Beijing Opera, er, Rock the Vote!

Yesterday I took a morning trip down to the US consulate in Shanghai to drop off my absentee ballot for (free!) FedEx delivery to the Lexington Town Clerk's office. I can't say the line was short (took me a forty five minutes because I was in with the citizens who had real problems), but if the US government is going to pick up the tab to express my vote home, why not let 'em? Most of the other Americans in the office have either already voted, or are still awaiting their ballots to send back home, but I wouldn't call our office a buzz of political excitement.

Although there is a strong liberal leaning in the office, complete with widespread watching of 'The Daily Show', my school will not be voting exclusively for Obama. Somehow a republican managed to get a passport, much less a visa, and is teaching in my school in China. As you might imagine, in a country known for sudden disappearances of political dissidents, he keeps his conservative beliefs muzzled.

In fact, aside from the occasional jib here and there, it would be a little difficult to tell the political leaning of our office. I attribute it to the general gag order placed on us teachers over anything vaguely political in our class rooms spilling over into the teachers office. Half our teaching team is native Chinese and, although they are all extremely open minded people, nobody wants to overly state any positions which a co-worker may find offensive.

Still the students are curious, with open elections being so foreign to them. Sure they claim they have elections just like us, but the reality and the impact of the two elections is so different, its like rice and potatoes. While US elections discuss issues and generate smear campaigns with massive public and private funding going to generate ads to inform every individual, Chinese elections focus on promises like, "increasing harmony, development and well being" but failing to mention any sort of specifics on how they plan to do this. It's not an election year here in China (it rarely is), so I can't comment on any first hand knowledge, but judging from my students knowledge and involvement in politics, I struggle to believe they are ever qualified to make informed and knowledgeable decisions which can effect any sort of predictable change.

In the end, I almost wonder if the students are more interested in American politics than their own. They are, after all, allowed to be critical of American politicians, and disagree with positions (who could disagree with, "increasing harmony and well being?"). This, however has mirrored a lot of what I've seen in China: a greater curiosity in western culture than their own. This may explain why I passed seven (7! I counted!) Starbucks on the one and a half mile walk from the consulate to my office. The world will eagerly watch over the next few years to see if the fascination with all things western extend to the political arena as well.