Dazhai
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Dazhai (Chinese: 大寨) is the name of a mountainous village of several hundred farmers in Xiyang County, Shanxi Province in the People's Republic of China. It had been an ordinary village until 1960s when Mao Zedong published his Supreme Directive, In agriculture, learn from Dazhai (Chinese: 农业学大寨), and set up Dazhai as a national agricultural model for all the farmers across the country to learn from.
Subsequently, countless newspaper and magazine stories and books as well as films were published nationwide about how hard and diligently the villagers of Daizhai had worked to build the village into one with not only well-managed farm fields and bountiful crops, but enginneering marvels such as amazing water reservoirs and grandiose aqueducts crossing deep valleys for irrigation purposes. They allegedly worked on their own on the principle, Self-Reliance, without any financial and technical support from the government. A number of songs about Dazhai were popular for a while, and the best-known one was perhaps Dazhai Yakexi (yakexi is the Mandarin transliteration of the Uyghur word meaning good or great) depicting a farmer of the Uyghur nationality telling how happy he was after he visited Dazhai. The song was adapted to a dance in which a Uyghur man sang while six ladies accompanied him with dances in the Uyghur traditional style. Both the singer and the dancers were in dresses typical of the Uyghur nationality, which the Han Chinese people found esthetically appealing.
The slogans of those days were "Move the mountains to make farm fields", "Change the sky and alter the land", "Work bitterly, diligently, and with extra energy, and build our village into a Daizhai-like one in three years", etc..
During the years up till the downfall of the Gang of Four in 1976, farmers from all over the country were organized to visit Dazhai, and well-trained tour guides took posts on several important scenes to explain to visitors how Daizhainers made such achievements with their own hands. One of such scenes was the top of the Tiger Head Mountain where visitors could have a panoramic view of the farm fields, the major irrigation projects as well as the residential area of the villagers. Perhaps hundreds of millions of farmers visited the place during the period and the expenses on their trips were paid by the government.
At this time, all farmers in China had to show their political zest in following Mao Zedong's directive Learn from Dazhai in agriculture. They not only worked during the day, but at night as well, not only in the warm season, but in the depth of winter as well--a dramatic deviation from their age-old tradition. In many places, the farmers literally--and blindly--moved mountains (small hills perhaps, to be exact), build reservoirs, tunnels, canals, and so on. As spiritual motivation, loud speakers were installed at work sites to broadcast music and songs and, at night, films were shown on the scene while the farmers took a break. Unfortunately, many of these large-scale projects were proved utterly useless later.
Meanwhile, a number of leaders of the village made dramatic advances in their political career. Chen Yonggui, the patriarchal leader of the village, was put to the position of vice-premier of the central government despite the fact that he was semi-illterate. (Zhou Enlai was the premier of the time.) Guo Fenglian, the Party Secretary of Dazhai, was a favorite of Jiang Qing (the wife of Mao Zedong), and played significant part in the political life of China of that time.
This campaign was as much political as it was agricultural, and it came to an abrupt end upon the death of Mao Zedong in 1976. Today, Dazhai is a tourist attraction.
The industrial counterpart of Dazhai was Daqing, and the corresponding directive given by Mao Zedong was In industry, learn from Daqing.
