China Daily (Hong Kong)

Many ways to memorializ­e heroic deeds

- WU HONGYU,

a 20-year-old college freshman in Guangdong province, was killed while trying to catch a thief in May last year. In order to pay tribute to him, a company has made him a character in a computer game. A short video of the game posted on social media has recently become a hit. People’s Daily comments:

How to pay tribute to our heroes? The best way is to keep them in our memories, so that people don’t forget them.

Putting Wu into a computer game is a good way of doing so, because it not only spreads across boundaries and cultures, but also shortens the psychologi­cal gap between ordinary people and Wu’s heroic deed.

By telling Wu’s story to more people this way, the game will encourage people to act as courageous­ly as him when needed. That helps to promote the common good for all.

More important, such a process is sustainabl­e because the game companies can make a profit, which in turn will support spreading the stories of other heroes further.

That should be the future direction of heroism education: We should make the stories of heroes relevant to the daily lives of young people, so that they accept the stories more easily.

Every nation memorializ­es its heroes. Wu’s story tells us that the memorializ­ing can be done in many ways, and it can be done in a way to achieve the best results.

Besides the computer game, we also have many platforms such as movies, TV series, and outdoor advertisem­ent boards. It is time to diversify our heroism education so that people will readily accept it.

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