On the “Spirit” of Lei Feng

Taken from "A Modern Lei Feng".

March 5th is officially the day marked to celebrate Lei Feng, the Chinese soldier who was known for his selfless deeds in helping others and died a tragic death at a young age only to be venerated as a national hero when his diary was suddenly discovered. Therefore, every year on March 5th, Chinese, mainly students, are told to celebrate the spirit of Lei Feng by doing certain charitable works around their city.

On and off, we’ve posted a call to arms, so to say, every few years, an encouragement to follow Lei Feng’s “spirit” by going out and volunteering. It’s not so much about “honoring” the ideal of this vaunted martyr of the revolution who was probably just an average guy. At its heart, its a yearly encouragement to look at the world around you and do something, little or big, with your time or your money (or both) to help out.

I wish the spirit, the ideal of helping out your fellow man would live in everyone’s heart. On a near daily basis, I see examples of good and evil: the people who look out the corner of their eyes at the homeless guy looking longingly at the food they are eating, then throw out the scraps instead of giving it to him; taxi after taxi refusing to stop for someone in a wheelchair; the young teens and 20 somethings that refuse to get up on the bus for a feeble, 80 year old woman. At the same time, there are also those who will buy a burger for that homeless man, who will go out of their way to help the person in a wheelchair; who will immediately get up and give up their seat (and admonish those who don’t).

So today, as you go about your day, try to do something nice for someone else. Doing it for the spirit of Lei Feng, or because it makes you feel good, or because its the right thing to do doesn’t matter, just do it. And no matter why you did it, doesn’t it feel great? Why not keep doing it everyday? If you’re looking to give up some of your time or money to help out a charity in need, here are a few suggestions:

Wokai – microfinancing for rural Chinese
Yele Haiti – help those effected by the earthquake
WWF China – conservation and protection of animals
Bethel China – a school for blind orphans located outside Beijing
UNICEF