Beijing Journal: Unpopular Films Suggest Fading of Chinese Icon

How Hwee Young/European Pressphoto Agency

A visitor beside a statue of Lei Feng at an exhibition last Tuesday in Beijing.

BEIJING — It has been five decades since Mao Zedong decreed that the altruistic, loyal soldier Lei Feng should be a shining star in the Communist Party's constellation of propaganda heroes. But last week, on the 50th anniversary of that proclamation, came unmistakable signs that despite the Chinese government's best efforts, Lei Feng's glow is fading.

National celebrations of "Learn From Lei Feng Day," which was observed last Tuesday, turned into something of a public relations debacle after the party icon's celluloid resurrection in not one but three films about his life was thwarted by a distinctly capitalist weapon: the box office bomb.

In cities across the country, many theaters were unable to sell even a single ticket, an embarrassment for the Communist Party, which has been seeking to burnish its moral luster during the annual legislative sessions of China's rubber-stamp Parliament taking place in the capital, where Lei Feng was venerated as an inspiration for all.

Also last Tuesday, the octogenarian photographer famous for taking 200 photos of Lei Feng suffered a fatal heart attack after giving his last of over 1,260 speeches honoring Lei Feng to a roomful of military personnel in China's northeast. Chinese media widely reported his dramatic death, featuring footage of the photographer slumped in his chair and receiving CPR, and finally a photograph of his corpse reverently draped with a Communist Party flag.

The unwelcome developments in the Lei Feng narrative subverted the carefully scripted celebration of the Communist role model. By the time Lei Feng died at 21 — in 1962, slain by a falling telephone pole — a slew of government paparazzi had captured him fixing military trucks, darning his fellow soldiers' socks or diligently studying the works of Chairman Mao by flashlight. After his death, a diary detailing his many selfless acts was supposedly discovered and then swiftly disseminated among the masses to be studied and, it was hoped, emulated.

As the Communist Party formally orchestrates a transfer of power to a new generation of leaders, the nation has been fixated on what many say is society's declining morality, highlighted by a seemingly incessant flood of government corruption scandals replete with bribes and mistresses.

Last month, a Beijing woman was caught using a silicone prosthesis to pretend she was pregnant and fool subway riders into giving her their seats. Last week, a fresh round of outrage erupted after news spread that a carjacker in the northeastern city of Changchun had strangled a baby boy he had found in a stolen vehicle and then buried him in the snow. After thousands took to the streets for a candlelight vigil honoring the infant, the authorities banned further media coverage of the episode.

The evolving cult of Lei Feng — from the man to the myth — opens a window into how the Communist Party has sought to adapt ideologically while remaining firmly in control of a rapidly changing society. While Mao used him as a tool for inspiring absolute political obedience, propaganda officials have been struggling to rebrand Lei Feng and make him relevant to a nation where smartphones vastly outnumber copies of Mao's Little Red Book.

Today, social media apps include Micro Lei Feng, meant to inspire good deeds among the technologically adept. The state media has been championing him as "a role model for Chinese society today as the government is trying to improve the social moral environment."

But experts agree that the relentless portrayal of Lei Feng as a panacea for China's social ills has rung hollow for those who have doubts about the party's moral authority.

"The Chinese government no longer enjoys high credibility among people," said Zhang Ming, a professor of political science at Renmin University in Beijing. "It begs the question: the government keeps bringing up the Lei Feng spirit and calling on people to be more helping to others, but what has the government done to follow the Lei Feng spirit?"

At a time when China's incoming president, Xi Jinping, has begun a highly publicized campaign against corruption that cynics say is largely cosmetic, many wonder whether Lei Feng the saint should be buried once and for all. For them, the box office disaster of the Lei Feng-themed films is the nail in the coffin.

Amy Qin and Shi Da contributed research.

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