RURAL DWELLINGS STAND AS PROUD LEGACIES IN FUJIAN
Ancestral homes of Hakka people fuel tourism influx
In valleys filled with thick vegetation, different-sized circular and rectangular buildings with faded yellow clay walls lie scattered in mountainous villages in Longyan, Fujian province.
Surrounded by captivating mountains and enticing streams, the dark-brown wooden roofs of these tulou, (earthen buildings) in the city’s Yongding district look magnificent at sunset.
A type of rural dwelling in Fujian combining accommodations and fortifications, these architectural wonders have attracted attention at home and abroad in recent years. They are arranged in a way that enables them to blend in with their surroundings, providing visitors with breathtaking views and peace and quiet.
There are more than 23,000 tulou in Yongding. The buildings became well-known after 46 of them were given World Heritage status by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2008.
The structures were awarded this status, as “they are exceptional examples of a building of tradition and function exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization, and, in terms of their harmonious relationship with their environment, an outstanding example of human settlement”, according to UNESCO.
The resulting tourism influx in the area has not only prevented the buildings from falling into disrepair, but has bolstered local businesses and allowed the structures to remain functional relics.
Locals said tourism has helped them escape poverty, and is contributing to rural vitalization and improved livelihoods as China embarks on a new journey toward full modernization.
However, in the early 1980s, Yongding was still an area where people had little contact with the outside world and its tulou attracted only a few backpackers.
Lin Rigeng, 71, owner of the Zhencheng Building, a tulou in Hongkeng village, said that until the early 1990s there was no road into the village and few locals had even seen a bicycle.
The Zhencheng Building was built in 1912 by Lin’s grandfather, who became a wealthy businessman in Yongding selling tobacco cutters. It took the family nearly five years and a large sum of money to complete the design and construction of the four-story building, which consists of 208 rooms around a central courtyard and covers nearly 5,000 square meters.
Lin has always lived in the building, which is known as the “prince of Hakka tulou” and is one of those placed on the World Heritage List in 2008.
“It’s one of only two structures in China that follow the design of the Eight Diagrams — the other being the Temple of Heaven in Beijing,” Lin said. The eight diagrams symbolize eight natural phenomena: the sky, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountains and lakes, and they represent early knowledge of the universe in ancient China.
As with Lin’s home, the giant multi-storied tulou were built with wood and fortified with mud walls. Constructed from the 15th to 20th centuries, these massive communal homes were sited based on feng shui principles — a pseudoscientific traditional practice originating from ancient China, which claims to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their environment. The tulou are also purposefully nestled amid tea, tobacco and rice plantations and abundant forests of pine and bamboo.
Defensive features
Throughout history, tulou residents have mostly been Hakka — migrants in southern China who originated from lands adjoining the Yellow River. Population pressures created conflict between the Hakka and their neighbors, so they built their homes to double as fortifications.
The buildings are mainly four or five stories high. The first floor serves as the kitchen, the second is used for grain storage and the upper floors act as living areas.
The structures are mainly symmetrical, and their defensive features include ironclad gates, escape tunnels, slits for weapons under the dark-tiled roofs, and a water well. Because of their defensive function, only rooms on the third floor and higher have windows, which are very small. With sufficient food, the residents could survive in the event of a lengthy conflict.
Despite being similar in design, each tulou is unique. Every structure essentially doubles as a self-contained village. While the tulou are now open to the public, some are still occupied by residents, most of them from the same family clan.
Communal living is integral to these villages, where the closed-wall design fosters social interaction. Although individual families have their own areas in tulou, residents gather in the courtyard for ceremonies such as ancestor worship and weddings.
After visiting the Fujian tulou in 1999, Neville Agnew, principal project specialist at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, said, “This is the most beautiful folk architecture I have seen in harmony with the surrounding environment.”
Due to rapid economic growth, locals’ livelihoods have greatly improved and many of them have bought modern homes in neighboring cities, resulting in a significant decline of tulou occupants in the past two decades.
Today, the structures that once housed hundreds of people are now home only to two dozen permanent residents, most of them elderly.
For the locals who grew up in tulou, the structures are just normal houses, but through his conversations with visitors, Lin came to realize that each of the structures is an extraordinary piece of architecture.
“What surprised me most is that people were really interested in our communal lifestyle as well as our Hakka culture. They thought it incredible that so many people could live together in harmony,” he said.
As tourist numbers soared, Lin sensed a business opportunity. He gave up farming to enter the tourism industry in the late 1990s, working as a guide for visitors.
Lin is proud to tell stories about the tulou. Visitors are impressed by his passionate explanations of the buildings. He makes notes of visitors’ comments so that he can improve his skills as a tour guide. After years of making these notes, he has put together a series of tour commentaries that are used by other guides in Yongding.
He tells visitors that, according to an old story, satellite images of tulou once worried some countries, as they thought the giant mushroom-like structures resembled nuclear shelters, and feared they were the site of a Chinese missile base. “This story still raises a laugh among visitors,” Lin said.
The tourism boom has brought drastic changes to him and his family in all aspects of life, Lin said, adding that the legal protection and proper development of cultural and architectural legacy has been guided by the local government.
When President Xi Jinping worked in Fujian in various posts from 1985 to 2002, he attached great importance to heritage protection. As urbanization developed in the 1990s, some areas of the province were found to have placed economic growth first, without considering the conservation of historical and cultural relics, along with environmental protection.
In 2002, when he was governor of Fujian, Xi wrote an article about protecting ancient buildings in Fuzhou, the provincial capital, in which he said properly safeguarding such structures and relics serves to preserve the history and culture of a city.
He underlined the need for local officials to attach equal importance to environmental protection and to safeguarding relics and economic development, saying, “Developing the economy is a leader’s important responsibility, so is protecting ancient buildings, traditional streets and lanes, and cultural relics. Both are equally important.”
Since he became general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee in 2012, Xi has issued numerous instructions on protecting cultural and historical relics in order to retain cultural roots and safeguard the nation’s soul.
He also considers the proper development and use of cultural and historical legacies to be important. “We need to bring all collections in our museums, all heritage structures across our lands and all records in our classics to life,” Xi said in a speech while visiting the UNESCO headquarters in Paris in March, 2014.
In July, 2018, Xi presided over the third meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Overall Reform, at which a guideline on strengthening reform for the protection and use of cultural relics was approved.
Protection fund
What surprised me most is that people were really interested in our communal lifestyle as well as our Hakka culture. They thought it incredible that so many people could live together in harmony.”
Lin Rigeng, owner of the Zhencheng Building in Hongkeng village, Longyan city, Fujian
Acting on Xi’s instructions, the Yongding district government has worked consistently to protect the tulou complexes.
Drawing up plans and systems to safeguard the structures while promoting tourism development, it established a State-owned company to be especially responsible for managing relics protection and tourism. The local government requires 20 percent of the annual revenue from tourism to be allocated to a fund for protecting the buildings.
Since 2008, the local authority has invested 250 million yuan ($38.58 million) annually to maintain the complexes, according to an official who works for it. An overall management system for the properties, involving government administrative bodies and local communities, has been established, although plans to sustain the landscape and respect local farming and forestry traditions need to be further developed.
Some tulou that are not on the World Heritage List offer tourists homestay options, complete with Hakka cuisine — providing a special experience.
Lin said: “Without tourism, my family wouldn’t have such a good life and young people wouldn’t return to the area. My son quit his job as a teacher and brought his family back to help me manage the business. I am a third-generation tulou owner and I’m protecting our heritage so that more people will have the chance to see the architectural treasures of the Hakka people.”
Wang Caihong, Lin’s daughter-in-law, lives with her parents-in-law, although she and her husband bought a property with modern facilities in the township.
“I fully understand the deep feelings of my parents-in-law toward tulou. They are reluctant to leave an area where they have lived all their lives, even though we could afford to buy them a new house with better living conditions,” Wang said.
“In view of this, my husband has come to take care of them and help them manage the tourism business, because in our Hakka culture, filial duty is very important.
“More important, we, as fourth-generation tulou owners, have the responsibility to protect and pass on the property to future generations.”
The ancient complexes have left increasing numbers of young people, who have left tulou to live in modern buildings, proud of their hometown.
Huang Xiaona, who lives in Hukeng village and has worked as a tour guide since 2010, said that when she was a child, she lived with her grandparents in a tulou, which is still a beautiful memory.
When Huang grew up, she left the building with her parents to live in the town. She said that compared to new buildings, tulou have no modern conveniences and their rooms are small.
However, every time she takes her daughter to the tulou where she lived, Huang said she is highly excited, as the experience is totally different to life in a modern building.
“Although we have left the tulou, we are strongly aware of the need to protect the ancient buildings well, as they are legacies from our ancestors,” Huang added.