In the heart of Jiangxi Province, Yiyang County serves as a living monument to one of the Chinese Communist Party’s most enduring icons, Fang Zhimin. Once a theater of guerrilla warfare and the birthplace of the Min-Zhe-Gan revolutionary base, the county has successfully commodified its revolutionary past into a sophisticated brand of 'Red Tourism.' Visitors to Yiyang today find themselves immersed in an environment where history is curated into a modern lifestyle, from 'Poverty Coffee' served in glass-walled bookstores to high-definition theatrical performances of Fang’s prison-written classic, 'Beloved China.'
Fang Zhimin, a pivotal figure who was executed in 1935, remains central to the national narrative for his unwavering conviction and his vision of a future China characterized by 'vibrant creation' and 'rapid progress.' Yiyang has seized this literary and ideological legacy to transform its 60-plus revolutionary sites into an 'open-air museum.' This strategic focus on ideological education is most visible at the Jiangxi Fang Zhimin Leadership Academy, which has become a national hub for cadre training, offering specialized courses that blend historical hardship with contemporary governance challenges.
However, Yiyang’s ambitions extend beyond mere historical preservation; the county is aggressively pursuing a 'High-Quality Development' agenda to fulfill the material side of Fang’s prophecy. The local government has prioritized a 'one stone, one gold' industrial strategy, focusing on calcium-based new materials and non-ferrous metals. This industrial pivot has yielded significant results, with the county’s GDP recently surpassing the 20-billion-yuan mark and industrial revenue nearly tripling over the last five-year plan period.
This modernization effort is deeply rooted in a regional identity of resilience that predates the 20th century. Local scholars and officials frequently link the 'revolutionary spirit' of the 1920s to the steadfastness of Southern Song Dynasty figures like Xie Fangde and Chen Kangbo, both Yiyang natives known for their loyalty and refusal to surrender to invaders. By connecting the CCP’s revolutionary history with broader Confucian and Neo-Confucian values of integrity, Yiyang creates a sense of historical inevitability and cultural continuity that resonates with domestic visitors.
The county’s success is measured by its consistent ranking in the 'first tier' of Jiangxi’s high-quality development assessments. This metric considers not only economic output but also social welfare, environmental protection, and public satisfaction. With 80 percent of the general public budget allocated to social wellbeing and a narrowing income gap between urban and rural residents, Yiyang seeks to present itself as a 'model county' for the realization of a prosperous, modernized China.