Lei Feng

Not to be confused with Lei Fang, Fang Lei, or Fan Lei.

Lei Feng
雷锋
Lei c. 1960s
Born(1940-12-18)18 December 1940
Wangcheng, Hunan, China
Died15 August 1962(1962-08-15) (aged 21)
Fushun, Liaoning, China
Cause of deathWork accident
OccupationSoldier
Political partyChinese Communist Party
Chinese name
Simplified Chinese雷锋
Traditional Chinese雷鋒
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinLéi Fēng
Wade–GilesLei2 Feng1
IPA[lěɪ fə́ŋ]

Lei Feng[i] (18 December 1940 – 15 August 1962) was a soldier in the People's Liberation Army who was the object of several major campaigns in China. The most well-known of these campaigns in 1963 promoted the slogan "Follow the examples of Comrade Lei Feng."[1] Lei was portrayed as a model citizen, and the masses were encouraged to emulate his selflessness, modesty, and devotion to Mao Zedong. After Mao's death, state media continued to promote Lei Feng as a model of earnestness and service, and his image still appears in popular forms such as on T-shirts and memorabilia.[2]

The biographic details of Lei Feng's life, and especially his diary, supposedly discovered after his death, are generally believed to be propaganda creations; even the historicity of Lei Feng himself is sometimes questioned.[3][4] The continuing use of Lei in government propaganda has become a source of cynicism and even derision amongst segments of the Chinese population.[5] Nevertheless, Lei's function as a propaganda icon has survived decades of political change in China.[6]


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-roman> tags or {{efn-lr}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-roman}} template or {{notelist-lr}} template (see the help page).

  1. ^ In Chinese, 向雷锋同志学习.
  2. ^ Yan Yunxiang: The Individual and the Transformation of Bridewealth in Rural North China, Department of Anthropology, University of California.
  3. ^ John Fraser, The Chinese: portrait of a people (William Collins & Sons, 1980): "Lei Feng is an invention of the propaganda department. Perhaps there was someone once, even with the same name, who actually existed and did good deeds...But the Lei Feng all Chinese people know stretches credulity to special dimensions."
  4. ^ Nicholas John Cull et al., Propaganda and Mass Persuasion: A Historical Encyclopedia, (ABC-CLIO, 2003), ISBN 1576078205. Quote: "Lei Feng, a soldier whose diary was alleged to have been found posthumously, was touted by the party as a model citizen; his diary—almost certainly concocted by party propagandists—is filled with praise of Mao and accounts of Lei Feng's efforts to inspire revolutionary zeal among his comrades".
  5. ^ Fraser, p 100. Quote: "Lei Feng...is also a laughingstock among many Chinese youths, for the simplest of reasons: he never existed, at least not in the form served up by the Party".
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Military Celebrity in China was invoked but never defined (see the help page).