China Herald: American Dream

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

American Dreams in China - review

TOEFL ITP BANNER 2011 (Photo credit: CTJ Online)

On a recent flight with Lufthansa from China I was fortunately enough to watch the movie "American Dreams in China". Mostly on-board movies tend to be rather boring, but this one was very appealing, not only to me, but also to many of the mostly Chinese passengers on board.
I had missed this 2013 movie altogether, but it is a must-see if you are interested in China´s recent history. The story hoovers around three friends, who meet at university and decide, each on their own way, to pursue their American dream. Their working live focuses on an initiative of teaching English, and training Chinese in getting access to the American education through TOEFL tests. They start off in a derelict factory - after the main characters were kicked out of university - and ends very appropriate with an IPO.
The story offers enough twists and turns to make it interesting, mostly real success stories tend to be a bit boring, but this one is certainly not. It draws a nice parallel with the developments of China itself, and how it is able to gain prosperity and an accepted global player.
It shows how a major conflict on copyrights - the Chinese company supposedly copied TOEFL tests without permission - turns into a great opportunity to come clean with this copy right infringement, and becomes a leading force in giving Chinese access to US education. The story is a nice clash between American and Chinese culture, although some of the rough edges have been hidden in the well-written scenario.
The story is loosely based on that off "New Oriental", a Chinese company that listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2006. The still popular school has been the subject of - unproven - war stories, that go a little bit further than the mild copyright infringement from the movie.
One of the ways New Oriental cheated the US TOEFL system, according this (again: unproven) stories was by sending hundred of their teachers to do the test. Since it was a computer-based system, copying the questions was a bit harder than with paper-based tests. Those hundred teachers memorized the questions, wrote them up sometimes even sitting at the toilet during the test. That allowed the school to cover about 80% of all TOEFL question, of course a major asset in recruiting students.
If the story is true, that is.

the trailer

Wednesday, July 10, 2013

The Chinese Dream: a shoddy ripoff of the American Dream - Jeremy Goldkorn

Jeremy Goldkorn

What is the Chinese Dream, asked ChinaFile, and Beijing-based internet veteran Jeremy Goldkorn is not very impressed at this stage. "An empty concept," he writes.

+Jeremy Goldkorn:

I hope that the notion of the Chinese Dream is a signal that the Party recognizes that China ought not to be merely the world’s biggest factory, largest market, and most significant creator of pollution. I hope it is a recognition of the dignity and the aspirations of ordinary Chinese people.

Unfortunately, I have seen nothing to convince me that the Chinese Dream is anything but a shoddy ripoff of the American Dream, a propaganda campaign imposed from above as an ideological framework to justify continued Party rule, and to find a euphonious way of talking about China’s place in the world.

The emptiness of the concept was demonstrated in May when Xinhua reported that "a senior Chinese official… called for the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) to research the “Chinese dream.” The official went on to say that the research “would provide academic support for self-confidence in the Chinese path, theories and system.” In other words, China’s leading think tank was given the task of finding an actual meaning for the Chinese dream.

On the other hand, on the Internet where you find ordinary Chinese people talking about their own ideas rather than Party ideology, many people joke that the real Chinese dream is to get a Green Card and emigrate to the United States.

More in ChinaFile.

Jeremy Goldkorn is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. Do you need him at your meeting or conference? Do get in touch of fill in our speakers' request form.

China Weekly Hangout

+Steve Barru and +Fons Tuinstra discuss at the China Weekly Hangout on April 4 what they expect from the political change in the upcoming ten years under Xi Jinping; agenda: Hu Jintao, austerity, poor-rich divide, and more.

On July 1 Hong Kong we saw the annual march against Beijing rule. The +China Weekly Hangout will examine on Thursday July 11 (delayed hangout from July 4) the turnout, and how the relationship between Hong Kong and Beijing has developed, since China took over the former British enclave. You can read our announcement here, or join the debate at our event page here.