Promising a socialist utopia built with the toil of ordinary farmers, Mao Zedong singled out the remote mountain village of Dazhai as proof that faith in the Communist Party and hard work could conquer the harshest terrain.

毛泽东曾以偏远山村大寨为榜样，宣称凭借普通农民的辛勤劳动就能建造出社会主义乌托邦，证明对共产党的信仰和勤奋工作足以征服最艰苦的地形。

The villagers, wielding pick axes, hoes and their bare hands more than half a century ago, were said to have carved terraces out of stony hillsides, hauling soil to turn barren slopes into miraculously bountiful fields of corn.

半个多世纪以前，村民们据称用锄头、镐头和双手，在多石的山坡上开辟出梯田，运来泥土，奇迹般地把贫瘠的山坡变成了丰产的玉米地。

More than 10 million Chinese visited the tiny village in Shanxi Province in northern China, obeying Mao’s order to “learn from Dazhai” and soak up its history of hardship and anticapitalist fervor. Most came during China’s disastrous 1966-76 Cultural Revolution, during which Dazhai’s semiliterate party boss, Chen Yonggui, was elevated to the Politburo in Beijing.

响应毛泽东向大寨学习的号召，逾千万中国人曾造访这座位于中国北方山西省的小村庄，学习它艰苦奋斗与反资本主义的热忱精神。其中多数人是在1966-1976年灾难性的“文化大革命”时期到访，当时作为半文盲的大寨党支书陈永贵被推举至北京的中央政治局。

Today, the farmers of Dazhai have mostly vanished. Many of their terraces have crumbled, while machines and corporate farming have replaced their labor on those that remain.

如今，大寨的农民已经基本上消失。许多梯田已经塌陷，机器和企业化农业取代了人力，在仅存的梯田上劳作。

Villagers now mainly work to serve the one thing that hasn’t changed: Dazhai’s role as a place of pilgrimage and symbol of what the Communist Party would like China to be, though what exactly that is keeps changing.

如今村民们的工作主要是为了一件依然没有改变的事：大寨作为朝圣地和一种象征的地位——它象征着共产党希望中国成为的样子，尽管这个愿景本身也在不断变化。

大寨展览馆的立体模型中，矗立着陈永贵（右二）的塑像。他曾担任大寨村委书记，是大寨官方神话的核心人物。大寨红色博物馆陈列着宣传海报和毛泽东半身像，这座半私营的盈利机构有大量毛泽东时代鼎盛时期的文物。

Visitors today are mostly older people with fond memories of their youth in the ’60s and ’70s, but they also include younger Chinese bused in on party-organized tours. The place is a must-see stop on China’s sprawling “red tourism” trail of party heritage sites, combining mass tourism frippery with what Xi Jinping, China’s leader and a big fan of party history, calls “moral nourishment.”

如今的游客多是怀念自己六七十年代青春岁月的老一辈人，但也包括参加党组织的旅行团的年轻人。这里是中国绵延不绝的“红色旅游”路线上的必经之地，这条路线串联起众多党的历史遗迹，既融合了大众旅游的浮华，又承载着热衷党史的中国领导人习近平所说的“精神滋养”。

Primitive cave homes in the middle of what used to be Dazhai’s “people’s commune,” the village’s only employer, have been turned into a boutique hotel, which opened last year backed by investment from a coal company.

大寨的“人民公社”曾经是村里唯一的雇主，如今，曾经位于大寨中心的简陋窑洞被改造成一家精品酒店，在一家煤炭公司的投资支持下于去年开业。

On Tiger Head Mountain, the focus of what were once trumpeted as superhuman feats led by the party chief — hauling soil to make rocky ground fit for planting — terraced fields have mostly been abandoned because they were too small and unstable for heavy farm machinery. (Parts of the story turned out to be fake; much of the real work was done by the army, not locals, and with the help of machines.)

虎头山曾是那位书记领导民众实现了被吹捧为非凡壮举的重点地带——运来泥土，使得岩石地面适合耕种——如今梯田大多已被废弃，因其面积太小，不够稳定，不能使用重型农业机械。（部分事迹经证实系造假；大部分真正的工作由军队完成的，而不是当地农民，而且借助了机器的力量。）

The mountain has become a tourist attraction that charges for admission. It has a Buddhist temple, but its main draw is the grave of a dedicated atheist, Chen, the former party boss.

这座山如今已成为收费景点。山上有座佛教寺庙，但主要吸引游客的却是那位坚定的无神论者、党支部书记陈永贵的墓地。

大寨村的大门上，两则毛泽东时代的标语重新焕发光彩：左侧是“自力更生”，右侧则是“奋发图强”。大寨梯田是村民们将瘠薄土地开垦为肥沃农田的努力，在毛泽东领导下的中国共产党眼中堪称壮举，但官方叙事夸大了他们的成就。

A group of young women, party members at a state-run energy company who were on a recent “study tour” of Dazhai, giggled nervously when asked what a discredited Mao-era model village had to do with today’s China.

最近，某国有能源公司一群年轻的女性党员来大寨参加“研修团”。当被问及这个已经被揭穿的毛泽东时代模范村庄与当今中国有何关联时，她们不安地咯咯笑起来。

One woman eventually answered, “The spirit of self-reliance,” using the Chinese phrase “zili gengsheng,” a Maoist slogan plastered in red paint on walls around the village.

一个女人最后用中文回答说：“自力更生”，这是一个毛主义的口号，用红漆涂在村子周围的墙上。

Self-reliance — the literal translation is “regeneration through one’s own efforts” — is a slogan for all seasons. It was first declared the party’s guiding principle by Mao in 1945, four years before he seized power in Beijing. He deemed it an invincible weapon to “defeat all Chinese and foreign reactionaries.”

自力更生是一个历久弥新的口号。1945年，毛泽东将其确立为党的指导原则，此时距离他夺取政权还有四年。他认为，这是“打败一切中外反动派”的无敌武器。

Mr. Xi doesn’t talk about reactionaries. But he has made “self-reliance” a cornerstone of the party’s efforts to meld its revolutionary past with its current pursuit of “national rejuvenation” through economic growth.

习近平不再谈论反动派，但他把“自力更生”作为共产党的核心理念，将其革命传统与当前通过经济增长实现“民族复兴”的追求融合在一起。

陈家旧居外的游客，门前陈列着毛主席的半身像。门边的条幅写着“自力更生传家宝”。公园里陈永贵的大型半身像。在毛泽东执政时期，他被任命为政治局委员。

This is a sharp shift in emphasis. For decades after Deng Xiaoping opened up the Chinese economy to the world in the late 1970s, the idea of self-reliance was played down, though it still popped up in formulaic declarations of loyalty to Mao.

这标志着政策重点的急剧转向。自邓小平于1970年代末开启中国经济的对外开放后，数十年间，自力更生理念虽仍出现在对毛泽东的公式化效忠宣言中，但整体上已被淡化。

It became “associated in China with North Korea, a byword for grim backwardness and deprivation,” said Richard McGregor, the author of “The Party,” a book on China’s political system, and a senior fellow for East Asia at the Lowy Institute, an Australian research center. “It was a totally negative concept.”

这个口号一度“在中国与朝鲜联系在一起，朝鲜是可怕的落后和贫困的代名词”，澳大利亚洛伊研究所东亚问题高级研究员、有关中国政治体系的著作《党》(The Party)一书的作者马利德(Richard McGregor)说。“完全是个负面的概念。”

“Nowadays, under Xi, a policy of self-reliance is tied to visions of high-tech independence, security and advancement, a kind of digital nirvana with Chinese characteristics,” Mr. McGregor said.

“如今在习近平领导下，自力更生的政策与实现高科技独立、安全和进步的愿景紧密相连，构筑出具有中国特色的数字极乐世界，”马利德说。

That policy, though far from the economic autarky promoted by Mao or North Korea, still sees the outside world as a threat. But it is now focused on investing, to make sure China is never dependent on — and therefore vulnerable to — the West, particularly for critical technologies like semiconductors and computer operating systems.

这一政策虽然远非毛泽东或朝鲜推动的经济自给自足，但仍然将外部世界视为威胁。只不过现在它的重点是投资，以确保中国永远不会依赖西方，从而避免陷入脆弱境地，特别是在半导体和计算机操作系统等关键技术方面。

The new meaning of self-reliance has allowed Dazhai to reinvent itself, changing from a beacon of rural anticapitalist fervor into a hive of capitalist commerce. Former farmers run shops selling Mao trinkets, locally distilled grain liquor and enamel mugs celebrating the “Dazhai spirit.” For visitors with serious cases of nostalgia, some restaurants offer noodles garnished with tree bark, a throwback to China’s days of hunger.

自力更生的新含义使大寨重塑自我，从农村反资本主义的灯塔变成了资本主义商业的蜂巢。以前的农民如今开着商店，出售毛泽东纪念品、本地的烧酒和歌颂“大寨精神”的搪瓷杯。一些餐馆还向充满怀旧情感的游客提供树皮装点的面条，让人回想起中国的饥荒年代。

大寨“人民公社”原来的食堂，如今已成为接待游客的餐厅。大寨村一家纪念品商店里陈列着大寨牌白酒，酒瓶标签印有文化大革命时期的宣传画。

Jia Tianlian, 74, who worked the fields during Chen’s rule, said villagers did not see much of their chief after he moved to Beijing and became enmeshed in the Cultural Revolution, a decade of political turmoil. But he remembers him as a “good man” who saved Dazhai from the worst of the period’s violence, and from ruin during catastrophic flooding in 1963.

在陈永贵掌权期间，现年74岁的贾天连（音）在大寨务农，他说，在陈永贵调往北京并卷入“文化大革命”这场长达十年的政治动荡之后，村民们就很少见到这位村长了。但在他记忆中，陈永贵是个“好人”，在那个动荡时期保护大寨没有遭受最严重的暴力事件，并在1963年灾难性洪水期间令村庄免遭毁灭。

Mr. Jia still grows lettuce and leeks on tiny patches of soil outside his home, but he long ago gave up the more substantial plots he was given after the village’s collective farm disbanded in the early 1980s. He sold them to a local farming enterprise that now controls most of the village land.

贾天连如今仍然在他家外面的小块土地上种植生菜和韭菜，但他很久以前就放弃了村里集体农场在20世纪80年代初解散后分给他的更大块的土地。他把地卖给了当地一家农业企业，该企业现在控制着村里的大部分土地。

大寨一处在半山腰开凿的窑洞，与当地许多传统民居相似。大寨村一处住宅区大门上写着“自力更生”。

His two sons left Dazhai to find work elsewhere — one as a driver, the other at a coal mine — because “no young people want to work in the fields anymore.” The single-room home he shares with his wife has posters featuring Mao and Mr. Xi, but they are dwarfed in size by a tribute to the God of Wealth.

他的两个儿子离开大寨到别处找工作——一个当司机，另一个在煤矿——因为“没有年轻人愿意再下地干活了”。他和妻子共居的单间屋里挂着毛泽东和习近平的海报，但这两幅画像的尺寸远不及另一幅财神像。

Dazhai’s past role as a symbol of opposition to individual enterprise and wealth inequality has been carefully scrubbed from the official “red tourism” narrative, which is aimed at solidifying loyalty to the party by trumpeting a sanitized history of sacrifice in pursuit of unwavering goals.

大寨曾经作为反对个体经营和财富差距的象征，如今这个角色已被小心翼翼地从官方的“红色旅游”叙事中抹去。官方这种叙事旨在宣扬一段为追求坚定不移的目标而牺牲的净化版历史，来巩固对党的忠诚。

Some have failed to keep up with the script.

有些人未能跟上这套说辞。

Li Yanliang, a former farmer, got a job, thanks to Chen, in the leadership compound in Beijing and later returned home to open a small restaurant in Dazhai. It has a curtained-off dining area decorated with old photographs and propaganda posters featuring Jiang Qing, Mao’s fourth and last wife.

在陈永贵的帮助下，曾是农民的李彦良（音）在北京的领导大院谋得一份差事，后来他回到家乡，在大寨开了一家小饭馆。餐厅有一个用窗帘隔开的用餐区，装饰着老照片和宣传海报，其中有毛泽东的第四任也是最后一任妻子江青。

曾经的农民李彦良在大寨的自家餐馆里。江青的照片，她是毛泽东的第四任也是最后一位妻子，如今在中国共产党版本的历史中已成为一个遭人唾弃的人物。

Mr. Li said he was not showing support for Jiang, who was arrested after Mao’s death and has been largely written out of party history, except as a kind of evil witch. He said he just wanted to record the fact that she visited Dazhai twice and always supported the village.

李彦良说他并不是在表示对江青的支持——江青在毛泽东死后被捕，除了被塑造成邪恶的毒妇之外，已经基本上从党史中抹去。他说，他只是想记录下她两次前来大寨并一直支持这个村子的事实。

Reminded that official history reviles her as a murderous, leftist fanatic, he answered: “The past is the past.”

提起官方历史将她诋毁为凶残的左派狂热分子时，他回答说：“过去的就让它过去吧。”

Chen, the former party boss, was also a fanatic — he saw eye to eye with Pol Pot, Cambodia’s genocidal Khmer Rouge leader, who visited Dazhai in 1977 — but is revered by “red tourists” for his devotion to the party.

曾是中共领导人的陈永贵本人也是个狂热分子——他和1977年来访的柬埔寨红色高棉领袖、种族灭绝罪犯波尔布特志同道合——但“红游”游客仍把他奉为对党无限忠诚的楷模。

His framed black-and-white photograph sits atop a table at the entrance to his former home, next to a bust of Mao. Before each is a pile of cigarettes left as offerings by reverential visitors. (Chen died of lung cancer.)

他老家的门口桌上摆着他的黑白照和毛泽东胸像，前面各有一堆游客敬献的香烟。（陈永贵死于肺癌。）

The devotion leaves some visitors cold. Li Wen, a 51-year-old businessman from Xi’an, said he had only come to Dazhai because three elderly relatives wanted to make the trip. “I don’t really care about any of this stuff,” he said, adding: “None of it exists anymore, but people who remember it are nostalgic.”

一些游客对这种狂热没有什么兴趣。51岁的西安商人李闻（音）说他来大寨只是因为家里三位长辈想来，“我对这些东西其实无感。”他还说，“早就没这些事了，但经历过的人怀旧”。

Huang Xiaoming, one of a group of party members visiting from Taiyuan, the capital of Shanxi, insisted there was more at work than nostalgia. He pointed to “self-reliance” as the key to China’s extraordinary economic growth since Mao’s death.

来自山西省会太原的一群党员游客中，黄小明（音）坚持认为不止是怀旧。他把毛泽东去世后中国惊人的经济增长归功于“自力更生”。

陈永贵故居内，游客留下的香烟供品。大寨人民公社旧址的游客手持党旗合影。他们身后是习近平呼吁奋斗精神的口号。

He led his fellow travelers in a group photo shoot, with a big Communist Party flag, in a courtyard where large red characters on a wall screamed a quote from Mr. Xi: “Happiness only comes from struggle.”

他带着同伴在一处院子里举着一面巨大的党旗合影，墙上红字写着习近平的名言：“幸福都是奋斗出来的。”

Many older Chinese fear that this message has been lost on younger generations. “They never had to experience hardship,” grumbled Yuan Guoqiang, 65, who was visiting with his wife.

很多老年人担心年轻人已经听不进这句话。65岁的袁国强（音）和老伴一起来参观，嘟囔说：“他们没吃过苦。”

“We still need the Dazhai spirit,” he said.

“现在还是需要大寨精神，”他说。

At the center of the village stands a weeping willow once known as “the tree of suffering,” where, visitors were told, landlords used to whip disobedient laborers, sometimes so fiercely that they died. After the Communist Party seized power and executed landlords, the story went, it became “the happy man tree.”

村子中央有一棵曾经叫“苦人树”的垂柳，据说解放前地主会在这里鞭打不听话的长工，有时打得太狠会把人打死。共产党夺权后枪毙地主，这棵树就改名“乐人树”了。

To keep it from falling over, the aged tree is now propped up by a concrete post, shaped to look like a tree trunk. But this local landmark, a reminder of the brutality that Chinese people inflicted on each other before and after the 1949 revolution, is no longer an official stop on guided tours of Dazhai.

老树快要倒了，现在用一根伪装成树干的水泥柱子撑着。但这个曾提醒人们1949年前后中国人互相施加暴行的当地地标已不再是大寨导游路线上的一个官方景点。

大寨铁栅栏上锈迹斑斑的宣传画。