This video changed the views I had of China by showing how bad life can actually be for some people in China compared to my life in the US. I use to think China was just a very large country that had such a big population that they had to have ‘the one child rule’, but that otherwise the people were very similar to us in the US. The movie showed how many problems in China today are similar to the problems in the US after the industrial revolution. Such as women’s rights and poor educational opportunities; low pay; and working 11 hours, 7 days a week. Migrant workers and others having to be separated from their families to work is a hard life. The rapidly growing economy and expanding industry is also causing environmental, social and medical issues that did not exist before.

The differences in social classes in China seemed to be related to if you were from a rural or city life. Those who were rural believed in old traditions and Chinese myths. Women’s education was not important, and marrying into a fixed marriage just to be married was the important thing. Those who were from a city life all seemed to have opportunity for an education and were freer to choose who they wanted to marry. Both social classes, rural and city, had to work long hard hours and many times be separated from their families in order to have work and a career.

I thought Wei Zhanyan, the migrant factory worker, was the most interesting in this film because she wanted to make her own decisions and would rather be happy and not married, than be unhappy in an arranged marriage. She wanted to become a modern woman and was afraid of the old Chinese traditions. Even though her family was calling her home to meet the match maker for an arranged marriage, she did not want to go. Yet she did go because of her obligation to her family. In the end though she followed her heart and broke off the engagement, even though it would be bad in the village to break her word.