Claymation maps are used in this film to orient viewers to China's location, physical geography, and demographic characteristics. Archival motion pictures illustrate, in brief, the nation's modern history and the key events leading to the creation, in 1949, of the People's Republic of China under Mao Zedong. Since that time, China has gradually developed the rudiments of modern industrial society and to illustrate that fact, comparisons are made to the United States. To show how the ordinary people of China live today, location scenes observe farmers, city workers, students, professionals, and others going about their daily business. Other locales visited are shrines and temples, village and urban markets, a silk factory and a textile mill, a family home in Shanghai, and survey of the nation's growing railway system is presented. (Landers Film Reviews, Winter 1988)

Edited Film