本书描述了麦当劳在东亚五大城市：台北、香港、北京、东京、首尔，如何融入当地文化的成功经验。在跨国经营的背后，麦当劳其实十分重视文化差异这件事。麦当劳董事长詹姆士·坎特洛普曾说过，麦当劳的目标是“尽可能成为当地文化的一部分”，除了在各地积极举办各种社区活动外，当日本人觉得正餐一定要吃饭才吃得饱，又想吃烧烤的料理时，东京的麦当劳就从善如流，开始卖咖哩饭和照烧猪肉堡。在香港人的认知中，笑脸迎人必有诈，麦当劳就调整当地员工教育训练的方式，不去强调麦当劳一贯的微笑式服务。总之，麦当劳会根据不同的市场环境在经营方式上做调整。

The human head is exceptional. It accommodates four of our five senses, encases the brain, and boasts the most expressive set of muscles in the body. It is our most distinctive attribute and connects our inner selves to the outer world.
Yet there is a dark side to the head’s preeminence, one that has, in the course of human history, manifested itself in everything from decapitation to headhunting. So explains anthropologist Frances Larson in this fascinating history of decapitated human heads. From the Western collectors whose demand for shrunken heads spurred massacres to Second World War soldiers who sent the remains of the Japanese home to their girlfriends, from Madame Tussaud modeling the guillotined head of Robespierre to Damien Hirst photographing decapitated heads in city morgues,from grave-robbing phrenologists to skull-obsessed scientists, Larson explores our macabre fixation with severed heads.

Mere decades ago, the population of Guangzhou was almost wholly Chinese. Today, it is a truly global city, a place where people from around the world go to make new lives, find themselves, or further their careers. A large number of those migrants are small-scale traders from Africa who deal in Chinese goods—often knock-offs or copies of high-end branded items—to send back to their home countries. In The World in Guangzhou, Gordon Mathews explores the question of how the city became such a center of "low-end" globalization and shows what we can learn from that experience similar transformations elsewhere in the world.
Through detailed ethnographic portraits, Mathews reveals a world of globalization based on informality, reputation, and trust rather than on formal contracts. How, he asks, can such informal relationships emerge between two groups—Chinese and Sub-Saharan Africans—that don't share a common language, culture, or religion? And what happens when Africans move beyond their status as temporary residents and begin to put down roots and establish families?
Full of unforgettable characters, The World in Guangzhou presents a compelling account of globalization at ground level and offers a look into the future of urban life as transnational connections continue to remake cities around the world.