Many people in the country enjoy discussing eminent historic figures such as the revered Guan Yu, a saint noted for his bravery and loyalty as an outstanding general of the ancient Three Kingdoms Period (220-280), and Yue Fei, a patriotic hero of the imperial Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), who has been on the lips of both officials and commoners alike from generation to generation.

"Like ordinary people, these heroes also had to face highs and lows in their lives, nevertheless, they responded differently and made courageous decisions," says Zhang Yi, a lawyer in Nanning city, the capital of south China's Zhuang Guangxi Autonomous Region.

"Reflecting on their experiences, we keep off obstacles in our own lives," said Zhang.

Up until the early 1980s, idols of people in China inclined to be closely mingled with politics. The government hoped and advocated that they could be models for the whole country, not only for their great deeds, but also for their noble ideas and characters.

These idols were esteemed and admired in China then, such as Lei Feng, an exemplary soldier of the Chinese People's Liberation Army who devoted himself to serving the public and helping the needy, and Jiao Yulu, a very special county Party secretary and a fine example for all grass-roots cadres nationwide to follow, who dedicated himself to the improvement of local people's lives and the development of Lankao county of central China's Henan Province in the early 1960s.

"I have always been inspired by these heroes, who imbued me with the infinite strength to carrying on my work to protect the environment even after my retirement," says Chen Yebo, who set up a non-governmental organization on environmental protection at the age of 65.

Although the elderly still love to recall the idols of their youth, today's younger generation, however, eager to become affluent, admire more Bill Gates or Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve System of the United States, and school students are crazy about film and sports stars, like Chinese basketball player Yao Ming and Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo.

In Chinese colleges and universities particularly, students' idols keep changing from time to time.

A college graduate, surnamed Gao, said college students 20 years ago could just listen to and appreciated the songs of a few famous revolutionary singers and that might be the reason for their unfading adoration.

"But now, the world changes every second and we have more options," he said.

Though not accepting his son's attitude toward idols, Gao's father said the development of mass media and the wide-use of the Internet has accelerated the emergence of idols.

Prof. Zhou Keda with the Social Sciences Academy of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, said that in the past, idols were regarded as role models to guide the people's thoughts and actions and were even deified at times, while the present society has been increasingly more open to the outside world and the people might have a large number of idols to appease themselves.

"Though the people today and yesterday have diametrically different reasons and ways to adore their idols, they all regard the idols as models of success and try to find spiritual strength in them," Zhou said.

Meanwhile, some great names remain shiny today, such as late Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (1898-1976) who had devoted all his life to the Chinese revolution and construction as well as to the wholehearted service to the entire Chinese people, and Lu Xun (1881-1936), a distinguished man of letter and a great proletarian Chinese literary figure.

(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2003)