Taste Cheese With Chopsticks

Everyone is talking about the upcoming election. It is the first time for a lot of my friends to vote. Although I’m the same age as them, and the change of Chinese government is happening later this year, I cannot vote.

We have to learn Chinese politics from the 7th grade to the 12th grade, but none of us ever knows how exactly the government works in China. It is true that we have tons of material to recite and remember for our midterms and finals, but I never understand what those lines are talking about.

If we ask our teachers about the abstract concepts, they will never answer our questions directly; instead, they will only emphasize the importance of reciting paragraphs in our textbooks. Chinese politics for me is never about analyzing material, but about memorizing the boring doctrine.

Besides, unlike my friends in the U.S. that may have listened to the political discussion in their family a lot when they grew up, debates on politics is never a part of the family life of my friends in China.

In my family, when my skeptical grandpa and dad discuss current issues, they will point out the fault the government and the improvement it should take. But even in my family, from time to time, my grandma will stop my grandpa from criticizing the government too much because she is afraid of the return of Cultural Revolution.

Politics is never a part of ordinary people’s lives, and neither are elections.

The only existing memory about election for me is a flyer of two representatives candidates of our city on the wall of my middle school.

There was a huge title saying “Representative Election 2005” followed by a brief introduction of them; but there was no information about who should vote and how to vote.

That was my first time to see such flyers and later on proved to be the only time. My friend and I were so excited to know that the election part in our politics textbook existed! We went to the office of our politics teacher at once.

We asked our politics teacher who were the two candidates, and she said she did not know. We asked her if there was anyway for us to meet the candidates, and she said she did not know either.

I was confused. How come a politics expert did not know about the local politics affairs? Later that day I asked my parents if they were going to vote for the local representatives, they replied that since the result was set already, there was no point for them to take this action.

Most of the time I find pros and cons in both cultures when I’m comparing the U.S. to China. But this time, on the election issue, I’m jealous of my friends in the U.S. Not all of my friends are keen to vote, and a good number of them don’t know local government well. But if they want to learn more about the candidates, there is transparent information out there posted online. Most importantly, their choice matters.

Value your right to vote, because there are people who do not have a say in choosing their leaders.