FACES AND PLACES: China's Ukrainian "Hero" (06/25/00)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

China's Ukrainian "Hero"

The most prominent "hero" in Communist China today is not native-born. He's not even Chinese. He is a Ukrainian film actor from Kyiv named Andrei Saminin. Can you believe it?

According to a recent story by Leslie Chang in the Wall Street Journal, Andrei is the star of a TV series about Pavel Korchagin, "a mythical Soviet railway worker who has been brought back by propagandists [in China] to preach struggle and sacrifice to a new generation. In an age of media overload, Pavel enjoys enviable recognition: 97 percent of young people are aware of him, according to a recent poll and President Jiang Zemin is said to be a fan."

Based on "How the Steel Was Forged," a 1952 novel by Soviet Ukrainian author Nikolai Ostrovsky, the setting is Ukraine, from pre-revolutionary times to the Soviet takeover. I read the novel years ago and resurrect the following passage to give the reader a sense of its Bolshevik flavor: "As for the workers, they regarded the yellow-and-blue flags of the Petliura thugs with suppressed hatred. They were powerless in the face of this wave of Ukrainian bourgeois chauvinism, and their spirits rose only when Red units, fighting fiercely against the yellow-and-blues that were bearing down on them from all sides, wedged their way into the town."

Chinese state-run television has promoted the series because of the heroism of the main character who overcomes enormous obstacles and suffers greatly for his Leninist convictions. The plan was to imbue Chinese youth with the need for sacrifice and perseverance in building a Communist society. Has it worked? Not exactly.

An obscure actor in Ukraine, Andrei was on a recent promotional tour in China and was mobbed by adoring fans wherever he went. "For a young audience fixated on consumerism and celebrity," writes Ms. Chang, "Pavel has morphed into the newest star on China's variety-show circuit, where the man who portrays him does interviews, plays the guitar, sings and dances."

Although the series is based on the original Ostrovsky book, popular in China during the 1950s, the TV version has been changed to conform with China's disparate blend of "Marxist capitalism." "In today's materialistic society, we need spiritual heroes," said Han Gang, the show's director who rewrote about two-thirds of the original book for the TV version. "We've watered down the class-consciousness and made him [Pavel] more of a human-rights figure that everyone can relate to."

Interestingly, another hero in China is Bill Gates. According to a recent Chinese newspaper editorial, "To learn from Pavel and Bill Gates is no contradiction. From Pavel we can understand the value of human life and from Gates a spirit of emphasizing science and technology."

Strange. Capitalist Bill Gates is a hero in Communist China, but not in Capitalist America. Our federal government has portrayed Mr. Gates as a modern-day "robber baron," bent on destroying competition in order to monopolize the computer market. If Bill Gates, a living embodiment of the American dream is not to be admired, who is?

When I was a toddler, my father regaled me with stories about the Ukrainian Kozaky: Taras Bulba, life at the Sich, battles with the Tatars and Turks, and sundry other narratives focusing on Kozak courage, loyalty, honor, wisdom, perseverance, compassion and other virtues that my father believed Kozaks personified. They were my super-heroes fighting for liberty and justice.

Later I learned about the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). A portrait of Col. Yevhen Konovalets hung in our living room. Provid (OUN leadership) member Roman Shushko stayed in our home while visiting Chicago.

I came to admire American heroes in elementary school. The United States was fighting the Axis and my friends and I were inspired by our brave marines at Guadalcanal, Tarawa and Iwo Jima, airmen Edward "Butch" O'Hare, Jimmy Doolittle and "Pappy" Boyington, infantrymen Audie Murphy and Rodger Young, Admirals Chester Nimitz and Ernest King, and Generals Douglas MacArthur and Dwight D. Eisenhower. Today, these heroic warriors are politically incorrect.

Every person, every nation needs heroes, outstanding men and women of principle who in times of crisis offer hope, exemplify the noble character of the nation, and inspire ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary deeds. Such a person was Winston Churchill, the subject of a recent U.S. News and World Report cover story by John Keegan titled "The Last Hero." Standing up to the power of Adolf Hitler who in May of 1940 brought Great Britain to its knees, Winston defied the odds. "He rejected surrender," wrote Mr. Keegan. "He insisted that Britain could fight on. In a series of magnificent speeches, appealing to his people's courage and historic greatness, he carried Britain with him. The country rallied to his call, held steady under a concentrated air bombardment, manned the beaches Hitler planned to invade, and took strength in the struggle of 'the Few,' Britain's fighter pilots, in their eventually victorious battle against Hitler's air power."

Heroism in America is no longer in fashion. American schools devote little time to the heroes of the past unless, of course, they're Hispanic or African American. In 1995 the National American History Standards project proposed a curriculum that included Harriet Tubman and Mansa Munsa but excluded Paul Revere, Thomas Edison, the Wright Brothers and Jonas Salk. There were 17 references to the Ku Klux Klan, 19 references to McCarthyism. The bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima was questioned, but there was no mention of Japanese war crimes.

In post-modern America it seems that the anti-hero reigns supreme: athletes, coaches, artists, movie stars, singers, musicians and felons that become celebrities, not because of their extraordinary contributions or heroism but because of their "attitude" and shock value, and, in the case of our public officials, their ability to parse words and obfuscate meaning.

In his book "Profiles in Courage," John F. Kennedy wrote: "A nation which has forgotten the quality of courage which in the past has been brought to public life is not as likely to insist upon or reward that quality in its chosen leaders today." A good thought to remember as we approach the elections.

Myron Kuropas' e-mail address is: [email protected]

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