It was a rare fresh morning in February and the clocks were striking eight. On a corner in central Beijing, about six kilometres north of Tiananmen Square, a group of primary-school children with green uniforms were moving hastily into a small building 10 minutes before class. Some waved impatiently to their doting parents, who had ridden their kids to the school on bicycles.
As they went through the gate, a giant image on the school building greeted them. It was comrade Lei Feng, the school's namesake.
Once the mainland's most famous role model, Lei Feng has faded into history, remembered mainly as a name appended to schools like this one.
This year, however - the 50th anniversary of his death - the Communist Party is resurrecting Lei Feng for one more turn as a propaganda superstar.
The young soldier from Hunan, only 21 when he died in 1962, is on duty again - this time in an ideological drive to promote nationalism. On Friday, the People's Daily published an editorial saying fresh meaning should be given to the cultural icon to fit with the realities of life on the mainland today.
'[When we launch] the campaign 'To learn from Lei Feng' under the new circumstances, we need to give new and relevant meanings to the 'Lei Feng Spirit' - that is to fervently promote Lei Feng's passion to love the motherland... and his love for the supreme ideal of socialism in order to guide people to strengthen their nationalist sentiment,' the party mouthpiece said.
To the paper, Lei Feng Spirit can't come back too soon. In a society where conflicts are rising and new ideas are having an impact, it sees an urgent need to provide an ideological platform that unifies people's hearts.