“ China in the red” shows the impact of economic growth, globalization, and changing family structures in 's dramatic, ongoing effort to modernize its economy.

 Through the chronicle story of 10 Chinese ordinary people, the FRONTLINE tried to tell us something underlying. And I think they tried to open out the failure of SOEs, the transitional system, the legacy of the old command economy and the abnormality of the economy in the contemporary era.

 The high tide of globalization makes the conflict to be the biggest reality in . The prevailed views and system in the world were strange to people in which was closed from 1949-1978. After the open-up, marketization and globalization flushed in and deeply impacted people’s life. The new economy, the new political views, the new life styles...conflict fiercely with the old ones. During the period of adaptation, people have to deal with the cognitive dissonances.

 The tensions brought about by this kind of dissonances left people with two doors. One is the way to the new bright world; the other is a more pessimistic way, people who choose to opens that door should compromise the tough life. However, most of them are compelled.

 Globalization has a connotation of mixed challenges and tensions. It gives a premium to people with sophisticated skills, high level of education, and entrepreneurial traits. These are people better equipped to survive and succeed in the more competitive world brought about by globalization. The mirror image of this is that unskilled labors, uneducated workers and marginalized population are likely to benefit less or even suffered from a more competitive world economy.

 In , the situation is more complex, modified socialism blended with capitalism makes the economy quite abnormal. The market is not mature; there are so many institutional leaks and unreasonable factors, but opportunities lurking simultaneously.

 Someone was under the constraints of the command economy in the old days, like Zhang Wu and Tian Xiaowei, got rid of the chains, seized the opportunity and finally offered themselves something that is really bright to them.

 Zhang Wu, are capitalizing on the new economic realities and thriving. In just a few short years, Wu has gone from working at a state-run packaging company to owning the most successful corporate image company in . The film shows how his personal life changes dramatically, too. In 1998, Zhang and his wife and their child are sharing a cramped apartment with his in-laws; just two years later, the family has moved into a luxury penthouse apartment in a gated Beijing community.

 Zhang is open about his capitalist dreams. "My next apartment will be even more comfortable," he boasts. "When it comes to housing, my ambitions are boundless. As long as you have money, you can do anything."

 Tian Xiaowei has also benefited from 's economic reforms. For most of her life in the small, rural Chestnut Flower Village , she felt despised by her neighbors. Then she started her own small business making and selling noodles. She is now one of the richest women in the village, with high social-standing and respect.

 “Now you can do anything,” she says, “and no one will be against you as long as you make money.”

 Zhang and Tian are of those who bravely brace the new system although it is kind of abnormal, and realize their dream of life. But there are still a lot of people trapped by the old system and suffered from the turbulence in the conflict between the new and the old. Most of them are those who benefited from the old planned economy.

 The typical examples were the employees in the SOEs. As Mu Suixin, the former mayor of Shengya, said: “Under the planned economy, workers’ and officials’ lives were managed from cradle to grave by the government. In the market economy, you're responsible for yourself.” This is an historic change. In the old days, they are insured by the “iron rice bowl”. But the “open policy” and the pace of marketization confronted the SOEs to fierce competitions. The bad finance condition, the inefficient methods of production and management, the old concept of the staff made the situation worse. Although the government pumped an enormous sum of money into them, the situation was still austere. And all of them had to lay off a great number of workers.

 The laid-off should face the tough life, without security and pension, and very hard to find a new job due to lack of high-level skills or knoledege. People who were fortunately not lost their job were worse off too. Their wages were shapely cut, even hard to maintain the basic life.

 Zhang Shuyan is a typical example to illustrate the living condition of the about to laid-off workers. Nowadays, she had to struggling to live with only 36 dollars per month, compared to 48 dollars in the past, and the electricity and water bills cost her 20 dollars per month even she used them as less as possible.

 She told the FRONTLINE with tears: “I hope my daughter could go to college and find a good job. Then I’ll finish my mission.”

 Like parents all over the world, the parents in are desperate to provide a better life for their children, even as they despair over a generation gap made wider by their children's fascination with Western pop culture. Like Zhang Shuyan, Feng HuiXiu, the parents of Nie Cheng. Besides, there are other scenes in the film support it. One parent obsesses over her son's college exams, while another is devastated when her daughter abandons her education so she can work to support the family.

 It is true that the young are more flexible and adaptable to the new volatile world. Gu Feng and Nie Cheng in the film are the representatives. They are mostly interested in their own lives, and politics doesn't enter into it. They are pretty well-informed about what is going on in the rest of the world. They are indulged themselves in the fresh style of culture brought by globalization, such as NBA and rock & roll. They also bold their personalities and try to mark themselves in the world through more individual ways. It is the time of materialism and the American culture. They were bathed in it and could handle it more positively. Unlike their parents, who had to cope with so many cognitive dissonances between the old world and the new world, the old views and new views, and the old life style and the new life style.

 To sum: 
Globalization of course brings the world challenges and opportunities. 
But it seems that everything is in red in . 
There are some shinny points that help people to build their confidence, but threaten and tensions are even more austere. Modified socialism blended with capitalism allows some people to become very successful while others fall into poverty. 
The legacy of Communist system put up a lot of barriers on the road of the country to merge into the high tide of globalization. The whole system is not complete, including the political regime, the market system, and the mechanism of society. The institutional conflict is the core conflict. 
Besides, it’s doubtful that could really won esteem in the world and realized its “peaceful rising” in today’s world if it sticks to a non-transparent and undemocratic politics system. 

 There are so many cognitive dissonances have to be dealt with. Thus people have to suffer tensions. Some are benefit from the lurking opportunities, while some people are choked. 
People have to struggle for themselves to adapt to live in an uncertain world without security. It is a tough world, and the conflict between reality and ideals never stop. Anyway, people have to compromise to the society.