Lei Feng Remembered Throughout China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Lei Feng Remembered Throughout China

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The Chinese people have been engaging in a wide range of activities to commemorate Wednesday's 40th anniversary of late Chairman Mao Zedong's call to learn from Lei Feng, a soldier-turned national icon.

To the Chinese, the young soldier, whose life was cut short at the age of 22, has remained alive, and his patriotism, compassion and self-sacrifice have become part of the moral standards for the1.3 billion population.

In Beijing, the national capital, a group of role models from the campaign to learn from Lei Feng have been organized into a well-received rotating experience-sharing team. And some 400 groups and individuals were recently awarded for being outstanding in offering voluntary services in the campaign.

Visitors have been swarming to an exhibition by Dong Xingxi, anordinary resident of Beijing, in downtown Beijing, where more than7,000 items, including 1,200 letters, with some association to Lei Feng are displayed.

Liu Yingfu, 71, was among the visitors. "Lei Feng and his spirit have inspired us Chinese to overcome all obstacles and hardships and will continue to do so," he said.

Lei Feng was born a peasant in 1940 in Wangcheng County of central China's Hunan Province and lost both his parents by age seven. At 20, he joined the People's Liberation Army and spent all his spare time and money helping the needy. On Aug. 15, 1962, he was killed when a truck backing up struck a pole that toppled at him.

He became a household name in March 5, 1963 when late Chinese leader Mao Zedong called on the nation to learn from him, and March 5 has been designated as the "Learning from Lei Feng Day".

Lei Feng's townsfolk in Wangcheng County have been busy renovating a 34-year-old memorial devoted to him at a cost of 30 million yuan (about 3.61 million US dollars).

People have also taken to the Internet to commemorate the memory of the late soldier. There has been a drastic rise in the number of visitors surfing websites devoted to Lei Feng. Some online service providers have even opened mourning space, providing visitors with services such as ordering flowers and sending messages.

Zhang Tiantian, a 19-year-old girl from northeast China's Liaoning Province, where Lei Feng served in the army, recently wrote a biographical novel, "The Song of Lei Feng", to express the younger generation's love and respect for the hero.

Two applications have been submitted from Shenyang City, the provincial capital of Liaoning, to enter Lei Feng in the Guinness World Records for being the most frequently eulogized in literary works and the most frequently named after soldier in the world.

Dong Xingxi, who is also a member of the China Lei Feng Spirit Research Society, said Lei Feng's care and sense of responsibility for the people would serve as a source of inspiration among the Chinese people though China has now fully been gearing up for developing a market economy.

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