Please Vote For Me

a Look At The Future of Chinese Cube Dwellers

An interesting film to say the least. Surprisingly enough Please Vote For Me provided an insight into the middle class Chinese mind and their opinions of their "communist" government. The three kids who were selected to run for class monitor, all appeared from the same social status. Evoking the observation that only a middle class life style allows for one's child to go to school. This aside, the parents were an interesting cross section, one was a single mother (of the girl) and worked at the local TV station. Another family's bread winner worked for Wuhan's (the city where the story took place) police force. And the final family had parents working in cubicles in middle management positions. Also the take at politics was interesting as well, the parents were extremely involved in their children's lives, in all three cases writing their child's speeches for them (an insight of their opinions of democracy). The father who worked for the police force was particularly cunning, he not only paid for his kid to lead his fellow classmates on an all expense paid field trip on the local monorail, but also paid for candy/coloring book packages, in order for his kid to buy the election. So a sincere dedication to spreading the corruption of politics and for his son to win. Another interesting angle was the parents seemingly blase take on the communist government while the children were doing numerous nationalistic and patriotic drills. This could be due to the level of capitalistic growth that is occurring in China during the parent's life time, which caused an indifference amongst the parents for their communist government. Meanwhile the government appears to be attempting to reinforce the government's role in the lives of the children. All and all Please Vote For Me shows the strengths present in China's youth and the leanings towards a more democratic government.

a Monorail