Learn From Lei Feng

The cab driver seemed baffled by our destination.

"I can take you to the Great Wall, Summer Palace or Drum Tower" he offered helpfully. No, we have been there and done that. We were insistent upon being driven to a decommissioned military base in an industrial area on the outskirts of Beijing to spend the day touring art galleries.

In all the years that we have lived in San Francisco, we have never once set foot in the 111 Mina, Intersection Arts, or most of the other art galleries in the City. However, our brains seem to be hardwired to associate travel with art. A trip to New York is not complete without an afternoon in Chelsea. Why should a trip to Beijing be any different.

We were fortunate to find a driver who could navigate his way to the 789 Art Area in the Chaoyang district. Last night we went through three drivers and three cab rides to get to the restaurant. Granted, it is located in the former US Embassy in a very official looking compound adjacent to the Forbidden City. Not exactly restaurant row.

Mei Ling's most amusing memory of the night is Gale surrounded by a group of 7 very helpful guys, none of whom spoke English, but all of whom had opinions about the location of our restaurant. They were all wrong.

Given the exorbitant prices and abysmal quality of the food, we would have been better off staying lost. Maison Boulud a Pekin was a monumental disappointment.

Not so the 789 Art Area. There must be close to 100 galleries, cafes and art related shops in this sprawling complex. The vast majority of the artists are Chines, with a few galleries showing European or American artists. The set up is a bit like Fort Mason, only on a much, much larger scale.

We were struck by the complete lack in pretension, both in terms of the art and the gallery staff. Those who spoke a bit of English couldn't have been more helpful in explaining the various pieces and giving a brief biographical sketch of the artist. Of course they viewed us as wealthy Americans who could afford to buy. However, not once were we the subject of anything approaching a hard sell. The attitudes did not change even after it became clear that we were there to look and not buy.

One of the most interesting exhibits was a collection of 12 photographs entitled "The New Lei Feng Stories."

Some may remember one of Chairman Mao's more cryptic admonitions during the Cultural Revolution: "Learn from Lei Feng." Although he was a real person, Lei Feng has been endowed with an almost mythical status. He was the poor orphan child (his father was killed by the Japaneses during the war) who devoted his life to preforming simple acts of civic heroism. He would rescue the neighbor's cat from the tree. He was the comrade who always worked overtime to ensure that his collective exceeded its five year plan targets.

Lei Feng was sized upon by the party as a symbol of the heroic everyman, kind of like Joe the plumber, only Lei Feng was a civic do gooder.

The New Lei Feng Stories photo exhibit plays on this mythical status. It places a 12" doll dressed as Lei Feng in various contemporary settings, often performing almost superhuman acts of civic heroism. The final picture casts him a Superman, shilling for Cannon cameras. Here is a link to the website:
http://www.mrgallery.cn/showpic.asp?id=748

The young woman who walked us through the exhibit had an earnestness about her that seemed fitting for Lei Feng. Don't get me wrong, she was very well educated and not at all naive. She understood the irony of the exhibit. But she did not see it through the same jaded post modernist lens that we tend to view such things.

She, along with the artist, can laugh at how today's consumer society would use the myth of Lei Feng to sell cameras, much as the State had used it 40 years ago to instill civic virtues. But on some level, both our guide and the artist, seem to ultimately revere the virtues that Lei Feng stands for.

So I guess this is our take away from the day. Learn from Lei Feng.