Who won the election?
Hi,
unfortunately my VCR stopped 5 minutes before the ending - right before the election started. What an amazing documentary - but who won?
Thx
Ralf
[deleted]
MovieChat Forums > Please Vote for Me (2008) Discussion > Who won the election?
*** spoiler ***
Luo Lei, the previous class monitor, won. He got 25 votes, Cheng Cheng (fat boy) got 8, the girl got 6.
What a surprise.
The monorail trip, the final debate (in which Luo Lei was a bit more prepared), and most important the gift cards at the end of the speech were the factors involved. Makes you think, since it took gifts to buy those votes.
Also, it's kinda chilling when the boy says he'll be a leader, not a dictator.
"You keep him in here, and make sure HE dosen't leave!"
It's fascinating that the boy who won had beaten many of the other kids. (His male competitor had asked the class to raise their hands if they had been beaten by him - many did, including the kid who asked.) It doesn't exactly speak well for democracy, does it?
And unlike Hillary earlier this year, the little girl didn't gain anything by crying.
But, this being communist China and all, I wonder if this election, as shown, was legit? I mean, think back on the Olympics. What we saw (CGI fireworks, a dubbed little girl) wasn't necessarily reality. It might have served the government to display that the firm leader was the one beloved of the people - or some such tortured message.
I think this is a genuine documentary. The filmmaker Chen Weijun did a documentary on the Chinese village that was affected by AIDS because of governmental corruption earlier (To Live is Better Than to Die), and the film was banned in China. Chen was already living abroad when he made this short film, and I trust that his film does not carry any message for the Chinese government.
Clearly, once you introduce a camera into any environment, things change. Even after a person gets used to it, there are still differences. But clearly, you're talking about actual staging of events (like they did in the Olympics). I think the most they probably did - if it was done - was in choosing the candidates to run. Then again, the legitimacy may be beside the point. One thing I kept thinking throughout the whole doc was "This is just the position for Class Monitor!"
But you're right, in the end, it doesn't speak too well for the health of democracy.
"It's fascinating that the boy who won had beaten many of the other kids."
Even more fascinating and disheartening, I think, is the extraordinary *ambivalence* that third-graders in China already feel toward strong-man leadership.
Cheng Cheng scored points with the class when he described Luo Lei as a tyrant and bully. But Luo Lei seemed to quell much of the dissatisfaction when he cited the need for strong leadership, including physical discipline, to curb unruly students - most of all, when he compared his discipline to the physical coercion employed by many Chinese parents. As noted in the film, most Chinese parents emphasize controlling (guan) through both physical discipline and browbeating. (In other words, if parents do it, and its accepted as necessary, what's all the fuss about?)
Who won the election is perhaps not as apt a question as *what* won the election.
I would say the real victor, for now, is Chinese conservatism.
I think they use the term 'beating' much more loosely in China than they do here in the States. I didn't see any type of 'beating' in the movie, and they used the term SO frequently. What they described as 'beating' looked much more like being slightly physical with another person, to me. Here, beating someone is continually hitting them with malicious intent, whereas in this documentary it was more like grabbing someone's arm, pulling someone this way ... definitely not BEATING someone.
Great documentary though, I really enjoyed it.
Correct. As a speaker of mandarin and English, the word "da" (which is what they kept saying if I recall correctly) in Chinese can be used to describe a very broad spectrum of physical violence, including beating. In the context though, it's like childish smacks or ear pulling or such things as was seen on camera. When he talks about parents "beating" kids, I also think it's meant in a mild disciplinary way the same as practiced in households around the world vs. as you describe, beating someone with malicious intent.
A more accurate translation for the subtitles might have been hitting or disciplining as opposed to beating.
What acts of coercion did you notice in the movie? (I ask because I believe the director wanted us to pay extra careful attention to them.)
If strong-arm tactics are indeed sanctioned in Chinese classrooms, what bearing might that have on the future of democracy in China?
As a Chinese individual who went through her childhood in the 80s and 90s, I can tell you very firmly that hitting children is a HUGE taboo in many families. My parents had certainly rarely raised a hand against me, only very few times my mother would hit me in moments of extreme anger and disappointments, and then would tear herself in regret. The Chinese are generally mild and socialble people, which means that in a family setting, there will be a lot of talking and chiding, certain manipulations, punishments and rewards all related to material things, like not getting a much covetted toy if not behaving one's self, or getting a toy as a reward of doing well in school.
Physical punishment has certainly even diminished further after the introduction of the One-Child policy from 1980 onwards. Having only one child, one heir, the Chinese parents can't bear to see their children hurt even slightly, let alone doing the hurting themselves! This has certainly created a generation of quite spoilt people for sure, certainly not well disciplined and obedient children trained by physical punishment.
"As a Chinese individual who went through her childhood in the 80s and 90s"
Were you raised in the PRC?
Communist China? There is nothing like that after 1989
shareLet me just stop you all right there, and I apologize, but what the *beep* is a VCR?
"I was circumcised with a hacksaw but I don't complain about anything..." - lilwith