People in China, US 'have similar dreams'

HOUSTON - Both the "American Dream" and "Chinese Dream" share the same goal of pursuing better and more secure lives, making the United States and China much in common, a US film producer said in a recent interview.

"Chinese have very powerful family values. What an average Chinese wants and what an average American wants at that level is absolutely similar," William Mundell, producer of Better Angels, a feature documentary showcasing China-US ties, told Xinhua in Houston.

The 92-minute theatrical documentary is directed by award-winning director Malcolm Clarke and produced by Mundell and award-winning Chinese producer Han Yi. The title comes from a speech by US President Abraham Lincoln, who pleaded with peoples of the northern and southern United States to remain friends with the prospect of a civil war on the horizon.

According to historian James Trusslow Adams, the American Dream ethos can be traced back to the frontier times. As the US frontier pioneers came to the continent to conquer the wilderness, they became symbolic of the can-do spirit by building farms, forming tribes, and establishing laws.

The Chinese have great similarities with the frontiers that built the United States, said Mundell. "China is in so many ways becoming what we imagine ourselves to be."

According to Mundell, part of what the film Better Angels is trying to convey is that there are parts of the America which are extremely open to Chinese investments. "Chinese investors are going to places in the US that have been forgotten for years. They are greater risk takers than Americans are right now."

"It is critical for the Chinese to understand the welcoming and open America still exists today; and for the American to see Chinese are very much alike with the frontiers that built our country," Mundell said.

Mundell was an adjunct professor at UCLA's Anderson Graduate School of Management, and is an honorary professor at Tsinghua University in China.

In 2005, Mundell formed Californians For Fair Redistricting to advance fair redistricting reform. In 2010, he was the executive producer of Gerrymandering, a documentary which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival, and focuses on the use of gerrymandering to fix election district boundaries and protect incumbents. It was widely credited with creating sweeping political reform in California.

Mundell is motivated to strengthen the trust among ordinary people in this cross-cultural relationship. "I would like the Chinese people to try harder in the US. We are better together than we are apart."

For an average working-class and middle-class US citizens, the soul of the American Dream is to achieve personal success, family prosperity, and upward social mobility through hard work, he believes.

In the film, a former US marine from Texas had his American Dream realized by coming to China. Not only did he find a higher-pay job as an English teacher and football coach in Shanghai, but also married a Chinese woman and put down roots in China.

Mundell believes the two countries are facing an information asymmetry in their relationship. "Let me just state the obvious. The American people know a lot less about China than the Chinese people know about America. There is a tendency to fear what you don't know," he said.

Mundell encouraged citizens of both nations to break stereotypes and dispel misconceptions about each other, because US-China relationship is "the most important bilateral relationship in the world".

Xinhua