After Leo Fang, a computer engineer in Silicon Valley, is passed over for a promotion, he decides to take some time off and visit his sister in China. They have not seen each other for thirty years. When the American family arrives in Peking, Leo's brother-in-law, a retired communist official, wonders why Leo's wife and son don't speak Chinese. The neighbors are perplexed; they think the newcomers are Japanese.
A Great Wall, written and directed by Peter Wang, offers a lively and touching portrait of cultural and lifestyle differences between the Americans and their Chinese hosts. The wives talk about their husbands and fashions; the men chat about business matters; the kids go toa disco and participate in a ping-pong match. Paul, the son, returns home with a new sense of his own limits, and Leo picks up an exercise perfectly suited to release his tensions in California. The walls between the two families is surmounted with many things learned on both sides. Funny, observant, and edifying, this video gives cross-cultural experiences a good name.