Tibet's first KFC opens for business

[yuiyoshida]

BEIJING: US fast food giant KFC has opened its first restaurant in Tibet, the venue's property manager said Wednesday (Mar 9), more than a decade after the chain's first attempt to establish a foothold ended in controversy.

Pictures posted online showed long lines at the counters, and dozens of flower displays and a red carpet outside the premises, in a shopping mall in the regional capital Lhasa.


"As a diehard fan of KFC I waited in line for ages, and felt like crying when I took my first lick of my ice cream cone," said one social media user.

The opening comes despite campaign groups expressing alarm over the store's presence when it was announced in December, and the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader and Nobel laureate, previously declaring that the cruel treatment endured by chickens raised and killed for KFC violated Tibetan values.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/tibet-s-first-kfc-opens/2586812.html?cid=twtcna

[bemildred]

1. I don't understand how people can eat that myself.

Let alone pay money for it.

[Orrex]

2. Yeah! Some people are so stupid and have no sense of taste!

This post makes me feel a whole lot better about myself!!!!1!

[bemildred]

3. So you like to eat KFC? nt

[Katashi_itto]

4. I do. I love it.

After a hard week of Martial Arts practicing and daily Zen meditation I look forward to the occasional Sat at KFC.

[bemildred]

7. OK.

No need to deny the Tibetans the pleasure either I suppose. I used to eat at Mickey D's etc. a lot, when I was working it was fast food pretty much all the time because I didn't have the slack to cook for myself. I guess I've become spoiled or something. I had to give up meat because I was getting gout (worked) and it reorganized my tastes a lot too.

[Katashi_itto]

8. I had gout too and became Diabetic. I had to totally change my dietary habits.

But you ought to enjoy life's guilty pleasures once in a while or all the hard work you do is for naught. Stop and smell the roses, or in this case bury your face in a bucket of KFC. Ahhh!!

[bemildred]

9. Yes.

[Katashi_itto]

11. :)

[scarletwoman]

12. It won't be the native Tibetans eating that crap, it will be the Han Chinese who've displaced them.

Since the 1959 invasion of Tibet, China has carried out a policy of re-locating thousands of Han Chinese into Tibet to such a degree that actual indigenous Tibetans are now a minority in their own homeland, and are 2nd class citizens to boot. This is not to mention the ongoing actual genocide of the murders and imprisonment of native Tibetans, and the ongoing cultural genocide of deliberately destroying their artifacts and history.

So, bringing an American fast food franchise into the formerly sacred city of Lhasa is just one more step in the erasure of what Tibet once was. Just one more abomination on top of countless abominations committed against the Tibetan people over the decades of Chinese occupation.

[Act_of_Reparation]

5. I don't.

But neither is my self-esteem so wrapped up in what I eat that I'll shake my head disapprovingly at those with tastes divergent from my own.

But, hey. Whatever makes you feel superior.

[Katashi_itto]

6. +100

[Orrex]

14. Whether I do or don't is irrelevant

I simply have no patience for DU's cadre of foodie hipsters who can't wait to proclaim their superiority by condemning the silly and unsophisticated masses. Heck, righteous ridicule must mean that the hipster is smarter than all of the simple patrons of 11,798 global KFC locations. What a bunch of worldwide dolts!

And it's always the same: it's not "I don't eat there," but rather "I don't understand how people can eat that myself. Let alone pay money for it." The raw condescension is thick enough to spoil one's appetite for days on end. Please tell us more about your epicurean wisdom.


Yes, yes. I'm sure that I'm being defensive or I'm reading into it or I'm projecting or whatever other deflective buzz-phrase the hipster foodies like to use. Enjoy your artisan fair-trade braised kale in smug satisfaction that you know better.

Dine on, wise hipster. Dine on.

[geomon666]

15. I've learned to take that crap in stride.

There's always going to be someone (especially on the internet) who feels they are morally/ethically/physically/etc. superior and will be happy to tell you so.

I just nod and go on my way, drumsticks in hand, biscuit in mouth.

[metalbot]

10. Fried chicken does very well in Asia

It's a common street food in a lot of SEA, and it's served in most McDonald's restaurants because of its popularity.

[geomon666]

13. Wait a minute, they serve ice cream there?

WTF KFC America?! All we get are cookies.