US-China Culture Clash

(Above: ‘American Factory.’ Source: IMDb)

American Factory, a documentary about “the future of American labor and Chinese economic dominance,” debuts today, August 21, on Netflix.

In 2014, a Chinese billionaire opened a car-glass manufacturing plant in an abandoned General Motors plant in Dayton. The arrival of the new factory meant jobs for thousands of locals whose lives had been upended by the recession.

Transplanted Chinese workers were trained to deal with their casual and garrulous American counterparts, but weak safety standards and low wages led to low productivity and talks of unionization among the US workers. Chinese management clamped down on the rank-and-file, and then something greater loomed – possible job losses due to automation.

Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar directed American Factory, which won the directing award in the US Documentary category at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.

Below, some of the filmmakers discuss American Factory at Sundance:

For more, visit Netflix.