Waubonsee Community College

China upside down, directed by Freddy Coppens

eng

videorecording

For College; Adult audiences

China upside down

electronic resource

747796838

directed by Freddy Coppens

54

Global business and economics in video

In 1992, Deng Xiaoping's infamous slogan "it is glorious to get rich" unleashed one of the biggest revolutions in the thousand year-old country of China. Deng threw the "classless society" and the" equal division of the means of production" to the wind. As the narrator says, "You can smell money everywhere." Foreigners are no longer suspect. Since 1992 China's "socialism" has adapted to the entrepreneurial spirit. Success stories abound, but in the Chinese cultural tradition, it is often the family, rather than the individual, which achieves success. This film profiles several families who rose from subsistence incomes to fabled luxury through the inventiveness and ambition of the extended family. In 1992, the Li family founded a stone-carving business with a small amount of capital. Three sons and two sons-in-law are involved in the enterprise. After four years one of the sons invented an energy saving bulb; they now employ 1400 people. The families live in close proximity to one another in the city, and have built adjoining homes in a luxury vacation community. Through the stories of several families portrayed in this film, a Westerner gains insight into the unique fusion of capitalism and communism that is becoming present day China

general