Democracy is messy in China too
"Please Vote for Me" is an award-winning documentary about an interesting social experiment in China.
After watching the historic inauguration of Barack Obama, a celebration of our democracy, it was interesting to see a PBS' Independent Lens documentary that explored democracy in a different setting. In the city of Wuhan in central China, three little third grade students campaign for the coveted position of class monitor... a position that's usually appointed by the teacher.
This is the first election for a class leader to be held in China. The teacher explained democracy and how voting works to the class, then selected three candidates to perform in a talent show, participate in a debate, and give a speech. Their parents, devoted to their only child, take part and start to influence the results.
Mostly the children wanted to win so they could “order people around.” One asks his step-father, "What kind of thing is democracy?" The reply - "It means that people are their own masters."
What's fascinating about this short film is the interaction the kids have with democracy. Voting for someone to represent you is strange idea to them, so it was quite amazing to see how quickly these tiny candidates caught on to smearing the other candidates and giving out little gifts to get votes, etc. The very same strategies and tactics that a lot of our politicians use to get elected -- negative campaigning and lobbying with bribes.
One of the students is a budding dictator, another learns through her tears to be tough on the campaign trail.
At the very first campaign speech, one of the boys gets all of his friends to call the girl candidate names while she is waiting to make her speech. As she stands there the name calling only gets louder and more vicious and she breaks down in tears. The teacher scolds the boy...who feels very bad and goes to apologize to the girl. Then everyone is apologizing, and the whole class starts crying.
Just imagine if our politicians truly felt sorry after they called each other names, and then truly apologized about the mud that gets slung during an election.
Anyway, the campaign took its toll, especially on the losing candidates and their assistants...who were inconsolable.
Surprise surprise...the kid who gave out little gifts on election day won.
Such a wonderful example of the messiness of democracy, while also captivating to watch because the kids are so interesting. Though I was left wondering if this experiment in democracy has been “successful”...
Try to catch it when PBS re-airs it, here's a clip:
I heard some expert on TV say that democracy can only ‘catch on’ in economically developed countries. With the explosion of capitalism in China, you have to wonder how long it will take before democracy will start to 'cause trouble' there.
