Please Vote For Me

Is democracy a universal value? Do politicians all over the world behave in the same way – even when they are children in Communist China? In Wuhan, central China, a class of grade three students have their first encounter with democratic structures via a class experiment. Three eight-year-old children stand for election to be Class Monitor. Influenced by doting parents for whom, as enforced by state policy, they are their only child, they take up the challenge in different ways through their campaign strategies, their canvassing and election promises. Less self-conscious than their parents, they reflect existing social values bluntly and honestly – and provide an insight into how, if democracy came to China, it might be received. One of ten films commissioned around the world by Steps International exploring emerging and diverging notions of democracies, this is a charming, insightful and intimate portrait of a society through a school, its children and its families. It challenges those committed to China’s democratisation to consider the feasibility of, and processes involved in, its implementation.

Weijun Chen is a Guest of the Festival