The Lei Feng Story - 雷锋 (Léi Fēng) plus English Translation of the Lei Feng Song

The Lei Feng Story - 雷锋 (Léi Fēng)

plus English Translation of the Lei Feng Song

学习雷锋好榜样

xuéxí Léi Fēng hǎo bǎngyàng

Lei Feng was a soldier in the early 1960’s. Mao Zedaon used him as a model citizen and an example to be lived up to. Mao asked the whole Chinese nation learn about Lei Feng. Everyone my age read Lei Feng’s book and sang the Lei Feng’s song. Lei Feng was the good model we should follow; loyal to the revolution, loyal to the Communist Party. Even now, thirty years later, I still remember the song.

Lei Feng was born in 18 Dec 1940, at Anqin Village ( now change name to Lei Fei Village), Wang Cheng town, Hunan province. He was born in a very poor family. In autumn 1947 his parents and his older brother all died because there was not enough food and through hard work. Lei Feng became a orphan.

In 1949 Mao made the New China. Through the Communist Party Lei Feng was given a home again, he could go to school. In 1950’s land reforms Lei Feng was given 3.6mu of land (a chinese traditional unit of area), some furniture and some day to day things. In his life this was a big change. He felt grateful to Mao Zedong and Communist Party.

When Lei Feng was 15 years old China’s agricultural land was turned into co-operatives. Lei Feng gave back his 3.6mu of land to the village. He always supported Communist Party.

In 1956 Lei Feng finished Primary school (in that time it was rare for children from the countryside to finish Primary school). He then worked in the local town government. His first job was to help government to levy grain. Then he did a lot of different jobs in the government. He always worked very hard, and helped the people. He wrote some articles in the newspaper to pay tribute to Mao and Communist Party. He said, “If China didn’t have Mao Zedong and Communist Party Lei Feng can’t have life”.

He wrote, “There is a limit to one’s life, but there is no limit to how much I can serve the people. I ‘ll use my limited life to serve people”. This he did. He always helped people anywhere, anytime. He always thought about other people first. He used his income to live just a simple life. The rest of his income he used to help other people and support the Communist Party.

In 1960 Lei Feng joined the army and became a soldier.

There were a lot of stories about how he helped the people. Such as, one day, during heavy rain, Lei Feng went to Shengyang to work. He got up early, 5 o’clock, cooked some steamed bread (man tou) and went to the train station. On the way he saw a woman carrying a girl on her back. They didn’t have anything to keep out the rain. So Lei Feng took off his raincoat and gave it to them and walked with them to the train station. Lei Feng then saw that the girl was very cold so he took off his coat and gave it to the girl to wear. Then, seeing they were hungry, he gave them his 'man tou' (steam bread) to eat. He also helped the train attendant during the journey.

In Chinese New Year, and on any holidays, he always went to the public places to help people, like the train station, the bus stations, public parks …..

When he was in the army some of the soldier’s families had money problems, so Lei Feng gave money to them and helped them.

In army he always did the heavy jobs. He never thought once about himself.

Lei Feng quietly did many small things to help other people.

on the 15th Aug 1962 Lei Feng died.

After he died Mao asked whole the whole Chinese nation to learn about Lei Feng and to try to live up to his example to never think about themselves but always think about other people.

Lei Feng became a model citizen to the Chinese nation. The whole of China were talking about Lei Feng. Everyone want become like Lei Feng. People helped each other. Students must read the Lei Feng story book and must remember Lei Feng’s wisdom. At that time everyone knew about Lei Feng.

Now, the Chinese people still know about Lei Feng, but their thinking is different. Some people think Lei Feng was Mao’s propaganda model for the politics. A lot of people now joke about the Lei Feng story. They change the Lei Feng’s song into a parody. The young generation don’t know about Lei Feng any more. No one is interested to know the Lei Feng’s song.

But, for all that, in the world, we still need Lei Feng’s values: be happy to help people.

Lei Feng lyrics

学习雷锋好榜样, 忠于革命忠于党, 爱憎分明不忘本, 立场坚定斗志强。  

xué xí Léi Fēng hǎo bǎng yàng, zhōng yú gé mìng zhōng yú dǎng, ài zēng fēn míng bù wàng běn,

lì chǎng jiān dìng dòu zhì qiáng.

Learn from Lei Feng a good example,

loyal to the party loyal to the revolution,

love and hate clearly defined

don't forget before's life

stand firm to fight strongly.

Learn from Lei Feng (who is) a good example, (he is) loyal to the party loyal to the revolution, love and hate clearly defined (love good things like Mao, Communisum, the Revolution ...; hate bad things like Capitalism, old China, bad people as defined by Mao ...) don't forget before's life (and how bad it was), stand firm to fight strongly (for the revolution).

雷锋永做革命人　Song of Lei Feng: Lei Feng Forever Will Be a Revolutionary

Inside the Lei Feng Museum located in Fushun, Liaoning

Tomb of Lei Feng at the Lei Feng Memorial in Fushun, Liaoning PRC

 

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