Cui Zengqi: Look at China and look at the United States (4) - Learn from Lei Feng

Cui Zengqi: Look at China and look at the United States (4) - Learn from Lei Feng Learn from Lei Feng Cui Zengqi "American Overseas Chinese Newspaper&#822...

Learn from Lei Feng

Cui Zengqi

The "American Overseas Chinese News" published a column on "Learning from Comrade Lei Feng", which reminded me of the topic of learning from Lei Feng. In China, no matter adults or children, everyone knows and understands the spirit of Lei Feng. In 1962, Lei Feng died in the line of duty. In 1963, a nationwide campaign to learn from Lei Feng was launched in mainland China, and all leaders commended him. At that time, due to the needs of class struggle, Lei Feng's deeds were added with the meaning of class struggle, that is, "clear love and hate, firm stance", "treating comrades like spring-like warmth, treating enemies like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves." In fact, what people understand and accept is that the real way to learn from Lei Feng is to do good things for the people. Over a period of time, imitating Lei Feng became synonymous with doing good deeds. But it didn't take long for those who followed Lei Feng to be overwhelmed by the wave of the Cultural Revolution that shook up Chinese history. When some leaders felt that "there is endless joy in fighting against heaven, and endless joy in fighting against people," the people across the country fell into a great chaos in which people attacked others, criticized others, and fought against others. Yesterday's revolutionary hero has become a counter-revolutionary today; he was a benevolent gentleman in the morning, but suddenly turned into a notorious bad element in the afternoon. The shady scum jump out and do whatever they want, while the good people live a precarious life. How can people bother to imitate Lei Feng? At that time, people often said that Uncle Lei Feng was missing. What is even more frightening is that this revolution has completely destroyed the basic relationships between people. Everyone has learned to protect themselves, making it difficult to establish trusting relationships between people, and people have become more selfish. In addition, every time there is a call to imitate Lei Feng, there are only mass activities and no leaders’ actions. In China, imitating Lei Feng has never become a conscious action among people. Now, every year on March 5th, when Chairman Mao Zedong gives Comrade Lei Feng a speech, various agencies, schools, and military units organize some people to go to the streets to do good deeds for everyone and promote Lei Feng's spirit. In the 1980s, after China's reform and opening up, we went abroad and saw Lei Feng's deeds everywhere. At that time, we laughed and said that Uncle Lei Feng went abroad. Once, in Morocco, our car broke down on a wild hillside. It was already evening. A Moroccan saw that we were all small-eyed foreigners. He rode a motorcycle nearby and bought some bread, fruits and canned meat. He brought us dinner and stayed with us there for the night. He did not feel relieved until someone from the embassy arrived the next day. We wanted to give him money to express our gratitude, but he refused to accept it. He pointed to the sky and said that God told him to do this. After coming to the United States, I often see good people and good deeds who are willing to help others. They are not called imitating Lei Feng, but I often naturally combine these behaviors with Lei Feng's name. In Christian churches, in apartments for the elderly, at airports, in hospitals, on the road, as long as you encounter difficulties, someone will come to help you. There is Lei Feng everywhere in life. Volunteers can be seen everywhere in American society. They voluntarily provide services for social welfare regardless of remuneration. This is a very normal thing. These are the embodiment of Lei Feng's spirit. After living in the United States for a long time, I have gradually integrated myself into the ranks of serving the public. In our Chinese community, there is a mother who is over 70 years old. For more than 20 years, she has quietly cared for and taken care of international students from China and helped them solve many difficulties in life. She also did a lot of logistical services for every activity of the overseas Chinese community, and never cared about fame and fortune. I respect this Lei Feng’s mother very much. When I talked about this with her, her answer was simple, "It was Jesus Christ who changed me." Of course, there is a fundamental difference between the American way of doing good deeds and China's imitation of Lei Feng. First of all, they do not require the establishment of a communist worldview, nor do they advocate "no self-interest, only benefiting others" like Lei Feng. Capitalist society allows and recognizes individualism, and the pursuit of personal wealth and happiness is natural. They help others based on their own existence. Doing good deeds to help others is not contribution and sacrifice, but feedback and sharing to society. While helping others, they also gain spiritual satisfaction and gain new gains. Learning from Lei Feng and doing good deeds is undoubtedly a very good activity, which is conducive to the improvement of social civilization and morality and the construction of a harmonious society. However, some references to class struggle added to Lei Feng's deeds: "clear love and hate, firm stance" should be removed with the times. I believe that when Lei Feng helped an old man cross the road, he couldn't have thought about his class? Should I use "spring" or "autumn"? I recently saw a propaganda video "Faith" played on Chinese TV. The film mentioned that many Communist Party members who have made outstanding contributions have communist beliefs. Not to mention the true extent of their belief in communism, it shows that people have realized that communism is only a "belief" and not a reality. Faith gives people the courage and strength to do things that ordinary people cannot do. Lei Feng is a person with faith. Some of the examples I mentioned earlier are also people with faith. I hope there will be more active Lei Feng in our society!