Fast-food chain criticised for opening outlet at Chiang Ching-kuo’s former residence in Hangzhou, China

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

McDonald’s has turned a house where the son of Chinese nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek once lived into a restaurant, dividing opinion in China and Taiwan.

Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland in 1949 after the Kuomintang was defeated by the communists, retreating to Taiwan where his son, Chiang Ching-kuo, was president from 1978 to 1988.

The McCafe opened on Friday in the former residence of Chiang Ching-kuo near the West Lake in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. A side wing of the two-storey wood and brick lakeside villa had already been turned into a Starbucks in October.

Chiang, the elder son of the generalissimo, lived in the western-style villa with his family for a short time in 1948.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Customers inside the new McCafe restaurant in Hangzhou. Photograph: Imaginechina/Rex Shutterstock

Local authorities had been trying to rent out the building, which is officially listed as a historical site, for years, according to local reports.

“Why haven’t they opened a KFC at Yan’an [the birthplace of the Communist party revolution]?” asked one user of Weibo, China’s microblogging site.



Another said: “The sign [on the building] says it’s a heritage site. It should retain its original history and culture. As it’s historical heritage, it should not be commercialised!”



But a Weibo user describing herself as an architecture student in Hangzhou said: “McDonald’s have maintained the old structure and have kept the original Chinese style. It’s not only heritage protection, it’s also convenient for tourists.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek (left) with his wife and their son, Chiang Ching-kuo, circa 1955. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Chiang Ching-kuo’s grandson, Demos Yu-bou Chiang, has previously said he was approached to take part in the building’s restoration, but refused to cooperate once he discovered it was being turned into a McDonald’s.



“It might be because of my rebellious nature, but it’s just something I didn’t want to do and I refused to cooperate,” Demos said.



It’s not the first time a foreign fast-food chain has been criticised for setting up shop in a historical site. In 2007 a celebrity news anchor, Rui Chenggang, currently under investigation for corruption, started a movement to oust a Starbucks outlet from Beijing’s historic Forbidden City.



A McDonald’s spokesperson declined to comment.



Additional reporting Christy Yao

• This article was amended on Tuesday 17 November 2015. An error during the editing process led to us saying the house was in Taiwan rather than in Hangzhou, China. This has been corrected.

