Preserve the past to live the future

2015-03-16     Source:Chinaculture.org

A photo taken on Oct 6, 2009 shows peaceful Jiuji village under the sunshine, in Southwest China's Guizhou province, before a big fire in 2014 burned down a quarter of the village's houses.

How and why we should protect China's traditional villages and rural culture is a discussion that can go on and on. Thanks to the insiders, experts and entrepreneurs who talked to us in this special coverage, our insight into Chinese traditional villages has gone one step further.

Traditional Chinese villages, the carriers of China's agricultural history and culture, are vanishing at an alarming rate. The protection work allows no time to delay: Rapid urbanization demolishes old villages to make way for modern construction; young people are eager to discard their rural legacy to embrace city life; abandoned houses crumble into dust without protection; irrational commercial development makes traditional villages "traditional" no more; fire hazards widely exist in rural areas and we hear of villages burning down all the time.

Statistic show that China had 3.7 million villages in 2000, and that figure had dropped to 2.6 million in 2010. About 900,000 villages have vanished over the past 10 years, a loss of about 300 a day. "I am not shocked by this number, and the reality could be worse," said Li Huadong, secretary general of the Conservation and Development Center of Chinese Traditional Village.

A woman sits on the remains of a house destroyed by a fire in an ethnic village in Jianhe county, Southwest China's Guizhou province, on Dec 13. More than 60 properties were engulfed by the blaze, affecting 619 residents, but no casualties have been reported. Jiuji village, one of the biggest and best preserved villages of the Miao ethnic minority, was selected by China as a UNESCO World Heritage site nominee in 2006.

Current situation and efforts

Luo Deyin, a Tsinghua University professor of architecture and a long-time researcher in traditional villages, describes the current situation of China’s traditional villages as "seriously damaged but with a large amount remaining."

His view echoed that of He Wei, an architect and professor with the Central Academy of Fine Arts. He pointed out that China has a huge number of traditional villages, especially in South China. "The number is too big that local people and governments tend not to make a fuss over a discarded village," He said. "What's more, protecting a village does not bring any person or party instant benefit, so nobody does it."

To save the endangered villages, the central government launched a special task force in 2012 to investigate which villages needed protection. The special project initially involved four departments: the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and Ministry of Finance. The line-up later became larger, as the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Land and Resource and the China National Tourism Administration joined forces.

A photo taken on Sept 12, 2009 shows Dapin village in Mengxian county, Yangquan city of North China's Shanxi province. The villagehad just 17 residents and it had no doctors, pharmacies or shops. The houses in the village were built by stone on mud with more than 40 courtyards and some were about 1,200 years old. The village residents ranged in age from 50 to 86 and lived a peaceful life by farming. It was listed in the first batch of villages collected in the Chinese Traditional Villages Catalog in 2012.

So far, three groups of 2,555 villages in total have been studied and included in the Chinese Traditional Villages Catalog under protection. The Conservation and Development Center of Chinese Traditional Village, where Li works, is the force behind the project, which works under the support of the seven departments.

According to Li, they have a very detailed and sophisticated system to evaluate whether a village should be recognized as a traditional village.

"To put it simply, we evaluate a village according to, first, its overall condition and location, second, its architecture, and third, its cultural values," said Li. "The village should have an overall good shape, be able to reflect regional history and culture, and it needs to have both tangible and intangible cultural heritage."

According to Li, the central government has allocated more than 10 billion yuan ($1.60 billion) as a special fund to protect the cataloged villages over three years, from 2014 to2016.

"Our center works with the villages to help prevent natural disasters like mud-rock flows, and to improve living, medical and educational conditions so as to keep people from moving away," said Li. "When we make their homes a more convenient, comfortable and affluent place, they will naturally love their life there, too."

An old man nearly 70-years-old plows a field in a village in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Nov 26, 2014. Although most of the young people have left the village to work in the city, the old man continues farming the fields.

Tangible and intangible, both vulnerable

The Chinese countryside not only shelters most of the Chinese population, but also contains many good, deep-rooted beliefs, philosophy, lifestyle and universal humanity.

"However, many people in China are misled by a fervent passion for city-building and very eager to discard this rural legacy," said Jiang Haoshu, a civil servant in Beijing and active volunteer in village services. "And it gave rise to much unnecessary destruction and self-rejection in the countryside."

In China's rural areas, it is a common conception for villagers to demolish old houses to build bigger new ones as a status symbol and to showcase growing wealth. Unfortunately, the design resources in the rural areas are not growing accordingly.

"As a result, rural architecture has less and less personality. Ancient designs are not kept, traditional carpenters have changed jobs, and new rural houses start to copy designs in the city," explained Professor He. "In the end, a village no more looks like a village and it is not a city either. It looks like nothing."

Well-preserved stone houses in Xinglongzhuang village in Zaozhuang city of East China's Shandong province are seen on Jan 31, 2011. The village was listed in the first batch of villages collected in China's traditional villages catalog in 2012. So far, three batches of 2,555 villages in total have been collected in China's traditional village catalog.

Compared with architecture and historical sites, intangible cultural heritageis more vulnerable during urbanization, said Hu Xiaoyu, a master in intangible cultural heritage at Sun Yat-sen University, who now works with a Guangzhou-based cultural company.

"Driven by economic benefits, the rural communities are posed with very serious brain drain, and suffer a talent loss in folk art much more than in the city." He said.

"When it comes to people, if the skill they inherited was considered socially-inferior in the past, or, economically uncompetitive in the present, the inheritors usually lack the motivation to pass it on," he added. "After all, ordinary people are most concerned with whether they can put food on the table every day."

The protection of intangible cultural heritage has made great progress since China joined UNESCO's Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2004.

In 2011, intangible cultural heritage finally left legal limbo as the Law of the People's Republic of China on Intangible Cultural Heritage came into effect. Under the law, inheritors who fail to perform their succession obligations without legitimate reason can be removed from the list.

Even though, the protection of intangible cultural heritage in rural areas will continue to face challenges, globalization, industrialization and urbanization will continue to devour the agrarian cultures where the beliefs, humanity, culture and traditions originate.

Ancient Hui-style houses, featuring black tile roofs and white walls, are well-kept and maintained in Huangling, East China's Jiangxi province. Huangling was a half deserted village on the middle of a mountain before policeman-turned-entrepreneur Wu Xiangyang was engaged.

Development and protection 

When it comes to a traditional village, the concepts of development and protection always seem contradictory.

"In my definition, without development, there is no future. Without protection, there is no sustainable future," said Wu Xiangyang, who runs a village tourism project in East China's Jiangxi province. "Business development must be handled with care, and protection needs to be persistent."

The policeman-turned-entrepreneur gave up his civil servant job and returned to his hometown to explore the possibility of rural tourism. Before he was engaged, Huangling was a half deserted village on the middle of a mountain which suffered poor transportation and perennial water shortages.

As a native, Wu recognized the value of the village's ancient Hui-style architecture, and its terraced-field-and-mountain-surrounded location. Through an equity swap deal with Wu's company, native households moved into new homes in flat areas not far from the original village.

Villagers are also invited to return and work in the scenic spot in various occupations. Some work as hospitality staff, some run folk art shops and some are employed to perform traditional activities and interact with visitors. Wu also plans to invite some households to move back to give the village more vitality.

"I have to make sure the villagers benefit from the project as much as my company does, otherwise the project will not be sustainable," Wu said.

As much as city dwellers love the idea of escaping the crowds and a busy life for a quiet ancient village, the reality is often disappointing.

However, Professor Luo believes that negative feedback should not discourage innovative entrepreneurs like Wu.

"Customers are critical, but their feedback, even if it is negative, will help to prompt the upgrade of the business model and products," he said. "A failed project is better than a quietly vanished village."