資料來源：http://www.chinapost.com.tw/movie/drama/2013/08/02/385362/The-Chinese.htm
Hong Kong director Peter Ho-Sun Chan's (陳可辛) most Chinese-style film, “American Dreams in China” (海闊天空), centers on the lives of three people; Cheng Dongqing, Meng Xiaojun and Wang Yang, who come from different backgrounds but have one thing in common — the dream of getting a visa to the U.S. and living out their American dreams.
They meet each other at the prestigious Yenjing University in the 1980s, becoming best buddies and studying English together with like-minded classmates. Born to a peasant family, Cheng (Huang Xiaoming, 黃曉明) decides to follow a different track by means of education. Being accepted by the university after failing the test a few times is so far the best thing to ever happen to him.
Meng's (Deng Chao, 鄧超) father and grandfather were both educated in the U.S., thus going to the U.S. for studies and a better life becomes his ultimate goal. Wang (Tong Dawei, 佟大為), a movie buff who goes by his live-in-the-moment philosophy, is romantically involved with an American girl while at university.
By the time of their graduation, only Meng passes the interview and gets the visa to the U.S. Cheng was rejected because a consular officer believed he intended to stay in the U.S. after his studies, while Wang gave up his visa to stay with his American girlfriend in China.
Their lives take off in different directions.
Meng's life in the U.S. isn't as fantastic as he imagined. He works as a busboy in a restaurant just to get by. Cheng teaches English at school and gets fired for trying to earn more money through after-school tutoring, which is against the rules. Out of desperation, he starts giving private English lessons to only a few students at a McDonald's.
The number of Cheng's students grows from dozens to thousands, as there are a lot of students who want to study in the U.S. He ends up establishing an English language academy called “New Dream” with Wang, whose American girlfriend leaves him with a broken heart when she returns home without him. As Meng returns from the U.S. out of frustration, he joins Cheng's venture, and the best buddies reunite.
It's never easy to remain close friends when you are also business partners. The three main actors, Huang, Deng and Tong do a convincing job portraying what happens when personal interests and friendships collide.
The success of New Dream doesn't go unnoticed. As the company is accused of intellectual property theft and cheating regarding the teaching material it uses, the best buddies come to the land of freedom to defend themselves, this time as accomplished entrepreneurs who have realized their American dreams in China.
This typical coming-of-age story reinforces the message that China, with its 1.3 billion population, can turn things in its favor in nearly all regards. “American Dreams in China” glances into the Chinese style of learning English, which promotes a mnemonic system and encourages students to memorize English words using pinyin. Regardless of how unorthodox the learning methods seem to be, when the largest English-learning market sets its heart on something, the rest of the world finds it hard to say otherwise.
資料來源：http://www.chinapost.com.tw/movie/drama/2013/08/02/385362/The-Chinese.htm
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