Introduction to Chinese Culture - Term Papers and the Final Presentations - Movie Review Example

The movie spans from the 1980s when China is undergoing massive reforms in the economic sector. Cheng is a farm boy of bookish tendencies where as Meng is portrayed as a self assured/ confident and highly ambitious human being. Wang is poetic and slightly flaky. The three become friends at the university where they are all endeavoring to obtain visas, with interviews on the same just around the corner. The first among them to successfully obtain a visa is Wang. However, he changes his mind about going to America and opts to remain behind with his girlfriend (who is of Western origin).

Cheng, on the other hand, trial upon trial, fails to secure a visa. Meng nonetheless manages to qualify and get a study visa. He seizes his opportunity and leaves for America. As he leaves, he confides in his friends (Wang and Cheng) that he does not plan or desire to come back to China (American Dreams in China, 2013). In the consequent stages of the movie, Cheng’s misfortunes continue to endlessly stalk him. His girlfriend obtains a visa (where he failed) and he is relieved from his teaching position at the university when he is discovered engaging in extra student tuition for monetary gains.

In this state of desperation, Wang (who is good at striking good relations with students mainly via Hollywood films) and Cheng decide to set up a school, the New Dream School. The school aims at promoting new methods for English learning to the billions of Chinese students who crave the perceived benefits that arrive with mastery of the English language at the time (predominantly, the possibility of attaining the much coveted foreign/ abroad studies). This school develops to become a major success story.

Meng, in America, finds life unbearable and quite unpalatable as he is resigned to odds jobs to earn a living since his English is not perfect. He is essentially living from hand to mouth as a dream consistently progresses into a nightmare. He grows weary and sets back to China where he