Model Commune Dazhai

Dazhai (大寨) is an obscure village in Shanxi province (山西省) which in 1964 was singled out as a model commune for having wrestled with nature and won.

According to the state media. Dazhai villagers had levelled terraces, raised dams to prevent soil erosion, and dug reservoirs to guarantee water supplies. Overall, villagers were said to have boosted food production to unprecedented levels.

The Dazhai method relied mainly on mobilizing the population to carry out enormous amounts of back-breaking labor, and was adopted throughout the country, even in regions like Tibet where it was said to be wholly inappropriate.

After 1979, the Party admitted that much of Dazhai's acclaimed success was pure fiction. Its grain harvests had never been as big as had been stated, and the army had contributed much of the labor employed in all that earth-moving.