To assure the quality and reliability of the study, the author also visited several other restaurants, both American styles and ethnic styles, in the vicinity and observed the consumer behaviors in those different sites.  However, due to the limitations of the data, all the comparative analyses are assumptions that are based on the author’s best knowledge.

CULTURAL CONTACT

Over the last century, anthropologists have created a discipline to make sense out of human behavior through the culture concept.  For anthropologists all human beings’ behaviors are taken place in certain cultural contents.  Therefore to study consumer behavior is to study consuming cultures.  Moreover, consumption is a cultural process during which the consumers interact with other parties who provide the products or services to them and thus cultural contacts take place.  Consequently consumers and those with whom the consumers interact are termed cultural participants. In terms of ethnic restaurant service, the cultural participants must maneuver through the physical surroundings, performing the socially agreed upon behaviors or roles (Schau and Gilly, 1997).  In this study the cultural participants consist of both the consumers at the restaurant and the employees of the restaurant.

The Consumer Domain

Based on author’s observation, the consumers and their consumption behaviors at this restaurant vary from lunches to dinners, from weekdays to weekends.  Generally, the consumers for weekday lunches are mainly working adults and drivers; the consumer for weekday dinners are families, mainly husbands and wives; the consumers for weekend dinners and lunches are mainly families, most with children.  It is observed that the consumers for Sunday lunch are mainly extended families with grand parents, parents, and children after their church activities. A detailed discussion of consumers’ structure is presented below (see Table 1).

Although various consumers can be expected two types of consumers are predominant during the weekday lunch hours.  The first group is mainly from the neighboring industrial office sites.   Most of them walk in from across the street and the adjoining parking lots, wearing office, or business, attire, some even with their nametags.  They usually come with their colleagues or working fellows, but in most the cases, they do not speak with each other while waiting for seating.  Most of them are familiar with the employees and usually say hello to the hostess and waitpersons.  They often talk while having their meals; it is not always obvious if they are talking socially or professionally but it is clear that they are friendly and cordial among consumers themselves.  It is observed that the average time for them to finish their lunch is between 25-40 minutes.

Table 1. Observed Consumer Structures in Various Times of a Week

The second group of weekday lunch is the drivers and their passengers, which usually seem to be family members.  They travel the highway and see the sign of the restaurant.  They arrive at the restaurant with hunger and usually want to be seated as quickly as possible. Because they seem tired, they usually do not speak, but hurry to fetch the food and start eating.  They come in a hurry and leave in a hurry as well. It is observed that this group of consumers will not stay for long.  It takes them about 20-30 minutes to finish their lunch.

The scenario of the consumers for dinner differs very much from that of the lunch.  The majority of the consumers arrive as couples or friends, typically husbands and wives.  The families arrive exclusively by vehicle.  The arriving time is concentrated between 5:30-7:30 p.m., the earliest arrive at 5:00 p.m. while the latest arrives at 9:00 p.m.  Most of them are local residents and seem to be middle class families.  Among them some are regular customers of the restaurant, they can name the waitpersons.  It is observed that the dinner consumers tend to take their time to enjoy the food and service.  The average time for them to finish the dinner is between 45-60 minutes, sometimes even longer.

The consumers for weekend lunches and dinners mainly consisted of families and friends, mostly the parents with the children, or grandparents (mostly are grandmas) and parents with the children.  Like the families for weekday dinners they also arrive exclusively by vehicles.  Since it is weekends all the consumers are not in a hurry, they take the time to select the food they like from the varieties.  It is observed that in the weekends the consumers usually take about one hour to finish the lunches and dinners.  It is notable that the consumers for the Sunday lunch are mainly the families from the Churches.  Those families arrive by vehicles and all are formally dressed.  They arrive by larger groups, as a few families together from the same church.

It is interesting to observe the consumer behaviors in the smoking area.  The consumers in this area usually are adults; they arrive either individually or as groups.  It is observed that during the dinner period and weekends, the smoking area tends to be less busy than it is during the weekday lunch hours. They usually do not smoke until they finish dining; it is observed only about half of them will smoke after their meals.  The smokers are more talkative compared with non-smoking consumers; this indicates that the smokers tend to use dining time for sociality. The absolute majority of smoking consumers are adult males.

The Employee Domain

The hostess is the first employee with whom the consumers will interact at their arrival of the restaurant.  Her job is to greet the consumers and then usher them to the tables.  Usually, she will first find out how many consumers are in each group of arrivals and whether they are smoking or nonsmoking.  For the smokers she will usher them directly to the smoking area; for the nonsmokers she will usher them, in turn, to one of the four areas to ensure each waitperson will have the equal opportunity for the service.  She is also responsible for wrapping cleaned forks and spoons with napkins for consumers to use, while she is waiting on new arrivals.  Occasionally, if the consumers arrive in lumps the manager and the owners will help the hostess with seating customers.

The manager is a Malay Chinese who worked as an assistant manager several years ago in a Chinese restaurant, where one of the current restaurant owners worked as a cook.  The manager is mainly in charge of the cash register and all government related paperwork.  He is fluent in English but usually does not talk to the consumers. The interactions he has with the consumers are calculating the amount due and telling them this amount, then receiving the money, giving the change and receipts to the consumers and saying “Thank you!”   All of what he is doing is in a mechanical manner, his facial expression remains the same while dealing with the consumers: no smiling, no anger. Occasionally when the hostess is busy and no customers are ready to pay their bill, he will help with seating the consumers.  It is observed that when he ushers the consumers his facial expression remains the same as he is dealing with the cash register.

Waitpersons are all from Mainland China except one whom is the manager’s wife and is from Malaysia.  They do not get paid from the owners but are tipped by the customers.  They work six days a week and 12 hours per day.  The owners provide them with accommodations, including food and shelter.  Among them, 4 started working during the restaurant’s grand opening.  Their main tasks are: seating the consumers and saying hello, inquiring what types of drinks the consumers would like to have and serving the consumers with the drinks, refilling the drinks for the consumers when it is necessary, cleaning the tables while consumers are fetching items to consume, writing invoices and delivering the fortune cookies.  They also need to come into work one hour earlier before the restaurant opens to do some cleaning jobs.

All other employees do not directly interact with the consumers and thus will not be described in details in this study. However, the role of the cook should not be neglected although he does not interact with the consumers physically.  It is the quality of the food that decides whether the consumers will repeat visiting the restaurant or not.  The owners clearly understand the importance of the cook for the business and so does the cook himself.  The owners pay the cook very well compared with what they pay the other employees and with what other Chinese restaurants pay their cooks.  The cook will occasionally come out from the kitchen to observe the foods in each bar area; he often asks the waitpersons which items consumers like most at which time, so that he can improve his cooking to satisfy the consumers.

The Interactions between Consumers and Employees

Most consumers, for weekday lunches, enter the restaurant with the motivation to have the meals as soon as possible so that their needs for removing the tensions of hunger can be met at the earliest time; they are less patient to wait for seating.  It is observed that by the time they arrive at the restaurant they want their hunger to be satisfied.  Clearly, the smells of the food stimulate them to be more aware of the hunger.  The only interaction at this point is that they nod at the hostess and use the eye contact to send the information that they need to be seated sooner, rather than later.  The hostess understands the consumers very well and will seat them as quick as she can.  It is at this point that one of the owners and the manager will help the hostess to seat the customers from time to time.  As Jinhong (the hostess) put it: “The customers are all hungry when they come for lunch, it is better to take them to the seat immediately.  They will be annoyed if you talk with them for something else at this time.”

The entry behavior of consumers for dinners including the consumers for weekend lunches are much more different from that of weekday lunch consumers.  They usually tend not to be in a hurry and like to look around while waiting for seating.  They would like to talk with their family members or friends who arrive together with them.  While waiting they may have the chance to read the menus and listen to the background music, which is usually the popular Chinese music.  Occasionally some of them will say a few words to the manager or to one of the owners who usually stands behind the cashier counter.  When it is their turn to be seated they will follow the hostess and say something to the hostess who will in turn say something as well.  Clearly, there are more communications between the customers and the hostess at dinnertime than at lunchtime.  This communication makes the customers feel comfortable, like John, a local business man who is one of the regular customers, said: “the smiling face of the hostess makes me feel good and I know I will receive good service.  She knows my wife and me, so without asking, she will take us to the smoking area, because she knows we are smokers.  When she takes us there, she will always say to us, with a smile, enjoy yourselves, and then leave us for the others to serve us.  My wife and I really enjoy it.”

Once seated, the waitpersons will greet the consumers by saying welcome and then asking what types of drinks they would like.  When the orders are taken, the waitperson will usually give the buffet bar directions to the customers who will then, in turn, go to the buffet bar area to make their food choices, among all available entrees.  “While eating, the waitpersons usually leave us alone, that is good, I do not like to be bothered.  But you can see they are looking around, using their eyes to see if your drink needs to be refilled.  If they do not notice, you can simply raise up the cup, they will come over to refill it for you”, said John, during his interview. It is observed that although in most cases there is not much verbal communication, the consumers and waitpersons communicate very well by eye contact, facial expression, and other body languages.

Although many consumers interviewed share the same feelings as John some do complain about individual waitperson’s limited communication skills. The communication, as a major format of interactions between the consumers and the employees, is restricted because of the language barrier.  One young customer indicated when he was interviewed: “As far as the customer service people, there is a definite language barrier.  For example, today when I ask for napkins the waiter did not understand me, but provided me with a table knife.  Once is okay, if it is more I think I will be annoyed.”

In fact, all the waitpersons realize the importance of oral communications with the customers but due to their poor language skills they simply cannot express themselves clearly in English, nor are they able to understand others in English very well. Xiaohong, a visa student from Northeast China studying accounting at a state university, is the only one among all the waitpersons to be able to communicate efficiently in English.  She named herself an English name so the customers can easily name and remember her.  The author met a couple of customers who drove 40 miles from another town to this restaurant because: “Julia is our favorite waitress; she has worked as a waitress at a Chinese restaurant in our town.  In fact she is our good friend.  When we found out she switched to work at this place, we decided to have our dinner, once a week, here.  Julia is not only a good server, she is also a good teacher, and she teaches us to speak Mandarin because we planed to visit China when we have the chance.”

Xiaohong is very proud of herself in terms of language skills.  She indicated to the author in an interview: “Communication is very important for us, when you communicate with the customers they will know that you care about them.  You know we are not paid by the owner but by the tips from the customers.  I view tipping as a cultural value of the restaurant consumers in the United States.  In China we do not have the customs of tipping for service, here it is different.  In the US you need to make the customers happy so you will get more tips.  You want to know if the communications will affect the amount of tips.  My answer is yes.  To be honest with you, I can get about $150 a day on average for tips, almost $50 more than others.  They are jealous, and ask why I make more than they do?  My answer is communication.”

Based on the author’s observation, Xiaohong is really good at communicating with the customers, she can make the customers laugh by jokes, she can make the customers satisfied by providing their service in reasonable time.  For instance, once a family with a small baby was having dinner, about half way through dinner, the baby started crying.  Xiaohong immediately showed up and suggested that the baby’s diaper may need to be changed and she offered to help to change the diaper for the mom.  She presented herself (Goffman, 1959) in front of the customers as an well-educated and professional waitress whose job is to make the customers satisfied and happy.  Although the mom finally did that herself, it is clear that they appreciated Xiaohong’s offer.

One important observation is that Xiaohong always gives the bills and the fortune cookies to the customers when they are ready to leave, while all the other waitpersons give them to the customers while they are still eating their food.  She told the author that if you give customers the bills when they are still eating they might think that you want drive them off or it may annoy them.  She indicates that for the lunch consumers it is okay, because they are in a hurry, but it is not good for the dinner consumers.  They are not in a hurry, so they take time to enjoy the food and service.

The information gathered from the consumer side proved that Xiaohong is right.  As one customer put it: “While I enjoy the food and service, I feel uncomfortable when I am half way through eating and the waitress gives me the bill.  I feel that she is telling me time is up, you got to go.”  It is observed that in several cases when the waitperson gives the bill to the customer the customer will simply push the bill and the fortune cookies aside with unpleasant feelings and then continue eating.

The interaction between consumers and employees at this restaurant is limited because of the nature of the buffet in where consumers mainly serve themselves.  The direct contact between consumers and employees are at three points: consumers and the hostess, consumers and the waitpersons, consumers and the manager/cashier.  The main format of the interaction is communication, both verbally and non-verbally, such as eye contacts and facial expression.  Obviously, in most situations the employees play an initial role while the consumers play a reactive role in the interactions.  However, there are cases in which the consumers do play an initial role, such as when they need the drinks to be refilled, or when they need some special help from the employees.

CULTURAL AWARENESS AND LEARNING

Food consumption habits and patterns are components of culture that make an important contribution to the food decisions consumers make and thus compromise an important area for the studies of consumer behavior (Asp, 1999; Chang, 1977; Doern and Kates 1998). The very famous anthropologist Margaret Mead, one of the pilot scholars who studied food and cultures, indicated “Food habits are seen as the culturally standardized set of behaviors in regard to food manifested by individuals who have been reared within a given cultural tradition.  These behaviors are seen as systematically interrelated with other standardized behaviors in the same culture” (Mead, 1943, p.21).

In fact, the importance of food in understanding human culture lies precisely in its infinite variability. Although food is mainly used to satisfy hunger and to meet nutritional needs, it can be used to promote family unity when members eat together and to denote ethnic, regional and national identity.  Moreover, food can be used socially to develop friendships, provide hospitality, and show social status or prestige.  It can even be used to control the behaviors of others.  Food also has artistic characteristics.  Food habits have been used as an important, or even determining, criterion for the anthropologists in studying cultures. People who have the same culture share the same assemblage of food variables.  Peoples of different cultures share different assemblages of food variables (Asp, 1998; Chang, 1977).

Restaurant food consumption is one of the most important food intake formats for Americans today. The continuously growing national economies make the people eat at restaurants more often than ever before. According to the National Restaurant Association (2000a & b), almost half of all adults (46%) were restaurant patrons on a typical day during 1998.  The restaurant-industry food-and-drink purchases are projected to reach $130.7 billion in 2000; more than one million restaurants are expected to be in operation by the year 2010–up from 831,000 restaurants in 2000.  Eating out and eating variety of the combination of American and ethnic foods become a new trend in the United States and thus makes it a popular culture phenomenon (Panitz, 2000).

Consumers are the most important factor of the restaurant industry.  Their role, as the decision-makers for the consumption of food and service provided by restaurants, determines the success or failure of a particular restaurant in today’s consumer-driven food marketplace.  Many factors affect consumers to make the decision to go to a restaurant and consume the food and service that it provides, such as the restaurant location, the quality of food and service, the price, the income and life styles of the consumers (Asp, 1999; McCarty, et. al., 1990; Schau & Gilly, 1997).  One very interesting and important finding from this study is that some American consumers who dine at an ethnic restaurant are not there only for the food and service but also for the experiencing of cultural differences.

As indicated, food consumption habits, such as what type food to eat, how to prepare and how to eat, where to eat, with whom to eat, are all culturally oriented and thus bear the cultural meaning McCracken, 1986). For example, culture provides standards and “rules” about when to eat; what is appropriate to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). People with different cultural backgrounds will consume different foods in different manners and habits. These differences are presented in terms of basic ingredients from which food is prepared; the ways in which it is preserved, cut up, cooked; the amount and variety at each meal; the tastes that are liked and disliked; the customs of serving food, and so on.

The food critics agree that Chinese food is one of the best cuisines of the world (Schwarz & Schwarz, 1999). In the Chinese culture, the whole process of preparing food from raw ingredients to morsels ready for the mouth involves a complexity of interrelated variables that is highly distinctive when compared with the American food traditions. The way that the Chinese eat is also significantly different from that of other people.  It is suggested that the most important aspect of the Chinese food culture is the importance of food itself in Chinese culture; few other cultures are as food oriented as the Chinese (Chang, 1977).

Therefore one of the best ways to learn Chinese culture is to consume the Chinese food within a Chinese environment.  As the American society is becoming more and more diversified ethnically it is socially significant for Americans to know and learn various ethnic cultures.  To anthropologists culture is learned, the learning of one’s own culture is termed as enculturation while the learning of another culture is known as acculturation. Cultural awareness of the difference between one’s own culture and other’s culture is crucial for acculturation. Most consumers at this restaurant seem to be well aware of the food cultural differences.  When asked “Do you agree or disagree that the food provided at this restaurant is different from your own food?”  All the interviewees answered that they agree.  When probed by asking “Do you agree or disagree with the statement that food differences are related to cultural differences?”  The majority (31 out of the 35 interviewed) answered that they agree.  Although none of the consumers interviewed disagreed with the statement, a few (4 out of the 35 interviewed) said they do not know.  It seems that these 4 respondents are less culturally sensitive about the restaurant they visited.  They are the drivers who passed by and came in for lunch; they are all first visitors and thus may not have the patience to be interviewed, although they agreed.

However, to many customers the cultural differences are clear. As Lisa, a nurse of the local hospital in her early 40s, told the author: “You can tell the differences immediately when you arrive at the restaurant.  The smell and food differs (from American food); the servicepersons are all oriental.  When you are seated they will provide you with a spoon and a fork wrapped in napkins, but no knife.  If you are at an American restaurant, you will be served with at least one knife.”  Lisa’s account reflects her understanding of the differences between Chinese food culture and American food culture. Americans may not know that for the Chinese knife is considered as a weapon but not an instrument for dinning; Confucius, the greatest Chinese philosopher reasoned that instruments used for killing must be banned from dining table (Chang, 1977).  Nevertheless, it is easy for the Americans to find out that Chinese food is usually prepared into small or bite size pieces thus a knife is unnecessary.

By the end of Lisa’s interview, her husband David had arrived, who serves as a midlevel manager at a local manufacturer.  They had visited the restaurant many times (she could not recall exactly but roughly estimated at least 12 times, with the help from her husband).  She told the author that she and her husband enjoy Chinese food very much because a doctor in her hospital once told her that Chinese food is good for one’s health.  “I was told that Chinese food will make females look younger.  I can see that the waitresses are all in good shape, I guess that is because Chinese food does not have too much fat in it.”   She claimed that she knows very little about Chinese culture but she is interested in learning.

David is no less informative than Lisa is.  While his wife was talking to the author he would take over and talk from time to time.  He would remind his wife of something that she forgot.  The author noticed that he was one of the few non-Chinese consumers who used chopsticks to eat the food at the restaurant.  He said that he is more interested in learning to use chopsticks than he is interested in the food itself.  He sees the chopsticks as an important sign for the Chinese food culture.  His job makes him travel a great deal within the US.  He said: “Chinese restaurants have become so popular in the United States, you can find them everywhere in the country.  Unfortunately, Americans like Chinese foods but do not know how to use the chopsticks. For me, certain foods require the appropriate utensil. Would you eat a sandwich with a spoon? Or use a fork to eat ice cream? Chinese foods are no exception; they seem to taste better when eaten with chopsticks.  You asked if I am aware of the Chinese food culture, I will say yes. I know chopsticks are part of the Chinese food culture. I know the value of good things in pairs in Chinese culture, and chopsticks are in pairs, and that is the reason why I am using chopsticks instead of a fork to eat at this restaurant.”  He indicates that eating at a Chinese restaurant differs from eating at a typical American restaurant.  “When you are eating at an American restaurant you know clearly what you will like to eat, and when you eat at a Chinese restaurant you have to taste first to know what you like.”

David does not simply enjoy the food but also enjoys learning ethnic cultures while eating dinners at this Chinese restaurant.  Larry and his family agree with David.  Larry is a retired engineer.  He and his wife are regular customers.  They have been visiting the restaurant once a week before their interview.  Sometimes they will invite their daughter’s family to have dinner with them at this restaurant.  They are happy that their grandsons have learned some Chinese characteristics by following the notes from their fortune cookies.  He indicated that the fortune cookies are perhaps the reasons that their grandsons like to eat here.  Every slip inside the cookies will say something good for the future; the kids love it.

Larry and his wife have made friends with two of the waitresses and have invited them to visit their home, whenever they are not working at the restaurant.  Larry is able to sound out several waitpersons’ Chinese names and had learned to speak a few greeting sentences in Mandarin.  For them, eating dinner at this restaurant is a kind of entertainment: “We are happy that our city has hosted several new ethnic restaurants, like this Chinese one, in recent years.  When I was young, I did not see any Chinese restaurants around here, but now we have several.  I will say that these ethnic restaurants make our life more enjoyable (in this city).  It is good that you can see different people and eat different foods in such a small city.”

The author found out that compared with consumer for weekday lunches the consumers for dinners are more cultural sensitive.  For instance when the dinner consumers were asked: “Can you please tell me three things you like most about this restaurant?”  Many would provide such statements: variety of choices, the environment, the atmosphere, the waterfall screen, the service persons’ friendly attitude, and the fortune cookies, except for the most mentioned statement of good food and service.  A few consumers even mentioned the background Chinese music, the waterfall screen, the Chinese pictures on the wall and the Buddha on the front counter (Table 2).  This finding indicates that most dinner consumers do not take this restaurant simply as a place for dinner alone, although their primary motivation to visit the restaurant is for food intake.  This restaurant is a place where they can experience different food cultures as well as a place where they can have social activities, such as family gatherings, or for meeting with friends.  Clearly, for the dinner consumers, the restaurant has a multiple function structure in which they can behave themselves to meet their primary needs as well as their secondary needs, socially and culturally.

Table 2. Things that Dinner Consumer Like Most

The data collected from both observations and interviews indicate that for the weekday lunch consumers, the function of this Chinese restaurant seems to be no more than a typical American fast food restaurant. They are mainly seeking a means to meet their primary need to remove their stomach tension generated by hunger, although they are aware of the differences they tend not to connect the differences with the cultures. The location of the restaurant, the affordable price, the variety of choice, and fast seating are among the most mentioned variables when asked: “Can you please tell me three things you like most about this restaurant?” (Table 3). A tentative finding is that the consumer behaviors during the lunch hours, it does not seem to matter whether they eat at an ethnic restaurant or somewhere else, are typically consistent with the conventions of the American fast food culture (Leidner, 1993). The data collected from the employees at this Chinese restaurant reinforced this finding. The cultural participants from both sides understand the conventions very well and thus are able to perform the socially agreed upon behaviors or roles (Goffman, 1959; Leidner, 1993).

Another interesting finding is that no birthday party was taken placed at this Chinese buffet restaurant during the period of fieldwork.  The author visited the Pizza Buffet that located opposite this Chinese buffet restaurant from time to time during the same period, in where the author had run into several birthday parties.  Although further investigation is needed to prove this finding the author tends to relate this phenomenon with the consumers’ cultural awareness.  It seems that consumers might feel uncomfortable to have a birthday party held in such an ethnic restaurant in which the food, the environment, and service people are foreign to them.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Food consumption is a human being’s most fundamental behavior. It is suggested that culture establishes the roles of what people eat and how. Unlike many other consumer behaviors, food consumption reflects infinite variability cultural means.  The fact that people in the United States eat out now more than ever before is a cultural phenomenon driven by various forces, such as cultural learning.  At the same time, because of the variety of the population, ethnic foods, such as Chinese ethnic food, have become popularized across the country.

Americans have more and more choices in terms of food intake and the Chinese foods are among such a variety of choices.  It is found that an ethnic restaurant, such as the Chinese buffet restaurant in this case, may function in multiple roles for the American people.  It functions as a food supplier, as a cultural information source, and as a sociality site simultaneously, although it may function more on one role than the others, according to the different situations, such as the differences between lunch hours and dinner time.

Most consumers are aware of the differences between the Chinese food cultures and the American food cultures; mean while they tend to know more about how and why they differ from one another, which is part of Chinese acculturation process for the Americans.  This is an important contribution that the author is trying to make to the consumer culture studies.  The study treats the consumers as the cultural participants but it needs more probes as to how the consumers behave themselves at various situations.  The relationship between consumers and employees is not analyzed because of the limitations of the data, although it is suggested that the employees have much influence on consumer behaviors.

Future research will investigate the consumer behavior of food and service consumption in more detail and will include a survey of the consumers.  Particular areas of interest are how consumers define food cultures, the extent to which consumers are knowledgeable of Chinese food culture and what element consumers identify as the most important factors that cause them to behave differently in such an ethnic restaurant, if there is any difference.  The author is also interested in how the ethnic people, in this case the Chinese, understand the differences between their own food cultures and American food cultures from an inside-out perspective.  Moreover, it is important to find out the cross-cultural factors and their affects on consumers’ cultural awareness.

REFERENCES

Asp, E. H., 1999.  Factors Affecting Food Decisions Made by Individual Consumers.  Food Policy 24, 287-294.

Chang, C.K., 1977. Food in Chinese Culture: Anthropological and Historical Perspectives. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Doern, R. R. and Kates, S. M., 1998. The Social Meanings of Drinking: Strengthening the Social Bonds of Restaurant Employees. Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 25, 481-485.

Goffman, E., 1959.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.  Doubleday, New York.

Griffith, D.A. & Ryans Jr. J.K., 1995. Strategically Employing Natural Channels in an Era of Global Marketing.  Journal of Marketing Practice: Applied Marketing Science. 1 (4), 52-72.

Hafner, K., 1999. Coming of Age in Palo Alto: Anthropologists Find a Niche Studying Consumers for Companies in Silicon Valley. New York Times, June 10, 1999.

Hall, E. T., 1976. Beyond Culture. New York, N.Y.: Anchor Press-Doubleday

Herbing, P. A., 1998. Hand-book of Cross-cultural Marketing. New York, Haworth Press.

Holt, D. B., 1998. Does Cultural Capital Structure American Consumption? Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 25, 1-25.

Kittler, P.G., Sucher, K.P., 1995. Food and Culture in America, 2^nd ed. West/Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.

Leidner, R., 1993. Fast Food, Fast Talk: Service Work and the Routinization of Everyday Life. U. of California Press, Berkely, CA

Mano, H. & Davis, S. M., 1990. The Effects of Family on Cognitive Maps. Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 17, 275-282.

McCarty, J. A. et. al., 1990.  Tipping as a Consumer Behavior: A Qualitative Investigation. Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 17, 723-728.

McCracken, G. 1986.  Culture and Consumption: A Theoretical Account of the Structure and Movement of the Cultural Meaning of Consumer Goods.  Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 13.

National Restaurant Association, 2000a.  Restaurant Industry Pocket Factbook.

National Restaurant Association, 2000b. 2000 Restaurant Industry Forecast.

Panitz, B., 2000.  A Promising Future.  Restaurant USA: The Magazine of the National Restaurant Association, Vol. 20 — No. 2,  13-18.

Rossiter, J. R. & Chan, A. M., 1998. Ethnicity in Business and Consumer Behavior. Journal of Business Research, 42, 127-134.

Schau, H. J., Gilly, M. C., 1997. Social Conventions of a Fast Food Restaurant: An Ethnomethodological Analysis. Advances in Consumer Research, Volume 24, 315-321.

Schwarz, B. and C., 1999.   Going all out for Chinese.  The Atlantic Monthly, January, Volume 283, No. 1, 28-33.

Sherry, J. F., 1995. Marketing and Consumer Behavior: Into the Field.  In Sherry, J. F.  (Ed.), Contemporary Marketing and Consumer Behavior: Anthropological Sourcebook.  SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA.

Tian, R. G., 2000a. Teaching Consumer Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective in Business Education. Lodha, S. et. al. (Eds.) Business in the 21^st Century: 2000 NEBAA International Conference Volume. New Haven, Connecticut; SCSU.

Tian, R. G., 2000b. Understanding Consumer Behavior: A Psychological Approach. North American Journal of Psychology, Volume 2, No. 2.

Tian, G., 1999. Canadian Chinese, Chinese Canadians: Coping and Adapting in North America.  Lewiston, NY, the Edwin Mellen Press.

U.S. Census Bureau, 2000.   Population Estimates Program, Population Division, U.S. Census Bureau, Internet Release Date: May 24, 2000.

Articles, Information systems, Marketing, Research
Anthropological Study, Chinese Buffet, Employee Domain, Interactions between Consumers and Employees, North America