Still Birth of the Commune-head

Synopsis

Each Floral-belt Dai village has a “Commune-head” who takes charge of annual collective ceremonies. The Commune-head is picked out through a God election ritual. All candidates’ clothes should be weighed with a steelyard. Some of them will turn heavier and the heaviest one will be crowned in a custom that has lasted for centuries. Yet today we witnessed an unprecedented challenge to it: in 2012, all chosen ones of the village desperately refused to take the position. The village disputed over this tough situation, from which emerges the tension between tradition and new culture, folk beliefs and government agents.