Exploration Pack: Lei Feng
This week I focused on the diary of Lei Feng and how it was used to garner support for the Communist party and promote the ideals that the government wished for the people to follow. Lei Feng, an orphaned member of the People’s Liberation Army, demonstrates frugality, loyalty, selflessness, and appreciation of the simple life, all qualities that were deemed as admirable by Chairman Mao and Lin Bao, general of the People’s Liberation Army and later Minister of Defense.
Lei Feng, whether or not he was actually a real person or a character invented for the purpose of propaganda, was an incredibly influential figure in Chinese culture, with his life story being used in the “Learn from Lei Feng” campaign that was used in training the army. There were also numerous comics made about him, which ensured that his story penetrated the public consciousness and made him a national hero.
The most admirable quality about Lei Feng was his utter selflessness, as he donated all of his earnings to the communes. He was laughed at for being a “fool” and told to spend the money on himself or his family, but he declared that “the People’s Communes are my home,” and insisted on giving them his money. He also demonstrated extreme frugality, saving everything in a wooden chest and using it to make repairs on his belongings whenever necessary. He, along with other PLA soldiers, was given two uniforms and pairs of shoes to wear a year, but he only took one, declaring that he only needed one and that the other should be given to someone who needed it. His love of the simple life was also apparent, as he stated that.
“True beauty can be found in a soldiers faded, patched yellow uniform, a workers
grease-stained blue overalls, a peasant’s rough, calloused hands, and the laboring
peoples swarthy, sun-burned faces, clamorous work chants, and tireless work for the
building of socialism.”
He was an emblem of the party, espousing all of Mao’s values and serving as a model for all Chinese citizens to follow. Even the circumstances of his death were ignominious. Rather than dying in battle for the party, Lei Feng was crushed by a pole while performing manual labor, his life cut short because of his selflessness and willingness to work for the cause he believed in.
Works Consulted
“Life and Death of Lei Feng, and Admirable ‘Fool’.” In The Search for Modern China: A Documentary Collection. Third ed. Edited by Janet Chen et. al. W. W. Norton & Company, 2014.
