Saturday 31 May 2008

Video (Chinese only): Chinese students practicing democracy

This hour long documentary shows the class president election campaign of a grade 3 class in China.

It is very interesting to see how Chinese kids get introduced to democracy and how their parents guide them to win the campaign.  In Taiwan, class presidents are elected in less than 20 minutes - someone nominates someone, and everyone raise their hands to vote.  It seems the election process is a lot more elaborate in China.

You can also see certain bad practices in adult elections manifesting themselves in this elementary student election.  Even in such a benign environment I wonder what really constitutes "clean practice", and is democracy really the best form of government.

Enjoy:

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5: