Wukan Village, China (CNN) -- In the end, Xue Jianwan gave up her short-lived political career after family pressure proved even harder to overcome than official intimidation. "My enthusiasm was just extinguished by my Grandma's tears," the 21-year-old elementary school teacher posted early Sunday morning on Sina Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter. "I decided to call it quits as soon as they announced the initial election result -- sorry if I let anyone down." Xue had been running to become a deputy chief of her native Wukan, a fishing village of some 12,000 residents in southern China, part of an unprecedented exercise in grassroots democracy in a country where the Communist Party usually reigns supreme.
@highlight
Daughter of Wukan villager who died in police custody ends political career
@highlight
Local election seen as unprecedented exercise of grassroots democracy in China
@highlight
Xue Jianwan's celebrity a poignant reminder of the village's tumultuous recent past
@highlight
Analysts ponder whether the "Wukan Effect" could take hold in other parts of China
Communist Party
From September to December 2011, thousands of locals took to the streets of Wukan, protesting the illegal seizure of their farmland by corrupt officials, expelling local @placeholder leaders and clashing with anti-riot police who surrounded the village.