Editor’s Note: On January 5, a piece of news named “Yichang City: Sketches of Good Persons” was reported as the headline in Guangming Daily; which was the first time for Guangming Daily to publish local newsletters in 2014. The editing and the arrangement of this piece of news was very prominent and it had three titles: “Good Person of Yiling District” Pioneers of Kindheartedness, “Life and Death Promise” Interpret Filial Piety and Goodness and “Good Persons of Yichang” Co-construct Civilization with large illustrations in the meantime. Another important current political headline of the newspaper on that day was Chinese official stresses promotion of core socialist values. These two pieces of news echoed and showed the tremendous results and typical significance of the ideological and moral construction and the practice of spiritual civilization in Yichang. Our newspaper forwarded this piece of news purposely, expecting more “Good Persons” to appear in Yichang.
December 27, 2013 was a warm day for 3000 sanitation workers in Yichang: 110 convenience shops of Beishan Supermarket hung out plaques with words “Post House of Love for Sanitation Workers”, providing shelters, hot water and rice for them day and night.
Love warms Yichang in the cold winter.
One thing for a lifetime
A name touched the Yichang City- From 1985 to 1995, a person replaced his real name with “Xie Chen” to help those in danger and relieve those in distress by donating over 150,000 RMB.
Who is “Xie Chen”? Yichang launched a huge action called “looking for ‘Xie Chen’” to find this kind person. After nearly two years of difficult research, the mystery of “Xie Chen” was revealed in 1997: He is Li Guangjia- the “Good Person of Yiling District”.
In 1964, 18-year-old Li Guangjia joined the army and came to the “Loving Model”- Xie Chen’s troops before his death. The learning from Lei Feng, Xie Chen and Ouyang Hai activities which were carried out then benefited him a lifelong time.Since then, consider people before himself, love people over himself, transform himself and sacrifice himself for people has become his immortal motto in his heart.
Li Guangjia, Xu Yaojun and other 8 Model Workers from Yichang sponsored the first Learning from Lei Feng Institution in the country in 2003. So far, the Institution has recruited 155 membership organizations and 130,000 memberships.
After Li retired, he utilized barren mountains and land and abandoned buildings to set up the “Nan Ni Wan” living park for the disabled which were a warm “home” for 58 disabled people. Up to now, he has helped 3986 disabled people, among whom 319 out-of-school children and children of disabled people were back to school, and over 100 poor disabled families were out of poverty…
Nearly 50 years, Li Guangjia always took 70 Percent of his monthly salary and the most of his family income to help the disadvantaged groups. “I just do one thing in all my life and I feel happy to help others”, he said.
One promise for a lifetime
At Aunt Fu’s home, Li Yuancheng- a worker of the Power Company in Zigui County recalled a past event… In 1970s, Li Yuancheng joined the army with another townsman named Fu Xiangen. At the end of 1978, Li Yuancheng received an order to go to the front and appointed with Fu Xiangen at parting: “If one of us sacrifice, the living one will take care of his parents.” In March 1979, Fu Xiangen sacrificed, and Li Yuancheng wrote a letter to comfort Fu’s parents: “I am your son! I will complete the responsibilities and obligations which Xiangen has no time to perform in the future.”
Early in 1980, Li Yuancheng demobilized and returned home. The first thing he did was to take the responsibility to take care of Fu’s parents. Last year, Fu’s father died of an illness; Li Yuancheng paid the hospital fees and arranged the funeral in the name of their son. Fu’s mother said: “Yuancheng is just like my own son.”
On December 16, 2013, a little girl named Li Yuhan, living in Tongling New Village in Xiaoting District, was diagnosed with hemophagocytic syndrome while the daunting medical bills of 600,000 RMB stumped her family members. Li Quan, the president of Yichang Charity Federation, immediately donated the maximum bailout funds of 60,000 RMB to the girl. He also called for a social assistance through the media to help the little Yuhan; 180,000 RMB was donated from Yichang citizens within one week.
In recent years, 470 million funds and materials have been raised, 300,000 people in straitened circumstances have been rescued. The Yichang Charity Federation created 10 charity brands, including “Serious Disease Care”, “Smile Train” and other 8 brands. The five charity hospitals built by the Charity Federation have reduced medical costs of more than 9 million RMB for over 20,000 most needy people in three years. With Spring Festival just around the corner, the Federation sponsored a public benefits activity named “Warm Families with Love”, together with nine organizations.
A group of people warm the city
In 2003, Sun Wanqing, a physically disabled young girl, founded the first community psychological counseling service platform for juveniles – “Chuangxi Hotline”, “Chuangxi Website” and “Chuangxi Studio”. Subsequently, 40 communities in Yichang City have established the ideological and moral construction service system – “Sun Wanqing Platform”. 40 counselors carry out online publicity and education of psychological health knowledge every night and receive psychological counseling from juveniles in Yichang and across the country.
“Sun Wanqing platform is a window for constructing ideological and moral highland of Yichang. Numerous “Good Persons of Yichang” lead the moral fashion of Yichang:
The 74-year-old Li Kaishi is living alone by picking rags. For 15 years, he has been under the pseudonym “Xue Guangjia” (means “Learning from Li Guangjia” in Chinese) and funding more than 300 people; and he has been keeping a monthly donation to Wang Qinghuai - a disabled person in Ronghua District in Ezhou City for seven years.
In order to donate blood stem cells to a leukemia patient in Jiangsu Province, Huang Lidan, an emergency department nurse in Yichang Central Hospital weaned her 6-month-old son determinedly..
In 2013, Zhang Zhonghua, who participated in a stone exhibition in Luoyang, Henan Province, suffered Compression spine fracture from rescuing a falling girl in the Luo River.
Zhang Zonghuai, a private entrepreneur, donated over 9 million RMB in five years to build a 3.6 kilometers long river bank in his hometown Tangjiaba village, Yiling District. He was honored as “Yu (who prevent flood for water control in the ancient China) in Yiling District” for the bank protected almost 15 hectares farmland.
The devotion of a single man inspires a group of people, and the devotions of a group of good persons build the Caring Yichang. The common stories played by “Good Person in Yichang” best interpreted that the civilized city- Yichang is filled with love.