To De-exoticize Chinese Stereotypes: US-Sino Communication in American Factory

ABSTRACT

Oscar's best feature-length documentary American Factory (2019) has garnered publicity on both sides of the Pacific for its nuanced presentation of US-Sino communication. The chronicle of a Chinese billionaire opening a factory in the Rust Belt state of Ohio re-figures the Orientalist convention in American cinema and throws light on the changing perceptions of Self and Other at the height of global capitalism. As an influential vehicle mediating personal and collective identities in the streaming era, the documentary manages to de-exoticise Chinese stereotypes for greater equity, diversity and inclusion.

KEYWORDS:

• Orientalist convention
• Chinese stereotype
• documentary
• cultural identity
• global capitalism

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Editorial Board and anonymous reviewers for invaluable feedback on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This article is funded by Guangdong Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science [grant Number GD20CHQ01] and the Department of Education of Guangdong Province [grant number GD2020WTSCX017]. This article is supported by the Institute of Foreign Literature and Culture (23BZCG11) and the Institute of Hermeutics (CSY-2022-01) at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies.