The Astronaut Farmer Straight Story" and came up with something profound in its simplicity . . . The Polishes set up a classic David and Goliath situation, leaving no question of whom the audience will root for. There are sufficient surprises along the way, so the ending is far from predictable. "The Astronaut Farmer"'s goofy quality makes it totally endearing. It's also super entertaining." Steve Dollar of the "New York Sun" said, "Even for a comedy with dramatic drive, "The Astronaut Farmer" demands that the audience suspend its disbelief on multiple fronts . . . What is believable, however, is the passion of
Chinese as a foreign language China. After this period, only Cantonese and Mandarin remained as the most influential variants of Chinese, the former due to the importance of maritime trade in Guangzhou and the emergence of Hong Kong as a key economy in East Asia. Chinese departments in the West were largely centered on Cantonese due to British colonial rule over Hong Kong until the opening of communist-ruled China starting in the 1970s. The teaching of Chinese as a foreign language in the People's Republic of China started in 1950 at Tsinghua University, initially serving students from Eastern Europe. Starting with Bulgaria in 1952, China