English Hustle “serves as an essential resource for everyone interested in how changing Chinese policies impact our networked world.”
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Articles about English Hustle
Q&A: Director Charles Abelmann on ‘English Hustle’ and China’s online language tutoring industry
The China Project sat down with producer and director Charles Abelmann to discuss his latest documentary, English Hustle, which tells the story of the rise and fall of the online English tutoring sector in China from the perspective of foreign teachers. Read the full Q&A on The China Project.
Filipinos paid less than Americans but all had to ‘smile all the time’ – documentary shows China’s online English industry flaws and fallout from its collapse
China’s US$100 billion online English tutoring industry had ‘Rolls-Royce’ and ‘General Motors’ companies that employed North Americans and Filipinos respectively. Pay disparity, demand to be always ‘animated’, and the effect on teachers from different backgrounds of the industry’s sudden crash are shown in English Hustle. Read the full article on South China Morning Post.
Voice of America (VoA) Interview with director Charles Abelmann
The director and producer of the documentary "English Hustle" talks about the rise and fall of online English teaching in China due to political factors.“Charles Abelmann captures on screen the intimate online bonds forged between English-language teachers and their students in China. Heartwarming and heartbreaking, English Hustle narrates how these virtual classrooms dissolve when mainland China changes its policies to address a declining birthrate and an increasingly bitter trade war with the United States that calls into question the drive to learn English. Following teachers based in the US, Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, the documentary explores the transnational gig economy and the geopolitics of online educational labor. It serves as an essential resource for everyone interested in how changing Chinese policies impact our networked world.”
— Gina Marchetti, Pratt Institute, author of Citing China: Politics, Postmodernism, and World Cinema (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2018).
“English Hustle is a fascinating look at the way the aspiration to learn English in China created an industry supercharged by the internet, and how that industry was upended by changing political winds in China. When policy pronouncements radiate out from Beijing, they're meant to reflect a new Chinese self-confidence. English Hustle shows how the ripples from the Politburo are felt in Chinese homes, and by an army of workers across the globe. If you're interested in the impact of the internet on learning, the networking of the world, and the rise of China, watch English Hustle.”
— Ray Suarez (Journalist and Author)
“English Hustle is an important chapter in the story of China's engagement with the world. Two-hundred thousand foreign English language teachers and millions of Chinese students were building an understanding of each others cultures as they studied together. The relationships, along with ambitions on both sides, were shattered by an abrupt change of education policy. English Hustle tells us the personal stories behind some of the most contentious debates in cross-border education.”
— Christopher Thomas, Director of Partnerships, Yidan Prize Foundation
“This fascinating documentary explores the development of the 100-billion-dollar Chinese tutoring industry and its impact on the lives of ordinary citizens not only in China but across the English-speaking world as well. English Hustle brilliantly shows how the changing priorities of the Chinese government, from internationalism to nationalism, served to construct and then burst an international tutoring bubble with English as its primary commodity. The firm is important for teachers and parents alike who may still think of tutoring as a simple, benign exchange between an adult who wants to teach and a child who wants to learn. English Hustle shows the danger of uncritically embracing government-sponsored educational aims.”
— Walter Feinberg, Charles Hardie Professor, Emeritus, Educational Policy, University of Illinois Champaign/Urbana
