| dc.description.abstract | Dazhai, a small village of less than 100 households, is located at the foot of Taihang Mountain in Shanxi Province. In the early 1960s, it became an agricultural model village in Shanxi Province led by Chen Yonggui. In 1963, the village suffered a severe flood, but it was restored to its production very soon. There was not a food shortage in the village at all, and more even there was surplus stock to share with the state. Thereafter, Dazhai’s spirit of self-reliance and hard-struggle spread throughout Mainland China.
In 1964, after listening to the report of Tao Lujia, the First Secretary of Shanxi Province, Mao Zedong called “Learn from Dazhai in Agriculture”countrywide. Besides, Premier Zhou Enlai summed up and declared Dazhai’s experiences in his “Report on the Work of Government” in December, 1964. Under the policy of promoting the “People’s Communes” system, Dazhai became a model of successful agricultural development, for advertising the superiority of the “People’s Communes”. Because of Dazhai’s successful experiences and the direction from the top government, a wave of “Learning from Dazhai” swept all over the country, and Dazhai-type villages were built everywhere. Dazhai represented a “Red Banner” in agriculture. Since the “Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution” in 1966, Dazhai evolved from an agricultural productive model into a political model. The campaign trended to “extreme political Left”, and advocated “Class Struggle” and “Struggle between two Lines”. It influenced the development of rural villages seriously.
In 1975, Chen Yonggui was promoted to vice Premier because he led this campaign. But the rural lives were not improved at the end of the “Great Proletarian Culture Revolution”. Furthermore, “Practice is the sole criterion for testing truth”, supported by Deng Xiaoping, became the main stream, then the campaign of“Learning from Dazhai in Agriculture”was criticized completely. Thus, Chen Yonggui resigned from the vice Premier in September, 1980. The Campaign of“Learning from Dazhai in Agriculture”involved 800 millions peasants, lasted for 16 years, and ended in 1980.
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