ABSTRACT
The Model Worker, or rather, the power of emulation as a concept, maintains a powerful influence on the psyche of the Chinese nation. Although Model Workers such as Dong Cunrui and Liu Hulan are largely viewed as objects of curiosity or relics of a bygone era, the legacy of the Model Worker propaganda campaigns continues to permeate society. Model Workers such as Lei Feng are perhaps considered out of step with attempts at social reform within modern China. Model Workers were selected from each of the social classes of the People’s Democratic Dictatorship, with the exception of the petty bourgeoisie, whose position in society would inevitably lose favour once the nation began to follow the ‘socialist road'. Model Workers of the post-Civil War period served not only to promote a new and bright future, but also to re-evaluate the role of the people in the imperialist past.
