Controversial and thought-provoking as it is, the documentary " Please Vote for Me", directed by Wei Junchen and produced by Don Edkins, talks nothing about the essence of democracy.
The documentary follows the election of class monitor in a 3rd grade class of eight year old children in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. The candidates, Luo Lei, Xu Xiaofei and Cheng Cheng, compete against each other for the coveted role and are egged on by their teachers and doting parents. The class uses classic democratic voting principles and debates.However, the result turns out to be a farce.
Luo lei's father works for the government. In order to help his son bribe his classmates, he invites the whole class to ride the light railway for free. Cheng Cheng's mother teaches him to interrupt, jeer and heckle other candidate's performance. The three naive children scheme, connive, and try every way to gain some advantage. At last, Luo Lei wins the election primarily because his father gives each student a small gift before they vote.
Is this the democracy? Is this how democracy will look like in China? Many audience have this question. As far as I'm concerned, this is not a illustration of democracy at all. First, how could kids know and understand democracy? They don't know what a class monitor should do and what an election means. Second, in a country which lacks the democratic culture, even the children's parents don't understand democracy, so they lead their children in the wrong way in the election. Third, democracy is not only about election. To guarantee a democratic process, many rules and regulations must be formulated and implemented. The whole process in the documentary is not regulated as it should have been.
The documentary also raised some concern about the ethical issue. It is the director who came up with this idea of democratic election in this primary school classroom. Although the director didn't script anything and expose successfully the dark side of human nature and the illness of Chinese education, it should also be the director's responsibility to think about the subjects he was filming. They were kids, only 9 years old. Will this experience be a lesson or permanent harm to their life?
Official website for this documentary:
http://pleasevoteforme.org/index.html
The documentary follows the election of class monitor in a 3rd grade class of eight year old children in the Evergreen Primary School in Wuhan, China. The candidates, Luo Lei, Xu Xiaofei and Cheng Cheng, compete against each other for the coveted role and are egged on by their teachers and doting parents. The class uses classic democratic voting principles and debates.However, the result turns out to be a farce.
Luo lei's father works for the government. In order to help his son bribe his classmates, he invites the whole class to ride the light railway for free. Cheng Cheng's mother teaches him to interrupt, jeer and heckle other candidate's performance. The three naive children scheme, connive, and try every way to gain some advantage. At last, Luo Lei wins the election primarily because his father gives each student a small gift before they vote.
Is this the democracy? Is this how democracy will look like in China? Many audience have this question. As far as I'm concerned, this is not a illustration of democracy at all. First, how could kids know and understand democracy? They don't know what a class monitor should do and what an election means. Second, in a country which lacks the democratic culture, even the children's parents don't understand democracy, so they lead their children in the wrong way in the election. Third, democracy is not only about election. To guarantee a democratic process, many rules and regulations must be formulated and implemented. The whole process in the documentary is not regulated as it should have been.
The documentary also raised some concern about the ethical issue. It is the director who came up with this idea of democratic election in this primary school classroom. Although the director didn't script anything and expose successfully the dark side of human nature and the illness of Chinese education, it should also be the director's responsibility to think about the subjects he was filming. They were kids, only 9 years old. Will this experience be a lesson or permanent harm to their life?
Official website for this documentary:
http://pleasevoteforme.org/index.html
