I came across an odd little commentary in People’s Daily this morning, which got me to thinking about the continuing transformation of "Chinese culture," and my own ignorance of Chinese popular culture.

    I will be brutally honest with you: I have never heard of Pavel Korchagin.  On the bright side, I can now say that I have learned something today!

    Here is the lede of the commentary:

The Communist Youth League of Beijing
Municipal Committee and Beijing Municipal Student Federation recently
published a report on the development of college students in Beijing,
which found that college students in the capital tend to focus on
personal development and generally consider both Pavel Korchagin and
Bill Gates heroes.

    At first, I figured Korchagin was some high-flying, Gates-link capitalist that had somehow escaped my attention.  Silly me!  I was missing the narrative tension of the article.  Indeed, the Korchagin reference was so obvious to the writer that nowhere in the article was there to be found any more description of this upstanding person.  After a quick google, I found more in this Xinhua article:

A TV series adapted from How the Steel Was Tempered by Nikolai Ostrovsky
was broadcast by China Central TV in 2000. It stimulated a remarkable response
throughout China and the media picked up on this by launching a debate to
compare Pavel Korchagin with Bill Gates. Both were regarded as heroes but one as
a spiritual idol and the other an icon of the material world

   So, it seems that Korchagin is a character in, first, a 1930’s Soviet-Russian novel, "How the Steel was Tempered," which was then made into a 1956 Soviet-Russian movie, "Pavel Korchagin."  All of which was then adapted to Chinese TV in 2000.  (for an over-theorized analysis of the Soviet movie look here)

    (Marvelous irony alert: it seems there is a real Pavel Korchagin, a Russian television producer who has recently taken up a project to create a Russian "Law and Order" – you can’t make this stuff up!)

     What does all of this have to do with the usual concerns of The Useless Tree?   Well, when we think of this in a contemporary Chinese context we can see that the Korchagin character is doing the same ideological-political work, for Communist Party culture commissars, as Confucius: a metaphorical defense of collective/spiritual virtues against the onslaught of Westernizing globalization.  Going back to the People’s Daily commentary, here is what they make of it:

Shen Jie, a consultant on the report and associate research fellow
at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told People’s Daily that
today’s college students still agree with the core values advocated in
mainstream Chinese culture. In terms of the relationship between
collective interests and individual interests, the majority of students
still give priority to collective interests. However, the emphasis on
the individual has grown to some extent. Nowadays, university students
have more pragmatic targets. In their minds, Pavel Korchagin and Bill
Gates are both heroes. Most students give equal weight to personal
loyalty and individual interests. Additionally, an awareness of rights
is growing. The vast majority of college students seek to strike a
balance between rights and obligations. Moreover, in their personal
relationships, they are showing more rational self-interest.

A survey for the report found that today’s students are
looking for an opportunity to earn a higher income. When it comes to
consumption, they expect to be able to purchase high quality,
beneficial products, said Shen.

According to Shen, despite rapid changes in an open and
unprecedented era, college students still attach great importance to
traditional Chinese traditional culture. Most believe that modern and
traditional culture can coexist.

    "Korchagin" thus signifies "mainstream Chinese culture," "collective interests," and "traditional Chinese culture," all of which, supposedly, the poll finds to be upheld by contemporary Chinese college students.  "Gates," on the other hand, stands for "individual interests," "rights," "higher income," and "modern."

     Now, I don’t doubt that young people in China today embrace all sorts of values, some of which may contradict one another: just like young people in the US.  But this commentary strikes me as a desperate attempt by Communist Party ideologues to salvage some shred of relevance of those good old "traditional Chinese" socialist values (derived from that good old "traditional Chinese" ideology of Marxism-Leninism).  They are trying to sneak Lei Feng into the conversation through the back door.

       Two thoughts here: first, if they want to articulate "traditional," collectivist values, why don’t they just give up with the warmed-over Marxism and run with the Confucian revival.  It is much easier to frame Confucius as "traditional Chinese culture," than Korchagin. Of course, this whole thing illustrates the deep cultural contradictions of a May 4th-inspired Communist Party seeking a return to "tradition" as a means of re-defining regime legitimacy.  Wacky fun ensues!

     Second, do you really believe that Korchagin is as popular as Gates?  When I walk around Beijing these days – or Shanghai or Guangzhou – I am not seeing a Korchagin-like collectivism/spiritualism radiating from the faces of the happy comrades.  People seem to be swept up with "icons of the material world."  This may be my own ignorance.  I obviously have to see the movie or TV series.  Help me readers with this question: how important a figure is Pavel Korchagin to contemporary Chinese popular culture?