On March 5th, this year marked the 62nd Lei Feng Memorial Day of the Chinese Communist Party, with mainland official media once again vigorously promoting the “Learn from Lei Feng” campaign. However, the response from netizens has been lukewarm, with little discussion seen on social media platforms.
In recent years, the propaganda efforts around “Learning from Lei Feng” have been increasing. This year, official media such as Xinhua News and the Central Propaganda Department have published articles advocating for the public to learn from Lei Feng, and extensively covered Lei Feng memorial activities held across the country. However, there has been a lack of related topics on the hot search list of Chinese microblogs, with the Chairman of Xiaomi Group, Lei Jun, sparking widespread discussions among netizens on industry homogenization during his interview on CCTV.
A netizen from Jiangsu, named Li Meng, told Radio Free Asia that the general public lacks interest in the promotion of “Learning from Lei Feng.”
Li also expressed that the essence of Lei Feng’s spirit lies in long-term persistence in doing good deeds, rather than one-off public welfare displays. However, in some places, activities related to learning from Lei Feng are still limited to specific memorial days, showing a temporary nature and lacking continuity.
A netizen from Shandong, Ms. Lu, stated that many local governments require people to “learn from Lei Feng” through administrative means, but such propaganda does not stand up to scrutiny, and in the end, people realize it is all fake.
In response to this, scholar Lu Chenyuan pointed out in an interview with the same station that the Chinese Communist Party promotes illusory moral idols, attempting to reshape social ethics through past propaganda methods, but this is doomed to have no actual effect.
Dr. Tang Maoqin, residing in the United States, also suggested that instead of loudly promoting learning from Lei Feng, it would be better to establish a sound community volunteer system, making voluntary service a daily social practice rather than relying on the propaganda and hype surrounding specific figures.
According to official records, Lei Feng, whose original name was Lei Zhengxing, was born in Hunan on December 18, 1940. He was a soldier of the Chinese Communist Party and died in an accident on August 15, 1962. On March 5, 1963, the former leader of the Chinese Communist Party, Mao Zedong, personally initiated the “Learn from Lei Feng” movement.
Former Associate Professor of History at Weifang University in Shandong, Liu Yinquan, who now resides in the United States, previously told a media outlet that Lei Feng’s supposed good deeds were all fake. Mao Zedong promoted the “Learn from Lei Feng” campaign to have everyone unconditionally obey him like Lei Feng. Now, promoting learning from Lei Feng is nothing more than promoting personal worship and absolute loyalty to Xi Jinping.