Chinese Teens in the Economic Boom
VELSHI: OK. This week we have talked a lot about China's business success, but my next guest, a Chinese-Canadian filmmaker Yung Chang, is joining me now to talk about teenagers growing up in China's fast-moving economy. When I read about this, this made me think about what you think of as the American dream, that sort of ethos. He is currently in production on a documentary looking at young Chinese teens in search of fame in amateur boxing, but his last film got a lot of news. Called "Up the Yangtze," it documented the social changes for families that was brought on by the Three Gorges Dam Project, a construction project that displaced over a million people. Yung, thank you for joining us.</s>YUNG CHANG, DIRECTOR, "UP THE YANGTZE": Thanks for having me.</s>VELSHI: For my viewers who don't remember, the Three Gorges Project, that was such a big part of China's emerging economy. It was something that China did to generate energy, but tell us some of the bad side of it.</s>CHANG: Well, I mean looking at it from the human perspective, the displacement of millions of people and surrounding that issue including corruption in terms of compensation, I mean, it was rife with many, many issues. And certainly when I was there working on this film "Up the Yangtze," the focus on the human voice on some of these individuals being directly affected by the dam, it was very stark from a basic level of survival. It -- I think using this prism, this microcosm of the Three Gorges Dam and the Yangtze River to zoom in and focus on the human story was very emotional for me (ph)</s>VELSHI: All right, so let me ask you one that really brought to mind maybe a hardscrabble kid in the '20s in the U.S. trying to make a buck where opportunity was growing. You have a story, for instance, of a girl whose parents either didn't want to send her to school, couldn't afford to even if they wanted to. So she takes a job dealing with American tourists. Tell me what happened there.</s>CHANG: Well, essentially, her home is going to be flooded by the Three Gorges Dam, and in order to support the family in that sort of Confusion Valley, she has to go and leave the cruise ship, as the eldest daughter -- I'm sorry, to leave her family home, and to go to support the family by working on this ironically, a luxury cruise ship that serves international tourists traveling up and down the Yangtze Sea known as the Farewell Cruise documenting the disappearance of the river.</s>VELSHI: And in fact, she makes good money doing it?</s>CHANG: She does. And I mean, as a young girl pursuing dreams of success and, you know, being surrounded by materialism and changes in the Chinese society in that respect, certainly, she, I mean, the money she makes on average, she was making triple the income of her father in one month that he would make in one year.</s>VELSHI: OK. Tell me this then --</s>CHANG: Approximately $200</s>U.S. VELSHI: Tell me this then, is there some sense that in a communist totalitarian regime where generally speaking, historically, the average Chinese person would die largely in the same economic rung that they were born, has all of the success in China caused people to be more ambitious and to do something more like what we think of as the American dream? Go out there and try to hustle for more money and success.</s>CHANG: I think that the notion of the American dream can be transported directly into the country of China right now. I think, you know, peasants can become millionaires, as they say. And I think many of the youth in China and including young adults are driven by a certain ambition to survive, to better their livelihoods. It's not uncommon and I would say that it is -- it is sort of driving society right now in China. A colleague of mine, the filmmaker Lixin Fan, made a film "Last Train Home." This film documenting migrant workers in southern China. And certainly, what comes out of the film as well as that "Up the Yangtze," is that China is currently the, you know, the world's factory and migrant workers are the backbone of society right now. They are making the clothing that we are wearing today, you know. And certainly from that perspective, it's very difficult to argue against the idea that how can someone like a 16-year-old girl, Ushway (ph), how could she not want to pursue her dreams, how could she not want to better her life by pursuing a job on a cruise ship for example.</s>VELSHI: yang, thanks for joining us. Great to talk to you, get a little more perspective on what goes in China that we talk so much about.</s>CHANG: Thanks, Ali.</s>VELSHI: President Obama is in upstate New York today talking about jobs and by the way, China, it comes up in every conversations he has these days. He toured the GE plant in Schenectady with GE's CEO Jeff Immelt, the same Immelt that will chair the White House Economic Group. Ed Henry, our senior White House correspondent, joins me form the White House. Ed, you have some behind the scenes scoop about what this is all about.</s>ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, look, this is part of a narrative they are trying to build here at the White House. You know, you put Jeff Immelt in charge of this panel, talk about creating jobs, you think about the visit this week with the Chinese president and this president was all about salesman in chief, we want to sell you planes, we want to sell you cars, you know, all about the trade, something that he did not talk about so much in the first two years. And that's because building up to the State of the Union Tuesday night, when he's going to address millions of Americans, aides say the message is really going to have twin themes. It's going to be all about creating jobs and promoting America competitiveness around the world. And so look, especially with Bill Daley as the new chief of staff, a former business guy, they clearly have gotten the message that they are going to fine tune this. The first two years, there were a lot of issues flying around, some of their own making, some that got thrown in their lap, but the next two years are going to be all about jobs and competitiveness. That's the bottom line.</s>VELSHI: OK, so here is a guy from the world of business, Bill Daley, the new chief of staff, a man from the world of business and politics. You have a big piece on CNN.com shedding some light on Bill Daley.</s>HENRY: Yes, well, we did a kind of power profile of him, we call it "The Sweep." And it's interesting because -- it's up there right now -- and I went back and talked to people from his past, including from that 2000 campaign. You'll remember, he was the Gore campaign chairman, had to come out in the middle of the night and say, look this is not done yet, the campaign continues. I talked to one of his former colleagues, Don Bear (ph), who was telling me he was in the car with Bill Daley the morning of that election and they were going through all these scenarios at 06:30 in the morning about what might happen on election night. And Daley basically turned to Don Bear and he says -- he told him, I'm getting too old for this. And fast forward now, he was 51 at that time, he's 62 now. And one of his friends just told me they were having dinner and Bill Daley just said basically the same thing, I am getting too old for this, but he keeps on taking on these tasks. Now at the age of 62, he's got to deal with trying to fix the economy, trying to fend off Republicans who want to tear down health care reform, you know, bill and other things and he's got to deal with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And oh, by the way, he's got to get the president ready for reelection in 2012. This is someone whose got an enormous task ahead of him. When you look at his past, he's pretty well prepared and brings a lot to the table for this president.</s>VELSHI: Yes, it probably doesn't hurt that he's got a few more pro-business friends in the White House right now. But off to something else, some bigger business than what he's got to deal with. The president going to be watching football?</s>VELSHI: Yes, you know, Robert Gibbs says that the president is going to invite some friends over, maybe even some lawmakers this weekend to watch the Bears against the Packers. I know your executive producer may have a thought on that, maybe a Green Bay fan. The president, of course, is a Chicago Bears' fan and is going to be rooting for them. And in fact, he told us a couple days ago that if the Bears make it to the Super Bowl, he is going to Dallas for the game. First time in a long time that a president will be at a Super Bowl. So we'll see if the Bears can follow it up. And you may have heard that little quip he had at the beginning of that event there in upstate New York where he said that Governor Cuomo wanted to give him a Jets' cap and the Secret Service confiscated it. So -- I think that he was joking. I'm pretty sure he was joking.</s>VELSHI: Yes, he likes to wage those sports conflicts.</s>HENRY: It gets a little dangerous sometimes, yes.</s>VELSHI: Ed, good to see you. Thanks very much.</s>HENRY: Have a good weekend, Ali.</s>VELSHI: Ed Henry, White House correspondent, with "The Stakeout." Read his note on -- his article on CNN.com on Bill Daley. OK, from Tucson to Texas, we are watching the flight carrying Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords to Houston for the next phase of her recovery. That's the flight taking off from Tucson. We've got a live update next.