Chinese media, advertising, and urban life.

Lei Feng taking down dodgy adverts

Lei Feng's got a microblog!

Lei Feng Diary contains the musings of the Rustless Screw forty-eight years after his death in an unfortunate telephone pole accident.

The tone is earnest, and while much of the very dry humor derives from the incongruity of a national icon commenting on contemporary pop culture and the latest social scandals, the microblog also explores what the real Lei Feng might make of a world that perceives him as both an outdated icon and a brand ripe for exploitation.

Some excerpts:

A couple days ago the company started to study "The Diary of a Bureau Chief," but there's only one computer, so the comrades haven't been able to. The political instructor was at wits' end, which I saw and took to heart. This evening I worked into the night to write it out by hand so that everyone in the company could have a copy. On the flyleaf of each volume I wrote "Lovers are not the exclusive right of the bourgeoisie. We proletarians also have revolutionary partners, and we aren't afraid of a few more (Selected Works of Chairman Mao, vol. 4)."

Posted at 00:52 on March 4

Yesterday the company notified me that I was to go give my regards to a welfare household, and that the media wanted to do a report. This year, the house that pensioner Grandpa Ding had lived in for fifty years was finally deemed to be an "illegal structure." Grandpa Ding gave me a warm reception, but I was awkward in front of the camera and the director kept scrapping the takes, so Grandpa Ding had to give me a warm reception 58 times. He said, "Lei, your 'nail spirit' has always been an encouragement to me!" Later I found out that Grandpa Ding's household was a nail house.

Posted at 00:52 on March 4