Asia Healthcare Blog
Exploring the intersection of investment and development, in Asia



China, HK, Macau

September 16, 2009

Rural China Love Story

The happy ending in this GE commercial is more trumped up than the broadway dance number in Slumdog Millionaire – yet, I can’t help but like it.  I have seen plenty of young peasant boys in Beijing, but never have I seen a successful city girl give them so much as a glance. But, as big as the city is, I probably missed something.

He is a handsome man - but, where is his beautiful doctor woman?

He is a handsome man – but, where is his beautiful doctor woman?

I particularly like how GE presents a classical image of China – sloping mountains, bustling, almost 19th century town center – and then sticks a very heartfelt love story in the middle of this creation. In some ways, the sojourn that millions of young Chinese men and women are making everyday, from farm to city, is one of the world’s oldest romances. I remember how all of the kids I used to work with at the Kro’s Nest would endlessly talk about how they wanted to find love in the city, or, alternatively, how they had come to the city to support their loved ones back home. I am sure that these sentiments are universal and timeless since they cut to the very core of the human need for comfort. But do notice how at 0:29 even GE couldn’t do anything about China’s pollution problems of today.



About the Author

Damjan Denoble
Damjan is in his second year at the University of Michigan Law School, where he is working with clients involved in the micro-finance and telecom industries. Before coming to Ann Arbor, he spent several years living and working in China. Last summer he clerked at the Seattle offices of Harris & Moure, a boutique international law firm best known for its widely respected China Law Blog. He received his BA in Public Policy, with a concentration in health policy, from Duke University. He and James Flanagan founded Asia Healthcare Blog, in 2009.




2 Comments


  1. I can’t decide whether to be amused or offended by the waiting room goat.


    • Haha – I feel the same way. After several hours of thinking about this I have decided that the goat was probably one of the more true to life parts of that piece – unless GE has a magic, super clean hospital somewhere in rural China.

      But maybe this hospital has already received a health reform overhaul, which would make me the goat.



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