China may be the hardest place in the world to sell cheese, but Liu Yang has been trying anyway — and Western fast food may be his salvation¹.

中国可能是世界上最难卖奶酪的地方，但刘洋还是尝试了——而西方快餐可能是他的救星。

There has not been dairy in the mainstream² Chinese diet for centuries — no butter, no milk, no cheese, nothing. Ninety percent of the population is said to be lactose intolerant. So when Mr. Liu opened a tiny two-room cheese shop on the outskirts³ of Beijing five years ago, “People said, ‘What is this strange stinky thing?’ ” he recalled. “ ‘How am I supposed to cook it? How am I supposed to eat it?’ ”

几十年来，中国主流饮食中并没有乳制品这一项——没有黄油、没有牛奶、没有奶酪，统统都没有。据说90%的中国人都有乳糖不耐症。所以，五年前，当刘洋在北京郊区开办了一家小小的、只有两个房间的奶酪店时，“人们说，‘这种奇怪的臭东西是什么？’”他回忆道。“这东西要怎么做，怎么吃？”

Mr. Liu’s offerings of brousse, crottin, Camembert and tomme at first mystified Chinese customers, even though prosperity was driving demand for other European luxuries. He now sells about 33 pounds of cheese a day from his little shop, and he hopes to do better as more Chinese become acquainted with the stuff.

一开始，刘洋店里的布鲁斯(brousse)、哥洛汀(crottin)、卡蒙贝尔(Camembert)和多姆(tomme)奶酪令中国消费者大惑不解——尽管对其他欧洲奢侈品的需求日益繁荣。如今，刘洋的小店一天可以卖出33磅奶酪（约合14.9公斤——译注），他希望随着中国人对这种东西更加了解，他的生意也会更好。

That is already happening, albeit⁴ through a side door: a growing appetite for American-style fast food. The average Chinese city dweller⁵ eats it at least once a week, by one estimate; Pizza Hut is opening stores on the mainland at a rate of about one a day.

中国人确实对奶酪有了更多了解，不过是通过间接的途径——对美式快餐日益增长的爱好。根据一项估算，每个中国城市居民至少平均每周都要吃一次美式快餐；必胜客在中国大陆几乎每天都要新开一家分店。

Pizza, of course, contains cheese. Theo Spierings, chief executive of Fonterra, a major New Zealand dairy producer, said the popularity of pizza was driving up demand for cheese across Asia. Supermarkets in big cities are starting to put blocks of cheese on display. And China’s imports of cheese rose 70 percent from 2009 to 2014, according to Mintel, a market research company.

披萨中当然含有奶酪。新西兰大型乳品制造商恒天然(Fonterra)公司的首席执行官西奥·施皮尔斯( Theo Spierings)说，披萨的流行刺激了整个亚洲的奶酪需求量。大城市中的超市开始陈列大块奶酪。根据市场调查公司英敏特(Mintel)的数据，从2009年到2014年，中国的奶酪进口增加了70%。

Chinese leaders once considered cheese to be too barbaric for the national diet. That stigma⁶ is gone, but for many shoppers, another one remains⁷.

中国领导人一度认为奶酪是一种蛮夷的食品。如今这种污名已经不复存在，但是对于很多消费者来说，还有另一个问题。

“I’m afraid it will make me fat,” said Zhao Lin, 32, who lives in Beijing. “It’s too unhealthy.”

“我担心它会让我长胖，”32岁，现居北京的赵琳（音）说。“它太不健康了。”