Soft Power Warriors

In early March 1974, the men of the Xi Yang production team in drought-stricken Lintong County, Shaanxi Province, were in the midst of a painstaking, increasingly desperate search for a reliable underground water source. Yang Peiyan, the team leader, had led his comrades to a spot at the base of Li Mountain where they had dug for several days, finding nothing but a few useless shards of terracotta. On March 6, one of the team members – either Yang Xinman or Yang Zhifa, depending on who is telling the story – dug up an entire terracotta head. Gazing at the strange, life-like countenance, Yang Xinman told me he felt scared – it was a spirit, he decided, or a god.