Model Comrade

Lei Feng is one of modern China's most resilient icons. In 1962, the unheralded soldier was killed in northeast China's Fushun when a telephone pole fell on his head. Officials later uncovered his diary, allegedly filled with selfless devotion to the Communist Party. Parents are dear to their children, read one entry, but they can't compare with Chairman Mao. In subsequent political campaigns, the Lei Feng model has been dusted off and presented as an ideal for proper socialist behavior. Lei Feng was a conscript who died at the age of 20 in a banal accident. Only after his death was it discovered what a humble and admirable pupil of Mao Zedong he had been during his short and hidden life. His ideal had been to be a small cog in the machine, working for the party and Chairman Mao. The biography of Lei Feng had some strange variants before the definitive version was prepared by the writers of the Propaganda Department in 1964. Lei Feng Exhibitions were organized in the large cities, simultaneously, showing many original copies of the hero's diary. These exhibitions also showed remarkable photographic documents, such as Lei Feng helping an old woman to cross the street, Lei Feng secretly [sic] doing his comrades' washing, Lei Feng giving his lunch to a comrade who forgot his lunch box, and so forth. Only cynical and impious spirits will wonder at the providential presence of a photographer during the various incidents in the life of that humble, hitherto unknown soldier. Simon Leys is the pseudonym of Pierre Ryckmans, a professor of Chinese studies at Sydney University until his retirement. This is reprinted from his 1977 book Chinese Shadows