最近如果听到——“我们去哪吃？”“金拱门。”——这样的对话不要感到困惑，因为麦当劳中国公司已于上周宣布更名为“金拱门有限公司”。这突如其来的更名背后隐藏着怎样的商业动机？引发全民评议的幕后推手是谁？本期Quriosiy为您揭秘。
Global fast food brand McDonald's has changed its official business name in China from Maidanglao, a loose Chinese transliteration of the English pronunciation, to Jingongmen, which roughly translates as "Golden Arches."
全球快餐品牌麦当劳近日把自己在中国的官方名“麦当劳”，一个大致音译的中文名，改为“金拱门”。
Although the fast food chain reassured its fans on its Weibo microblog that stores in China will still bear the old name, the new moniker was immediately ridiculed by net users for sounding unsophisticated.
尽管该快餐连锁公司在微博上向粉丝们保证，其中国门店仍会沿用旧名，但是新名称立即因其“接地气”遭到中国网民嘲笑。
But why did McDonald’s suddenly change its fairly recognizable name in China?
但麦当劳为何突然改变其在中国家喻户晓的名称呢？
McDonald's the name change was made to meet the needs of business development after the fast food chain sold the bulk of its Chinese mainland and Hong Kong business to financial conglomerate CITIC Group and American investment company Carlyle Capital in January.
麦当劳此举是为了迎合业务发展需求，它早在今年一月将中国大陆和香港地区的大部分业务出售给中国中信集团和美国凯雷投资集团。
In other words, it is no longer a subsidiary wholly owned by the US fast-food giant, but a subsidiary incorporated by CITIC and Carlyle. And it is a common practice of McDonald’s to change name after selling local franchises in different countries and regions. For instance, McDonald’s head office changed the name of McDonald’s in Latin America to ‘Arcos Dorados’ (golden arches in Spanish) after the sale of the franchise for the region.
换言之，麦当劳中国已不再是一家由美国快餐巨头全资拥有的子公司，而是由中信和凯雷共有的子公司。在不同国家和地区出售当地的特许经营权后更名是麦当劳的惯常做法。例如麦当劳总部在出售拉丁美洲的特许经营权后，就将其在该地区的名称改为‘Arcos Dorados’（西班牙语意为“金拱门”）
What was the strategy behind McDonald’s China franchise sale?
麦当劳出售中国特许经营权背后的策略是什么呢？
McDonald's Corp. sold the bulk for up to $2.1 billion, seeking to expand rapidly without using much of its own capital. They are now accelerating the localization to satisfy Chinese customers.
麦当劳以高达21亿美金的价格售出了其在中国大陆和香港地区的大部分业务，试图以此快速扩张事业而不动用过多的自有资本。他们正通过加速本土化的进程来满足中国顾客。
Bigger rival Yum China, which operates Pizza Hut and KFC, already has more than 7,000 restaurants and in the long term reckons it can get to 20,000. That shows how much growth potential remains for Western fast food, particularly in China’s less glamorous third- and fourth-tier cities.
麦当劳更大的竞争对手，经营必胜客和肯德基的百胜餐饮集团已经在中国拥有超过7000家餐厅，从长远来看，餐厅规模可达到20000家。这表明洋快餐还有较大的发展潜力，尤其是在中国相对不太繁华的三四线城市。
Still, the new pace could be challenging. It will need to find lots of good locations fast, and hire huge numbers of staff. Maintaining food safety and quality control while scaling so quickly will be difficult, and will push suppliers to the limits, says Shaun Rein, founder of China Market Research Group.
然而，新的发展也伴随着挑战。麦当劳需要快速、大规模地进行店铺选址，并雇佣数量庞大的员工。中国市场调研组的成立者肖恩·莱恩说，在扩张如此迅速的同时维持食品安全和质量监控是非常困难的，这将会把供应商逼到极限。
How did McDonald's come up with the cultural icon known as the Golden Arches?
麦当劳是怎样想出以“金拱门”作为自己的文化图标的呢？
With a little imagination, you could easily see the logo as a couple of flexible french fries placed next to one another. After all, the McDonald's mascot at the time did have a hamburger for a head, so the restaurant clearly wasn't averse to incorporating food into its designs. In reality, however, the inspiration for the Golden Arches stemmed from architecture rather than food.
只要发挥一点想象，你就能轻易地看出麦当劳的标志是一对挨着的弯曲薯条。毕竟当时麦当劳吉祥物头顶就是一个汉堡，可见这家餐厅明显不介意把食物融合到自己的设计里。然而，在现实情况中，金拱门的灵感来源于建筑而非食物。
After the initial success of the first McDonald's restaurant, founders Dick and Mac McDonald looked to franchise their operation. Working with architect Stanley Meston, the brothers designed a red-and-white-themed, walk-up restaurant with a distinctive slanted roof. Dick found the design a little plain and proposed adding two giant yellow arches, running from the front to the restaurant to the back, to both sides of the building. For years, the arches remained only an architectural feature of the restaurants. They were incorporated into the chain's logo in 1962, which resembled a stylized restaurant, and in the current Golden Arches logo, introduced 1968, resembling an "M" for "McDonald's".
在第一家麦当劳餐厅取得初步成功后，创始人迪克和麦克·麦当劳就希望进行特许连锁经营。在与建筑师斯坦利·曼斯顿的合作下，两兄弟设计了一个有着与众不同的倾斜屋顶、红白主题的无电梯餐厅。迪克觉得这个设计有些单调，就建议增添两个巨大的黄色拱形，将餐厅从前到后、并将两侧也都连接起来。多年来，两个拱门都仅仅作为餐厅的建筑特色。在1962年它们被设计进了这个连锁品牌的标志里，成为了餐厅程式化的一部分。而如今“金拱门”的标志最初设计于1968年，表示麦当劳McDonald’s的首字母“M”。
图片来源：网络
文字来源：BBC，路透社，sixthtone，纽约时报，China Daily
