Educational Media Reviews Online

This film follows a Chinese family (a couple and their young adult son, Tom) who owns and runs a store in diverse Arcadia, California. After being snubbed by potential customers when they find out certain products the family sells are made in China, Tom decides to challenge an American family to see if they could go one month, plus Christmas, without Chinese products in their household. The Joneses—a middle-class couple with two young children—accept the challenge, place a portable storage locker in their driveway, and into it they move all their earthly made-in-China possessions. They also must avoid accumulating similar products during the Christmas season. Through regular interviews with the family, it’s clear that it doesn’t take long for the couple to be at their wits end without their X-Box, kitchen chairs, hair dryer, coffee maker, or even light bulbs. The husband even decides to build his own Christmas lights—at a materials cost of $166 for just a few strands—because he cannot find any that are not made in China.

And while this traditional American family ramps up their holiday season by dining in candlelit darkness on their living room floor using plastic utensils, Tom’s Chinese immigrant parents are in the process of building a new house and deciding how to decorate it for Christmas. The filmmakers share their torn emotions on the project when we learn that Tom’s father is worried that his son has ruined the most important holiday and time of year for the Joneses, something Tom hadn’t really considered. We do see clips of the Joneses enjoying time together as a family playing the piano and spending time in front of the fireplace (activities they possibly would have done less had they X-Box not been in locked storage), and we also experience Tom’s preparations for his American citizenship test. This is a very emotional film that gets it point across in a non-preachy, indirect way. It’s not about stuff, but rather about identity and all its inherent ambiguity, about family and that with one’s family is where one belongs regardless of what country one was born in. Recommended for classes in sociology, business, and family and consumer sciences.

Awards

• Best Comedy, Friars Club Comedy Film Festival