In San Francisco, Peter Wang doesn't get the promotion to lead the new division, so he spills hot coffee on his boss's lap. Then he takes his wife and son to visit his sister's family in Beijing. There, the daughter of the house, Qinqin Li, is trying to get one of the rare admissions to university. They all distract each other from their lives.
Peter Wang's exploration of cultural clash amidst a loving family seems very random at times, yet it all adds up to the random series of events that go into a family. Wang's brother-in-law, Xiaoguang Hu, is the most comical of all the characters, with his sluffing off of responsibility to rearing his daughter to his life, and comes out with statements about the evils of American society and the rampant homosexuality on the streets in the United States. Yet in the end everyone likes everyone else, and has something to teach, and to learn.
Peter Wang's exploration of cultural clash amidst a loving family seems very random at times, yet it all adds up to the random series of events that go into a family. Wang's brother-in-law, Xiaoguang Hu, is the most comical of all the characters, with his sluffing off of responsibility to rearing his daughter to his life, and comes out with statements about the evils of American society and the rampant homosexuality on the streets in the United States. Yet in the end everyone likes everyone else, and has something to teach, and to learn.