Dazhai (Chinese: 大寨; pinyin: Dàzhài; Wade–Giles: Tachai) is a village and former commune of several hundred farmers in Xiyang County in eastern Shanxi province, chiefly known for Mao Zedong's directive, "Learn from Dazhai in agriculture", which set up Dazhai as the model for agricultural production throughout China during the 1960s and 1970s, amid the Cultural Revolution.
[2]: 4 Numerous newspaper and magazine stories and books as well as films[3]: 98–99 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, but engineering marvels such as amazing reservoirs and grandiose aqueducts crossing deep valleys for irrigation.
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, without any financial and technical support from the government.
Both the singer and the dancers were in clothing typical of the Uyghur nationality, which the Han Chinese people found aesthetically appealing.