Product Details

• Actors: Ted Koppel
• Directors: Ted Koppel, Robert Goldsborough
• Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: ACORN MEDIA
• DVD Release Date: June 2, 2009
• Run Time: 176 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001O7R75Y
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #118,267 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Perhaps nothing crystallizes the theme of Ted Koppel’s excellent Discovery Channel series The People’s Republic of Capitalism like the production of Ethan Allen couches. Over four episodes, Koppel reveals increasing economic interdependence between the United States and China, and daily business for the American furniture maker is a case in point. While couch bases are made in Chinese factories using cheap labor, those bases are then sent to the U.S. to be assembled with other components. The finished couches are then sent to China to be sold to a growing middle class with money to spare. Such is the cycle of globalization, pushing the U.S. and China into a necessary partnership that has an upside for some and a profound downside for others.

In order to understand that complexity, Koppel tells us, it’s important to grasp rapid changes in China, which has forsaken socialism—the very idea of a classless society—for a fervent embrace of new values and the goal of becoming an economic superpower. Koppel shows viewers how China, on one hand, micro-manages people's lives in very real ways, such as the country's notorious "one child" policy for families, which is designed to lower the nation's enormous population in time. On the other hand, Chinese are enjoying the freedom to pursue aspirations toward economic success and the (sometimes illicit) fruits of hard work. But others don't manage quite as well: Chinese factory workers who battle fatigue to make the equivalent of $20 per week, and the American workers who lost their jobs to their overseas counterparts. This eye-opening series is truly helpful toward understanding our complicated new world. --Tom Keogh

View an excerpt from the booklet included with The People's Republic of Capitalism with Ted Koppel

The People's Republic of Capitalism with Ted Koppel

Product Description

Ted Koppel takes an in-depth look at the economic ties that bind the U.S. to China

"A major achievement … an utterly enchanting education" --The Washington Post

"Terrific … don’t miss it." --USA Today

In this in-depth four-part documentary, Ted Koppel examines China’s new status as an economic superpower and its complex relationship with the United States. He focuses on Chongqing--a city in Sichuan Province with a burgeoning population and big plans for the future. While peasants in outlying areas eke out a meager living, the rising middle class revels in new riches, challenging traditional ideas about religion, sexuality, and consumerism. All this reverberates here in America, where companies scramble for cheap labor, workers find jobs shipped overseas, and shoppers snap up Chinese-made goods at big box retailers.

A year in the making, The People’s Republic of Capitalism shows China’s extraordinary changes through the eyes of its industrialists, assembly line workers, coal miners, taxi drivers, and farmers. Along the way, it provides surprising perspectives on a country fast becoming America’s greatest economic rival and biggest business partner.

BONUS FEATURES

• Exclusive interview with Ted Koppel
• 20-page viewer’s guide includes highlights, questions to consider, avenues for further learning, a brief history of the Cultural Revolution, and more.
• Exclusive web extras

  An inductee in the Broadcasting Hall of Fame, Ted Koppel has earned 42 Emmys, eight Peabodys, and numerous other awards in his decades of broadcast reporting. For 25 years, he served as anchor and managing editor of ABC’s Nightline, network television’s first late-night news program.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars China Capitalism: FEAR IT? OR EMBRACE IT? DOES USA HAVE AN OPTION?, May 25, 2009

By 

Harold Wolf "Doc" (Wells, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The People's Republic of Capitalism with Ted Koppel (DVD)

An excellent, informational 2-DVD set covering the Chinese people, business, politics, government, religion, and many other aspects that are all now revolving around commerce--world wide business. China is thickest with America. This program is educational but not only for schools. Business leaders considering, or involved with China on an economic level, need to view this in-depth series on "the PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC of CAPITALISM." States, cities, and any committee looking to encourage outside (China) investors, first watch this new Athena DVD, presenting Ted Koppel and his program seen early in 2009 on Discovery Channel.

Ted Koppel is perfect for presenting this topic as he spent so many years reporting on China when little was known. He was one of the first people allowed inside the country when it began to open it's doors. He has the first-hand knowledge, but also he went to Chongqing, a staggeringly fast-paced growing city based on industrialism and consumerism. The facts, the interviews of the people, and the growth-at-any-cost attitude will enlighten you, PERHAPS ADD A BIT OF FEAR.

Impact of Wal-Mart, Ethan Allen, Buick, Briggs & Stratton, Apple, and others is highlighted.

The current economic world crisis is another factor that makes this program so relevant. Major US business is going bankrupt, Americans are loosing good jobs, US economic growth is balancing between crash and recovery, while China is winning the commerce exchange by 4 or 5 times. Why is China/USA trade so lopsided? Can it be equaled? Can it be stopped? Who is really controlling economic trade so important to the American economy? The answers may surprise you. May scare you. Or, they could suggest that you jump into the frenzy with your own company.

A rising middle class, rich and becoming powerful, driving the Chinese economic forces, is a factor to be reckoned with. Having learned of, and sometimes tasted, the excesses of a better life, the young newly-rich class grows and persists toward ever-higher levels. This rags-to-riches rise is not unlike events of the United States in earlier decades. Here the ethics (or lack of) eventually brought about laws governing how business can legally be conducted regarding the safety and fairness of American people. These laws are few or nonexistent in the People's Republic. What exists can be bought off.

Made in China--let the buyer beware. Sell technology to China?: Let the buyer beware. So is the industrial/commerce exchange with China good for all American people? It sure is for China's huge population. Although lopsided trade exists now--can it be reversed or leveled? Listen to the Chinese answer (and non-answer) to that very topic in this DVD. Then decide.

The bonus interview with Broadcasting Hall of Fame member, Ted Koppel, offering his own opinions after making the 4 part series, is as educational and interesting as the series he created.

_____A bonus booklet provides highlights and questions for each episode, like: How is US/CHINA trade affected your 401(k)? Bibliography included for additional information, map, a PR of China map, and fun facts (like top-10 selling Chinese cars soon to be dumped onto the American market.) Chinese government knows of the auto industry impact on 20th century USA. They intend to make it happen there over the next few decades. US impact? World impact? Oil impact?

SUBTITLES available for the 4 episodes:

PART 1 Joined at the Hip

PART 2 MAO-ism to ME-ism

PART 3 The Fast Lane

PART 4 It's the Economy, Stupid

SUMMARY: Enlightening, Educational, Business oriented, Informative, Fantastic filming, In-Depth reporting, Brutally honest, Heart-felt look at China's poor, Corruption revealing, WELL WORTH THE PURCHASE.

12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Superficial documentary, July 26, 2009

By 

P. Geng (The Second City) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The People's Republic of Capitalism with Ted Koppel (DVD)

I rarely write reviews, but after watching all four episodes of this series, and reading the glowing review below, I feel the urge to say something. The 4-hour program was produced in 2008, sometime after the Sichuan earthquake and before the August Olympics. It claims to provide objective insight into China-US economic relationship. However, I felt the coverage and interviews were sentimental, even cliched. For example, much of the program dwells on the plight of an employed older American woman, whose factory job was outsourced to China. It dwells on the grievances of poor families who live in "nail houses," who refuse to vacate their homes despite a governmental payout. It dwells on the listlessness of young, uneducated, Chinese women who drift from one low-paying job to another, without a seeming way out of the cycle of poverty. Let me be clear. These tragedies are real. But I found myself reacting negatively to the way that the stories are told by Mr. Kopple, the host: his descriptions are almost Victorian in their emphasis on the hardworking, good nature of the workers, and the greed of the masters. Kopple also quotes briefly from the Bible early in the program. Was that necessary? How do such rhetorical flourishes enhance the viewer's understanding of the issues?

The central argument of the program is that China and US are "joined at the hip" (a direct quotation from the series). But most people understand this already. Thus, for those viewers who already have a sense of the inter-dependency between the two countries, the arguments will seem commonplace, even quaint. Had the program aired ten, or fifteen years ago, it might have been arresting.

Two years ago, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation produced a 4 part series called "China Rises." I recommend that documentary over this one. The investigative scope is larger and the human stories are presented in a more original (not to mention entertaining) way.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars OUR FUTURE WITH CHINA - COOPERATION OR COMPETITION??, July 4, 2009

By 

Loves To Read "Lu" (Twin Cities, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The People's Republic of Capitalism with Ted Koppel [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray)

Imagine if the population of the U.S. quadrupled and the increase came mainly from rural areas and earned a fraction of what the rest of us earned. That would be something like the great contrasts that exist in China as it establishes itself as an economic superpower and the U.S. and China go forward, awkwardly 'joined at the hip', possibly irreversibly so. In this four part documentary Koppel takes a look at this complex love/hate relationship. We hate China when they take our jobs with their cheap labor but the same people who lost their jobs are the same ones (with millions others) who love shopping at Wal-Mart and other retailers with cheap, imported goods from China. We all probably know that but what doesn't seem to make the nightly news is the appetite the growing Chinese middle class have for high end 'American-made' products such as Ethan Allen furniture where the fabric and some components come from China, assembled here and shipped to China. Same is true autos. GM & Ford are flourishing in China and Asia. A Black Buick is a status car in China where 25,000 new cars are added to the highways EVERY DAY - 9,000,000 every year. 80% of Chinese car buyers have never owned an automobile. Think of America's love affair with the automobile back in the 1950's. The segment on auto insurance and how they handle the tsunami of accident claims is entertaining. Making money is the new religion in China. It comes before everything else - product safety, environmental concerns and even morality. In 2006 over 24,000 government workers were convicted of graft. While clearly many more goods come from China than are exported, our relationship is not as simple as the sound bites make it seem. Many American companies have established a very strong presence there and will benefit from the continuing growth of this amazing country and the seemingly unlimited potential of its growing middle class. To understand our future and the future of the planet, we need to understand China, both the good and the bad (huge environmental and energy issues, lack of political freedom). Will we compete or cooperate or both? This excellent documentary is a good beginning for those of us who are not experts.