Dazhai () is a village and former commune of several hundred farmers in Xiyang County in eastern

Shanxi Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-leve ...

province, chiefly known for

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; also Romanization of Chinese, romanised traditionally as Mao Tse-tung. (26 December 1893 – 9 September 1976), also known as Chairman Mao, was a Chinese communist revolutionary who was the List of national founde ...

's directive, "

Learn from Dazhai in agriculture The "Learn from Dazhai in agriculture" Campaign (, or in Wade-Giles Romanization Tachai) was a campaign organized by Mao Zedong in 1963. The campaign encouraged peasants from all over China to follow from the example of the farmers of Dazhai vil ...

", which set up Dazhai as the model for agricultural production throughout China during the 1960s and 1970s, amid the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a sociopolitical movement in the People's Republic of China (PRC) launched by Mao Zedong in 1966, and lasting until his death in 1976. Its stated goa ...

. Spence's ''

The Search for Modern China ''The Search for Modern China'' is a 1990 non-fiction book by Jonathan Spence, published by Century Hutchinson and W. W. Norton & Company. It covers the period 1600 to 1989. According to Spence, the goal was to explain how Modern China was creat ...

'' 2nd Edition, p.562

'Learn from Dazhai'

Numerous newspaper and magazine stories and books as well as films were published nationwide about how hard and diligently the villagers of Dazhai had worked to build the village into one with not only well-managed fields and bountiful

crops A crop is a plant that can be grown and harvested extensively for profit or subsistence. When the plants of the same kind are cultivated at one place on a large scale, it is called a crop. Most crops are cultivated in agriculture or hydroponi ...

, but engineering marvels such as amazing

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contr ...

s and grandiose aqueducts crossing deep

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams ove ...

s for

irrigation Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow crops, landscape plants, and lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,000 years and has been devel ...

. Under the leadership of

Chen Yonggui Chen Yonggui (; circa 1915 – 26 March 1986) was a Chinese politician. Though he was an illiterate peasant, he became a member of the Politburo of the Chinese Communist Party and Vice Premier of the People's Republic of China because of Mao Z ...

, the villagers endeavored to tame the nature by turning the mountainous ridges and hills into productive fields and enhancing productivity in such an unfriendly environment. Miraculously, Dazhai indeed became a model for Chinese farmers to contribute grain to the state. They allegedly worked on their own on the principle of

self-reliance "Self-Reliance" is an 1841 essay written by American transcendentalist philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson. It contains the most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes: the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false con ...

, without any financial and technical support from the government.Patrick Fuliang Shan, "Chen Yonggui Revisited: Intriguing Figure, Diverse Identities, and Maoist Regimentation". ''

American Journal of Chinese Studies The ''American Journal of Chinese Studies'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Association for Chinese Studies. It covers research in all social science disciplines "dealing with Taiwan, China and locales with significa ...

'', (Vol. 25, no. 1, April 2018), pp. 31-46. A number of songs about Dazhai were popular for a while, the best-known perhaps being "Dazhai Yakexi"《大寨亚克西》(''yakexi'' being the Mandarin transliteration of the Uyghur word meaning ''good'' or ''great''), about a Uyghur farmer telling how happy he was after he visited Dazhai. The song was adapted to a dance in which a Uyghur male sang while six ladies accompanied him with dances in the Uyghur traditional style. Both the singer and the dancers were in clothing typical of the Uyghur nationality, which the

Han Chinese The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...

people found aesthetically appealing. Following the fall of the

Gang of Four The Gang of Four () was a Maoist political faction composed of four Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials. They came to prominence during the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976) and were later charged with a series of treasonous crimes. The gang ...

and the death of Mao Zedong, however, this song was banned. Others include a 1972 piece for ''sheng'' and ensemble by Xu Jingqing (许镜清, b. 1942) entitled "Dazhai Hong Hua Bian Di Kai"《大寨红花遍地开》(The Red Flower of Dazhai Blossoms Everywhere

a 1972 song by Yan Cunyi (闫存义) entitled "Dazhai Renxin Xiang Hong Taiyang"《大寨人心向红太阳》(The Hearts of the People of Dazhai Turn Towards the Red Sun); and a 1976 piece for ''banhu'' and ensemble by Dou Denggui (窦登贵) entitled "Jianghe Yuantou Dazhai Hua"《江河源头大寨花》(The Dazhai Flower Blooms at the Source of the Rivers).

References

External links

China-dazhai.com - a comprehensive website about Dazhai

Zhao, "Socio-spatial transformation in Mao's China : settlement planning and dwelling architecture revisited (1950s-1970s)", Chapter 5 : Dazhai, a rural settlement, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2007

Posters of Chen Yonggui

Soils and Sustainability: Tales from the Loess Plateau

The Dazhai Spirit gets religion
{{Authority control Agriculture in China Jinzhong Villages in China

'Learn from Dazhai'

See also

References

Further reading

External links