Neighbourhood Committee

In China, neighbourhood committees play an important role in everyday life. The committees arrange things for the local residents, they are intermediaries for government plans and they solve neighbourhood quarrels. They also maintain order and monitor family planning. Since most committees consist of pensioned-off women, in January 1999 the Chinese government thought it was time to call a democratic election in Beijing. For the first time since 1949, the residents could exert some influence. This was easier said than done and eventually discord about who had to head the list of candidates resulted in a long drawn-out argument between the residents and the election co-ordinator. Zhang Tongdao, professor at the art faculty of Beijing University, closely follows these vicissitudes in his debut film. Initially, the documentary was financed by the Chinese authorities, but it became an independent production after they rejected the first edited version.