When I was growing up, conversations around Chinese poverty were endless. We were shown video after video of people living in slums, or children manufacturing sneakers for pennies a day. “How terrible,” we rightly thought. Well, in the years since, a lot has changed in China. Child labor has dropped precipitously, and the nation has eliminated extreme poverty within its borders.

That puts documentarians in a bad position. Where are you going to go to show starving people? People living in poor conditions? Buildings in disrepair?...Wait a minute, why are you looking at us like that?

Pulling the ultimate UNO reverse card, it seems that Chinese documentary shows are now traveling to the U.S. to show “how the other half lives.” Hey, at least our waterfalls are real.