"American Dreams in China"

Recently, a film named "American Dreams in China" has been screened in China. It describes lives of three young man from 1988 to the present days. This film is very popular in China and critically acclaimed since came out. After watching this movie, I am very touched by the story in this movie. I want to share this story with you. I don't know if you can feel what I felt or if you can agree with what I saw in this movie, but here's what I see in this movie. Let me introduce the three main characters first - Cheng, Wang and Meng.

Cheng, Wang and Meng are three best friends in Peking University. They are young and fearless. Especially Meng, his father and grandfather both got doctor's degree in the United States. He believes that one day he will follow his father's path and get more advanced education in the United States. Moreover, he believes that he can contribute his wisdom and talents to the American society which he deeply admired. During the time in Peking University, Meng is confident and minded. He knows exactly what his life goal is and constantly working on it. He is also the only one that actually go to the United States among the three of them. However, he gradually find that his life in America is not what he thought would supposed to be. He was not gave any fair job opportunity and was not be respected by others. He is so longing for the American fair and justice. Unfortunately, he couldn't find any. One time, he go back China to visit his two best friends - Cheng and Wang. He hides his bitter overseas life experience and decides to help his friends' successful business. He never go back to the United States to stay.

Cheng is a farm boy. He was born in a poor farmer family, but he is a truepenny. He is very honest and diligent. He is too honest and tolerant to expect much in his life. His life begins to change after he met with Meng and Wang. He becomes to realize there's bigger and better world outside China. He begin to know advanced knowledge concept. He wants to go to the United States, too. However, he's not as smart as Meng and Wang. Thus he spend much more efforts to study English than other students. I remember one plot in the movie. When the visa officer asks Cheng that who is his idol, Cheng answers devoutly - "Meng." Unfortunately, Cheng is the only one with visa got rejected by the United States embassy among the three of them. He becomes a professor in Peking University. To support his overseas girlfriend's study, he begin to tutor students off the campus. Soon, the university detects his off campus tutorship. He becomes the first teacher that expelled by Peking University. However, his students still want him to tutor them. Therefore, Cheng and Wang set up an english training school. After years of hard working, they achieve huge success.

Wang is the one who refused his visa. When the visa officer asked him why he refused his visa, he told the visa officer that he loves his country. In fact, Wang wants to stay in China with his American girlfriend. However, when his girlfriend go back to America, she break up with Wang and tells him that he is her overweight luggage. Wang becomes depressed and lost. With Cheng's help, Wang manages to find his life back and achieve hugh success after years.

In 1980s to 1990s, China was unstable or trying to be stable. In addition, China was far less developed than the present days. At that time, China's international status on the international stage was not as high as they do now. Many hard-working and talented students were attracted by modern western systems and gave a lot of efforts to go to their dream countries. I remember one plot in the movie, many students come to Meng for consulting about that why did their visa got rejected because the officer think they have immigrant intent. A student said, "Why on earth would I be an immigrant? All my families are in China. My parents work hard to support my study not to send me away from them. Our country do has flaws. It doesn't mean we don't love our country. All I need is studying about western advanced knowledge and systems." Cheng's "American Dreams" was smashed. So he found up a language training school to help millions of students to achieve their dreams. Meng's "American Dreams" faded when he found that he wasn't given a fair chance to contribute his talent in the United States. So he helped Cheng to develop and expand the school to earn domestic and international respect. In fact, this film is based on a true story. The three main characters are based on the three leaders of New Oriental (New Oriental Education & Technology Group Inc.). It is founded in 1993 by Yu Minghong. New Oriental "is currently the second largest comprehensive educational company in China. The business of New Oriental includes pre-school education, general courses for students of various age levels, online education, overseas study consulting, and textbook publishing. New Oriental was the first Chinese educational institution to enter the New York Stock Exchange in the United States in 2006. New Oriental had built 53 short-time language educational schools, 47 book stores, and 500 learning centers in 48 cities in China in May 2011. According to statistics, there were about 15,000,000 students who had studied in New Oriental by 2011. And the company values 64.23 billion RMB by the evaluation."

Lines in the Movie:
"In fact, what we are pursuing is not success, is our dignity."
"There is something more important to give us courage to defeat fear."
"What is dream? Dream is something that makes you feel happy about persistence."
"The most elites in our generation sunk down in the western countries. I feel sad for them."
"Use one word to describe our generation - impulsion, idealistic, chase freedom, doubt and revolution."
"We talk too much about advanced thoughts, doctrines and methods, but why? Because we want to find an existing answer. We all hope that someone can tell us about how to live. Actually, no one can tell us about how to live. Life is your own. Our own questions should be answered by ourselves. Therefore, I think the most important thing in our generation is: change."



Work cited:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Oriental