I saw this blog post where an extra from the commercial commented on his experience:

http://blog.angryasianman.com/2010/10/extra-in-chinese-professor-ad-speaks.html

It was filmed at a community college (NOVA in Alexandria VA) and when we got there, the production team did tell us about the ad, but in a misconstrued kind of way. I know that the ad was about the US deficit and they did tell us the premise of the ad (taking place in the future, and we all supposed to be "chinese" students in a lecture). I saw the commercial and it's pretty intense and one thing I did not know that the commercial would do, is put this almost red-scare type of fear in the eyes of Americans...

I can't watch the video now, but as a Canadian, I am often kind of baffled by the way that natural assumption tends to pop up in American media. My #1 pet peeve? When people refer to the US as the "free world," as in for example Obama is "leader of the free world."

Oh, the arrogance of such a statement. Many other countries are just as "free" and, in fact, depending on how you define freedom, quite freer.

Man, this is a High Budget ad!! All that CGI... do we need to start a Citizens Against Waste by 'Citizens Against Government Waste' group? I hope they spend a couple mil making sure it appears all over TV too.

Oooh here's some interesting commentary at http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/10/the-phenomenal-chinese-professor-ad/64982/

...And if you know anything about the Chinese economy, the actual analytical content here is hilariously wrong. The ad has the Chinese official saying that America collapsed because, in the midst of a recession, it relied on (a) government stimulus spending, (b) big changes in its health care systems, and (c) public intervention in major industries -- all of which of course, have been crucial parts of China's (successful) anti-recession policy.

Given the massive amount of space and natural resources, as well as the momentum America has as an existing superpower, and the fact that they are/were able to profit off and take advantage of developing countries, well, yeah... they SHOULD (logically, not morally) be one.

Or do countries that have little natural resources, were taken advantage of, and are stuck in cycles of violence/revolt not get to use those excuses anymore? The narratives here aren't meshing :\

"What is interesting to me is the assumption that drives the commercial: that the U.S. should be a super power, that it is naturally so (so long as it sticks to its founding principles), and that it would be wrong for China to be more powerful than the U.S."

I don't necessarily think that's what it's saying. It is not saying that the United States is the natural superpower, because in fact it highlights that all empires fall, implying that America, too, will fall. What I think it is saying is that we should not assist this fall, and we should keep America on top as long as possible. It's not necessarily a cultural superiority thing-- it's a self-preservation thing. (I'd concede that "turning their backs on the principles that made them great" does imply cultural superiority, but it is not restricted to the U.S. Furthermore, certain principles did give us power and success, so acknowledging that is not arrogant--it's an observation.)

I'm American, and yeah, I want us to remain in power for as long as possible. Because it's my country, and I want it to succeed. I don't think that makes me evil or culturally pretentious. Considering how colonies and less powerful states are treated (usually oppressively), I don't want my children or grandchildren to be subject to that. (And I'll point out that the Han Chinese don't exactly have a great track record for cultural sensitivity to minorities, so if I have to be ruled by someone, I'll take just about anyone else.)

As for your allegations of racism: "The idea that self-satisfied Asian people would be in charge adds racist oomph to the threat." I don't think that's the racist element here; the Chinese in this are portrayed as very Western--note that the kids, at least, are wearing Western clothes and using technology similar to that which we use.

What's a better point is that all the empires are white: Greeks (um, the idea of a unified ancient Greek culture is just so false), Romans, Brits, and Americans. How about the Ottomans? The Mamluks? The ancient Egyptians? The ancient Persians? HELLO-- the Mongols??? This, I think, is a major problem that Lisa did not address. I don't think it's necessarily the fault of the ad, but of an education system that, by focusing on a powerful Western canon, tends to ignore that there were major powers sticking out all the time. That being said, it could be referring to great nations, culturally, in which case, yeah it's just plain racist. We can thank the Arabs for a lot of our philosophy and most of our math/medical science. But perhaps "great nations" refer to principles or something, in which case the British Empire, though powerful and with a whole lot of awesome art and literature and stuff, should just be jettisoned right out of that list.

Anyway, I think that the "nations" chosen here is the major problem.

While it is a bit arrogant that the commercial assumes that the US should always be on top, what's more insidious here is the utilization of the Chinese boogeyman to rile up the American people. This is a haunting tactic that has lingered since exclusion and its revitalization is much more frightening than the starry-eyed belief of "USA! Number one!".

I'll say what I said on my facebook: This ad literally makes no sense whatsoever. Somehow, socialism made America implode, yet, it allows for China to own the US and become a high-tech superstate? So, the implication is either that we should abandon half-hearted socialism and go crazy for Chinese-style state capitalism, or that America is too incompetent to manage anything while the Chinese are competent enough to turn the USA into a colonial outpost for China. There is no interpretation of this ad that is either nonsensical or completely insulting of Americans in general.

Although, it does make me want to learn Mandarin, so I can be a productive worker in Mao's paradise instead of being a debt slave in the USA. Especially since my son could get subsidized education at a university in Beijing where he learns from a bitchin' holographic projector.

Not facebook commentary: I disagree with the assessment that it is out-and-out racist, insofar as I'm sure if the USSR were still around and owned as much debt as the Chinese do now, then it'd be a scary Russian professor with scary Russian students smiling knowingly about the US's collapse. I think it is certainly based on a fear of "the other" and some misguided, illogical, stupid fears of economic policy, but I don't think it is necessarily based on a quasi Yellow Peril sort of racism, either.

I think the analysis could have been a lot better on this issue. There are a lot of arguments that are made that simply don't apply.

"What is interesting to me is the assumption that drives the commercial: that the U.S. should be a super power, that it is naturally so (so long as it sticks to its founding principles), and that it would be wrong for China to be more powerful than the U.S."
I don't see where it's assumed that the U.S. "should" be a superpower. I think it's assumed that the U.S. _is_ a superpower, which is a safe assumption from the standpoint of military and economic hegemony. If you were going to make a case for American Exceptionalism, I think you're missing the stronger point that this is more nationalistic.
The advertisement is hollow to non-Americans, and as the intended audience is the American citizenry at large, it appeals to a sense of national pride a lot more than a sense of national exceptionalism. Maybe you could make an argument that the two are indivisible, but I think exceptionalism is an entirely new level of extreme nationalism.

"The idea that self-satisfied Asian people would be in charge adds racist oomph to the threat."
I think this argument is unjustified. There are no Asian stereotypes, there's no implication of Asians as greedy, and especially when considering the globalist and free-market overtones of the ad at large, it casts China and the Chinese as the economic powerhouse they are and as concerned with global market dominance as we are.
You could say that it reigns Chinese students into the "other", but even then it's pretty weak and it depends on separating the nation from the race(s).

Case in point: Please don't say racist when you mean nationalist. There's a difference, despite that the Nazis blurred it.

This is interesting. I'm in Australia where I studied International Studies in the late 90's. In my textbooks then the US was no longer the world's super power, and had been (mostly) replaced by China despite China's disinterest in claiming the title. The US, especially ANZUS relationship was still very important, and it certainly continued to be seen as the world's police force, but all my textbooks categorically stated that the US was no longer the world leader.

Looking at this, I wonder if it's a case of our proximity to China skewing our view, the US being in denial or something else. I also find it odd that American's seem terrified of not being regarded as a super power as that will suddenly affect their quality of life. Do all of us suckers who don't live in the US suffer daily? I think not.

"Citizens Against Government Waste" certainly sounds like a reasonable organization! I wonder who provides their funding? I bet it's a grassroots organization made up of responsible taxpayers who care about their jobs and "the little guy"!

Funding:
# Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation (who funds the AEI and Heritage Foundation)
# Merrill Lynch & Company Foundation
# ExxonMobil
# Ingersoll-Rand Company
# Johnson & Johnson
# F.M. Kirby Foundation
# Philip Morris
# RJR Nabisco (now part of the Altria Group)
# Sears Roebuck & Company

Oh dear.

I´m kind of baffled. Doesn´t this ad seem almost fatuos to people? It seems pretty - dare I say - propagandistic?
The hole thing is so illogical it almost seems comical. Like someone already said: In this future, Socialism destructed the USA while it also helped China to gain world power, so the evil chinese young will have the awsome holographic projectors and can have the impoverished Americans work for them in their coltan mines not the other way around as it should be...
At first I thought that the China in this ad has turned capitalistic (in the future displayed by this ad), but when I saw the Mao Poster on the wall I just had to roll my eyes...
As to the hole super power thing. I´m not sure whether it´s really worth discussing or not, some people will state the US is - of course - a super power other people will disagree and everyone will consider his arguments the best. The way I see it the USA is just a country like all others with a considerable important role in the world. If someone considers that a super power... whatever, I don´t really care and so do probably most chinese people as well.

There, quirky Taiwanese animation crew Next Media Animation fixed it.

http://www.nma.tv/2010/10/29/chinese-professor-animated-parody/

This is clearly propaganda if this is a serious commercial....

Well stated and very true