Lai Ning (; 20 October 1973 – 13 March 1988) was a teenage schoolboy in China, who died while fighting a forest fire in

Shimian County Shimian County () is both the southernmost and westernmost county in the prefecture-level city of Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China. The county seat, Miancheng Subdistrict (), and the neighboring town, Xinmian (), are often together referred to as ...

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of th ...

. Lai Ning's actions were deemed heroic by the Chinese government and Lai has been celebrated as a hero and martyr in contemporary China.

Personal life and death

Lai Ning was a fourteen-year-old schoolboy living in

where he was regarded as a loner by his classmates. On March 13, 1988, a

wildfire A wildfire, forest fire, bushfire, wildland fire or rural fire is an unplanned, uncontrolled and unpredictable fire in an area of combustible vegetation. Depending on the type of vegetation present, a wildfire may be more specifically identi ...

was threatening a nearby forest and schoolchildren were mobilized to help fight the fire. Lai voluntarily assisted the

firefighting Firefighting is the act of extinguishing or preventing the spread of unwanted fires from threatening human lives and destroying property and the environment. A person who engages in firefighting is known as a firefighter. Firefighters typicall ...

efforts for five hours. Lai was eventually overcome by the flames and killed in the fire.

Legacy

Lai Ning was later declared a "revolutionary martyr" by the Chinese government for his role in combating the wildfire to protect his town. Over the next year, his story was used increasingly in Chinese

propaganda Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loa ...

as a model of courage and duty for Chinese youth. This was especially important in the aftermath of the

1989 Tiananmen Square protests The Tiananmen Square protests, known in Chinese as the June Fourth Incident (), were student-led demonstrations held in Tiananmen Square, Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the P ...

when the Chinese government hoped to gain support from Chinese teenagers and promote an alternative example of youth in China.

Deng Yingchao Deng Yingchao (; 4 February 1904 – 11 July 1992) was the Chairwoman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference from 1983 to 1988, a member of the Chinese Communist Party, and the wife of the first Chinese Premier, Zhou Enlai. ...

declared that "only by plunging into studies of Lai Ning can you become the sound new masters of your country in the 21st century" in the '' People's Daily''. Since that time, Lai Ning has been commemorated with posters in school classrooms and statues in town squares. In the 1990s, Lai's story was taught in Chinese textbooks to teach students about the importance of protecting Chinese society. The propaganda surrounding Lai Ning was sometimes poorly received within China, and some teachers believed that the calls for emulation were outdated tactics from the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated go ...

era. A miniseries depicting Lai Ning's life was aired in the years following his death and a film was released in 1993.

Personal life and death

Legacy

References

Further reading