by Sabrina Merolla

There are plenty of well-known foreign fast-food restaurants in every Chinese megacity. McDonalds, KFC, Burger King—they all arrived in the late 90s, their franchises blooming everywhere. Only thirty years ago, McDonald's was almost unknown in Mainland China. But then Market Socialism underwent a thoroughly capitalistic revolution named "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics," whose ideals of general economic prosperity, born with Deng Xiaoping, formed the basis of today's "China Dream."

Over the last few decades, fast-food restaurants have witnessed a revolution in the structure and lifestyles of contemporary Chinese families. Offering the American Dream and cheap food—and a new way of life for new consumers—foreign fast-food restaurants have become part of urban spaces for innumerable masses of people and a recognisable, familiar simulacra for both the local resident and the outsider. More than this, hidden in every anonymous compound of skyscrapers, chain restaurants have taken up an unspoken new role—they have become shelters. Fast-food sleepers of many different ilks are a common presence in franchises across China: young jobless migrants looking for luck in the megalopolis, homeless grannies left out of a changing society, students visiting the big city for university admission tests, drunk men and women who can't muster the energy to make it home, lunatics and, in general, anybody who cannot afford the price of a cheap hotel room and is looking for a warm refuge. They are all here, poignantly showing the tale of two Chinas, hidden behind the curtain of every new development plan. They are all here, quietly wrapped in the surreal atmosphere of anonymous non-places, for a silent night to finish a day, which, just like all the others, slips away again.