Lei Feng

Lei Feng, the Chinese revolutionary hero (http://chineseposters.net/images/e13-643.jpg)

“If you are a drop of water, are you moistening a piece of land? If you are a gleam of light, are you illuminating a block of darkness? …” This is a quote I saw a long time ago and it reminds me of Lei Feng, who did what he could until the last minute of his life. People are always busy doing all their own business and usually forgetting a lot of simple things that they can do for society. As we enter the information age, more and more people are starting to get apathy about other people because of a lack of communication. Lei Feng was always helping other people even though he didn’t do many great deeds but he was always doing whatever he could do for people, no matter how small. Each one is a helper who doesn’t want anything in return. It is very important for us to be enthusiastic about what we can do when they could without living with any regrets.

Lei Feng was born in a family of poor peasants in Wangcheng district, Hunan Province, in 1940 (Lei Feng). After his father was killed in the war when he was 7, his mother died of exhaustion, and Lei Feng became an orphan. The communist party raised him and when Lei Feng was 16, he joined the People’s Liberation Army. He studied Chairman Mao’s book, Live a Life of Extreme Frugality. Lei Feng has always been influencing Chinese people even after his death. Chairman Mao had called all Chinese people to “learn from Lei Feng.” He also made March 5th the Lei Feng day. On that day, everyone should totally eschew selfishness and help others in need. Lei Feng is a very important propaganda for China still today.

Everyone in China had to learn about Lei Feng: his life and the good deeds he did. Lei Feng had always finished his duties first and then he would help others too. The things he did might be small like doing the laundry for other officers or serving them tee and other snack. Lei Feng is not remembered for doing great deeds, but rather for teaching people to be happy with what they had and always to try to help other people as they could. Lei Feng died when he was teaching recruits how to drive. A recruit ran into a telephone pole by accident, and the telegraph pole hit Lei Feng right on his head. He passed away while he was helping people.

Lei Feng’s spirit was to be “see the action of helping others as happiness (Lei Feng).” Not only thinking about one’s own benefit but to benefit other people. Lei Feng had always been the fastest worker and he always gets the best result. And his spirit influenced other people to act like him. And he taught me that maybe it’s just a simple little thing we do, that might be a huge help for others, and to not help others only because of getting something back. “To be alive is to let other people have a better one (Lei Feng).”

Because of propaganda, Chinese people are very sensitive with his name. Everybody wants to be Lei Feng, someone who is always impartial, and respected by others. If there is a trouble for somebody, “Lei Feng” will always appear.

“Human life is limited, but the service for people is unlimited, I want to put my limited life into the unlimited service for the people” —Lei Feng