Abroad, but not Alone?
On Chinese New Year, Tencent QQ (China’s most popular instant-messaging software provider, with over 600 million users) released this advertisement. It soon found its way onto Youku (the Chinese Youtube), and to date has almost 600,000 views.
The comments on the Youku page though, tell a different, and yet related story of a large Chinese diaspora, many of whom are young Chinese students abroad, and reflects the other, more poignant side to China’s great leap into modernity and globalisation – that of the emotional cost of chasing a dream.
From Youku user 136733804: ‘看广告还没哭!一看到评论我就哭了’(I didn’t cry after watching the advertisement! but I cried immediately upon reading the comments.)
The original video (without English subtitles) can be viewed here.