File photo of Lei Feng
In 1963 when a Chinese soldier Lei Feng died at age 22, Chairman Mao Zedong issued a call to “learn from Comrade Lei Feng”. Since then, China has marked the “Lei Feng Day” on 5 March every year.
Foreigners often feel curious about the notion of Lei Feng’s Spirit while reading stories of this “Communist Party hero” during Mao’s period. It is an intriguing puzzle for them in understanding how the Chinese, especially the Chinese youth, interpret Lei’s outlook on life. They raised questions as follows: “what joy could Lei Feng gain when he wore darning socks, washed his comrades’ feet, gave money to strangers and served them tea and food?” “Isn’t it a self-underestimation that Lei Feng only wanted to be ‘a screw’ in the socialist cause?” “Did he become an icon mainly because he only knew how to follow the orders of Mao?”
In answer to the inquiries, Hofstede’s well-known theory of cultural dimensions might shed a light. According to his survey in more than 70 subsidiaries of IBM around the world, Hofstede concluded that there were four cultural dimensions which could be used to assess and differentiate the national cultures and organizational cultures. The dimension of “Individualism vs. Collectivism”, among others, may well illustrate the cultural shock of the case of Lei Feng.
For the Westerners, the ties between individuals are loose and the individuality plays a very important role in social relationships. On the collectivist side, people “from birth are integrated into strong in-groups which continue protecting them in exchange for unquestioning loyalty.” Therefore, it seems natural that it is not easy for people from individualism-oriented societies to connect to the values of “selflessness”, “helping each other” and "the collectivist spirit”.
A stereotype image of Lei Feng, an altruistic icon over the past five decades. (Xinhua file photo)
However, the story of Lei Feng to hundreds of millions of Chinese people is of more profound and significant implications. To Chinese, Lei Feng is a loyal solider to his motherland and a person who would “dedicate his limited life to the cause of serving the people limitlessly”. The attitude stems from thousand-year-old Chinese philosophies. In his well-known Tao Te Ching, iconic Chinese philosopher Laozi articulated that for everyone, distinguishing himself at the cost of the others is not a virtue, while serving and loving his nation and fellow countrymen with persistence and deep-going affectation is. Another acclaimed cultural icon Confucius put forth in his famous Analects of Confucius a widely received wisdom that “Do not do to others what you do not want to be done by”. Those ancient wisdoms and thoughts have exerted profound influence over the nation for thousands of years.
Anyway, it is undeniable that China has undergone a significant change since the 1978 Reform and Opening-up. Many Chinese nowadays uphold the idea of “getting rich is a glory”. A 2007 China Youth Daily survey found that only four out of 10 Chinese people still regarded Lei Feng as a spiritual model. The finding is a wakeup call that China needs to pay more attention to the education of its people, in particular, the young generation about “what is your legacy?” After all, Lei Feng did achieve happiness by devoting wholeheartedly to serving his beloved homeland and the people.
By Dr. Liu Chen
(The author is director of Center for Intercultural Studies, School of English and International Studies, Beijing Foreign Studies University)
