This is what Democracy looks like?

I got a call earlier this week from a professor asking me if I wanted to join him to go to a village to the northeast of Harbin for two days. Sure, I answered before even knowing what he was going to be doing there. I usually go on these trips and spend two or three days being an object of attention for my Chinese-speaking abilities and toasting so-called important people with alcohol I do not want to drink and eating food I do not want to eat. Overall, every last minute of these trips are arranged and I have no free time. We are visiting sites that are growing rice but are not the research sites I have picked. Most of the time the professor is doing the talking and I sit there with a couple other grad students with no real role in the project.

Fun, huh? I go because I have access to amazing things and I never know what is going to happen. Yesterday between our 6 hours of train, bus and car travel, I asked several times why we were going. The answer was that a new program was starting and our professor was asked to attend the opening ceremony and give some advice. Typical Chinese vague-ness. I usually wait and see what happens. We got there and toured the greenhouses and our professor told them what to do better.

Then this morning was the opening ceremony. We walked into a room set up with a long table and were told to sit at it with other important-looking people. Along the back wall were farmers. Some of the village leaders spoke for a while, reading off a document. I spaced out and stopped listening after 20 minutes. Then I heard "tongyi?" (agree?) and everyone raised their hands. Next was "butongyi" (disagree?) and no one raised a hand.

They had my attention. I felt like I was in a town meeting. Then all the farmers in the back were handed papers. For what? To cast a vote for the leader of the organization.

The important people table.The farmers in the back.Giving the farmers the ballot.
Casting the ballot in the red box.
And the winner is? The guy who was the leader of the organization that this one morphed into. His name was already professionally printed on the poster that the organizers waited to hang on the wall until after the election.

PS-for those of you not familiar with Chinese politics, village voting in China has gained attention over the past decade or so. As much as I love the idea of civic participation, I am skeptical for a lot of reasons about the way this system of voting is developing in China. But I just got back from a long day and am too tired to elaborate on it now. Its happening, I saw a form of it this morning, and my skepticism remains.