The documentary American Factory centers on the cultural clash between Chinese
management and American workers in the U.S.-based Chinese company, Fuyao. Directed by
Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, who were interested in exploring the future of Chinese labor
in the United States, it was produced on January 25, 2019. The film premiered at the Sundance
Film Festival and was the first backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s newly formed
production company, Higher Ground Productions. Bognar and Reichert's film sheds light on the
cultural clashes and labor differences within Fuyao, a foreign glass-making company located in
Dayton, Ohio. The documentary delves into the tensions in the Chinese company, which is
owned by Cao Dewang and managed by Jeff Daochuan Liu. Previously owned by General
Motors, the factory was shut down, leaving hundreds unemployed, until the Chinese company
revived it. This revival brought American workers together with Chinese management, setting
the stage for an exploration of cultural dynamics.

The tense culture clash in American Factory revealed the chasm in management and
employee workload expectations. A 2019 New York Times review by Monohla stated: “This is
political without being self-servingly didactic or strident, connecting the sociopolitical dots
intelligently”. The documentary sets the stage for understanding complexities in the globalized
world. For Fuyao, the glass-making company, the most important concern was not how much
they earned, but how Americans viewed Chinese immigrants and China as a major competitor in
U.S. manufacturing. A major labor difference was evident, showing that this American-based
company was successful largely because of the significant number of Chinese immigrants
willing to work long hours, while American workers worked fewer days and received higher pay.

The cultural clash surfaced when American workers protested the emphasis on quantity over
quality, believing that Chinese immigrants were being asked to do too much for too little. One
example is when a female Chinese worker was fired for taking a day off while severely sick. She
said, “I am tired, but I have no choice. Safety does not pay the bills.” This highlighted how the
workplace conditions were unfavorable and contributed to her illness. As an immigrant, she had
no choice but to work undocumented, and Fuyao was the only company willing to offer her a
job. The vice president of Fuyao Glass remarked, "America is a place to let your personality run
free" (1:14 minute mark). He argued that there is a cultural trait in the U.S. that makes its citizens
overconfident. For many foreigners entering the United States, there is a level of rigidity they are
accustomed to, and in a shared work environment, these differing cultural ideas and operational
methods inevitably clash.