[2][3] The Chinese title of the film is "厉害了, 我的国" (pinyin: lìhaile, wǒde guó roughly translates to "Amazing, My Country"), and derives from the online slang expression "厉害了，我的哥", meaning "bravo, my brother", often used by several official social media accounts of state organizations like the Communist Youth League of China.

[6] Huajian Group, a Chinese shoe making company hiring thousands of workers in Ethiopia, was portrayed in the film as a model of "introducing China's experience of prosperity to Africa."

According to a report of the Associated Press, however, the company's Ethiopian workers complained about low wages, the lack of safety equipment, forced labor and not being permitted to form a trade union.

[10] It was reported by South China Morning Post that some state companies and government-affiliated organizations required employees to watch the film.

[4][8][14] In 2018, the Cyberspace Administration of China requested the Chinese branch of its owner, Amazon, for the film to be removed from IMDb because of the bad reviews.