The
posthumous poster boy for
China's pursuit of
communist purity. This man was formerly supposed to be a
truck-driver for the
PLA (People's Liberation Army), and when he got a copy of the
Little Red Book, he started teaching it to everyone he saw on his trips with the
army. For some odd reason, he found those
blurbs inspiring. I certainly didn't.
He had charisma, that's for sure, and he spread the word of Mao Zedong far and wide. He was possibly one of the driving forces in the deification of Mao, at least before he was killed in a traffic accident, when he was crushed under another truck.
Mao and his cronies, seeing this as an opportunity for a martyr, with himself as a God, grabbed his example and called him a "martyr for the great people". Everyone was force-fed their share of Lei Feng and told he was the example to follow (even though he was dead and buried already). Children were the main targets of this campaign, they could relate to the "superhero" status this guy was given.
The fuss over the deeds of this dead guy stopped pretty much in the 1980's, however, he is still used as an example of dedication in schools in China today. In fact, two years ago, I was fed with Lei Feng dogma myself. I found the story pretty ridiculous, but I admit, that Mao Zedong was a pretty shrewd propagandist.