I think this whole thread got bogged down in misunderstanding. It seems the way the OP used the word "Colonialism" was, put it this way, imprecise. The examples he gave showed that he was referring to behaviour that was well described as "ethnocentric racist-supremacist". Colonialism however usually goes further to imply a change or effect imposed on the host culture, which is not the case in what we are talking about. Perhaps the rude complaining about the culture that hosts you could however in a loose sense be described as a 'colonial' attitude, but not in the full sense of actually affecting the host culture. I think that distinction can make a little clearer what we're actually discussing.

"every Burger King or McDonald's that goes up, is an effort by those ridiculous "restaurant" chains to change the culture of other countries."
No, the purpose of a business is to make money. Not to change cultures.

I only read mmkunmings post way back on page 8, it looks like he is confusing his terms. Colonialism is forcing your way on others, usually at the point of a gun or with the threat or implication of violence for non compliance. What you describe is intolerance, misunderstanding and plain bad manners, which is completely different to colonialism. If those people actually said those things (which seems far fetched as they would have to be the most ridiculous statements I have ever heard from foreigners in China and I have heard a few doozers), then they have serious personal problems and they shouldn't be actually travelling. If I had heard such a disgusting thing from anyone, Chinese or Westerners, I would have called them out on it. Which makes me question the authenticity of such statements. TBH it sounds like you made it up to fit your story.

blobbles, yes, these people said these things. Again, multiple people were there. I do not appreciate your accusations of lying. I take what you all say at face value, i.e. Burger King is great, Corn Flakes are wonderful, etc., so I would appreciate the same courtesy.

Now, the reason I call it *CULTURAL* colonialism, and not just colonialism, is precisely as you say: it is not literally colonialism. It is, rather, a soft form of it.

I use Shanghai as an example. Not too long ago, Shanghai was a Chinese city like the others. These days, there are so many foreigners there, and such a Western influence, that parts of Shanghai could be any city in the world: there is nothing "Chinese" about it. Parts of Guangzhou are the same.

These cities are the direct results of cultural colonialism (and Shanghai, actual colonialism). Westerners changed the cities, not by force per se, but by importing their foreign culture.

Oh and BillDan coming onto an EXPAT website and posting negative reviews is NOT bad taste in the slightest as the target audience is fellow laowai. He even admits that he uses creative license and a lot of over the top expletives and then tells us he goes and eats mi xian all the time. Clearly he likes it, even just a little, which tells you something about his real feelings.

I notice your "examples" only tell one side of the story. Selectively choosing what to tell makes the rest of your examples sound made up or not quite what happened.

Any large city in this modern globalised world is the same mm. Ever been to London? NY? Sydney? Melbourne? Abu Dhabi? They ALL have a particular local flavour but through necessity of hosting people from all over the world, become a hodge podge mess of world subcultures and fusions of cultures. It isn't limited to Shanghai.

Raging against westerners in China for not adopting perfectly to Chinese cultures is absolutely pointless. You are asking people that grew up with an entirely different mindset, values, language and understanding of the world to instantly adapt to something different. Its simply not possible. Humans will always desire what they understand, what is natural and what they enjoy formed by their upbringing and genetics.

Plain insulting another culture is not cool though, if those things did indeed happen, I hope that you called that person out. Even a "Hey, I actually enjoy that chicken soup and what you said isn't actually true" would have been a start....

Oh and you have been caught out for lying before on here (the whole tomman/crazylaowai issue), so it is no surprise if we call you out on things that sound suspicious.

Trying to control the formation of culture and who adopts what parts of another is meaningless. What Chinese people would take away from the examples you posted is that Westerners can be really really rude and that they are really really intolerant. They would not suddenly be converted to Cornflakes and the imported section of Carrefoure because some Westerner said it, which seems to be what you imply with the term "colonialism". A Chinese person has the same cultural gravity to their own culture and the desire to defend it that a Westerner has to theirs.

Really though this just sounds like you are trying to make this into a competition or an us vs them polarisation of foreigners living here concerned with who is more integrated into China, some sort of self aggrandising ego trip because you learnt some new cultural/language stuff over the last few months/years. Give it a rest because there will always be someone more integrated than you who will be able to call you out for misunderstanding something in the future.

I met a foreigner in Lijiang once - a pompous Englishman who grilled me for saying "Yun long xue shan" instead of "Yu long xue shan" and then endlessly attacked me and showed off his Chinese proficiency (which was excellent). If you aspire to become such a cultural snob who looks down their noses at all those who are still learning or on a different level to them, you are on the right track.

I believe the term used when China is accused of doing this is 'exercising/using soft power'.

In Shanghai, a lot of these so called western businesses are locally owned. Local business people saw an opportunity. I would be very surprised if there are any non-Chinese franchisees for many of these imported businesses, including the likes of Japanese chains.
However, I still firmly believe that the biggest demand is from local Chinese customers.
When I was a kid, we never knew what pizza was, but when TV shows like 'The Partridge Family' came along, we all wanted to know what pizza was and wanted to try it.
Forget the influence of expats in driving soft power, think of TV shows as a much bigger influence.

tigertiger, and that is exactly my point. When locals change their businesses and tastes to meet Western preferences, that is, by definition, cultural colonialism.

Just nod your head and agree with everything he says. He'll hate it and send everyone home. Oh and memorise the answers for next time.