China’s economic rise has been felt across the globe, and sparked a range of praise and criticisms. Last year’s media hype surrounding recalls of China-made toys, for instance, inspired filmmaker Tom Xia—who emigrated to the U.S. from China as a child—to visualize the issue head-on through this compelling, thoughtful documentary. Xia’s concept: to see if an American family can survive one month without Chinese goods during Christmas.

One brave family, the Joneses, accepts his challenge, quickly placing any "Made in China" pieces away into a storage container. As the Joneses struggle to adapt to a different life in their (rapidly emptying) home, Xia changes focus to his own immigrant parents, who talk about what they sacrificed when they left China, such as their families and friends, but also what they have gained in seeking the American dream. As both families spend Christmas "without China" (though in utterly different ways), we are left to ask ourselves: What do we desire? What do we really need? And at what cost? Xmas Without China instigates compelling discussions about the global market economy, US/China interdependency, immigration, and what it means to be Chinese in America; most importantly, it turns the heady concept of China’s economic rise into a personal, lived tale.