AMERICAN FACTORY

You can even joke about the President and no one will do anything to you.

I happened upon “American Factory” on Netflix, and my interest in watching it increased when I learned it was about a closed GM plant in Dayton that was revamped by a Chinese company, incorporating an American/Chinese workforce. I used to live in Dayton.

Certain quotes focused my attention. When explaining American culture to the Chinese workers who were coming here, the narration referred to American casual dress and one exact statement was: “They are very obvious, they dislike abstraction and theory.” The Chinese billionaire founder of the glass company says, “Americans love being flattered to death . . . Donkeys like being touched in the direction their hair grows.”

Later, in assessing American performance, a Chinese worker reported, “They have fat fingers; they are pretty slow.”

In a meeting with only Chinese employees, Jeff Liu, company president speaks in Mandarin about how the Chinese can encourage the Americans and impart wisdom to them. He tell them why they should: “We are better than them.”

In regard to Facebook, one difference between the Chinese and Americans amazes the former: “You can even joke about the President and no one will do anything to you.”