Mr. Zhang joined a construction brigade, quickly becoming a manager.

Varya, too, a designer in a construction brigade, finds her way to the front.

"The members were involved in other things, and there was no new life in the organization," said Regina M. Shields, 24, who had worked for the construction brigade.

"The concept of a construction brigade lost its flair."

Moreover, the Hyderabad meeting called for the creation of a joint construction brigade of the ASC.

Our construction brigade will even build you a summer home.

The Navy's construction brigade, the Seabees, built the first detention facility for battlefield detainees at Guantánamo Bay.

It has even loaded up its bulldozers and sent construction brigades to booming coastal provinces, to put them to work in the building trades.

Mr. Feng, who led his own construction brigade, was told to pick a colleague and bring flashlights, a sledgehammer and a drill.

He said in an interview that he had been chief of a construction brigade and had sold goods to private customers.