Everything I know about politics I learned from Chinese third graders

What happens when three third graders become the first pupils in China to campaign for Class Monitor? Elections quickly descend into a democracy that would make Boss Tweed and Mayor Daly proud.

The Director is Weijun Chen and the documentary is Please Vote for Me. It’s so perfect one wonders if it was choreographed. Watch this preview:

I laughed. I cried. I despaired the fate of humanity.

Buy the video here. It can be live streamed on Netflix. Someone please alert me if, like many documentaries, it streams free online.

Update: A reader delivers: see it in 5 parts on YouTube.

3 Responses

  1. We can learn so much from children. My mother was a first grade teacher and once had an Olympics where the smartest, handsomest boy in the class proceeded to win all the Gold–blue ribbons. He kept one and presented the rest to others whose performances he thought deserved notice. When it comes to collective decisions ethical issues are always important, that we tend to forget that doesn’t make it less so. It’s good to engage children in the processes of collective decision making. Neglecting the ethical ground–to be honored is to be among those honored–makes democratic politics unintelligible, whether for kids or adults.

  3. I know it’s not relevant, but when you’re from a small nation… bla bla bla:

    WOHOO! – It’s a danish production!
    I’m also from Denmark!

    Im’ so sorry… please continue…