Xinyan Yu's documentary Made in Ethiopia examines a Chinese factory complex in rural Ethiopia, revealing striking parallels between China's development and America's Industrial Revolution. The film follows Eastern Industrial Park, a garment manufacturing complex built after the Belt and Road Initiative, where Chinese ambitions promised 30,000 jobs and carried China's development narrative abroad.

Through three women's stories - Motto, an ambitious Chinese factory manager; Beti, an Ethiopian worker adapting to factory life; and Workinesh, a farmer displaced by industrial expansion - the documentary explores what industrialization means for communities. The film's power lies in how it captures the universal grammar of modernization: the same factory parades, asphalt roads, and architectural styles that defined Chinese factory towns in 2003 now appear in Ethiopia, creating a sense of history repeating itself.

The documentary raises uncomfortable questions about progress and its costs. Chinese workers and managers bring their future-oriented mindset to Ethiopia, where locals maintain different relationships with time and development. This cultural clash - Chinese urgency versus Ethiopian present-mindedness - creates mutual stereotypes and tensions. The film suggests that China's development model isn't uniquely Chinese but rather a continuation of industrialization's global trajectory, from London's Industrial Revolution to today's African factory floors.