Cover Story

Saving the Foundation

Amid rapid urbanization, ancient Chinese villages stand as living testaments to traditional culture, architecture and lineage. But can their spirit endure the push for modernity?

By Wang Yan , Xu Pengyuan , Ni Wei Updated Feb.1

Liyuanba Village in northeastern Sichuan Province is renowned for its well-preserved houses and natural surroundings (Photo Courtesy of Chinese Traditional Villages Preservation and Development Study Center of Tianjin University)

A panoramic view of houses in Zhang Guying Village, Yueyang, northeastern Hunan Province (Photo Courtesy of the Administrative Offfce of Zhang Guying Village)

At 54, and having been away for decades, Zhang Canzhong never thought he would return to his hometown permanently, a secluded and underdeveloped place in the remote countryside which still has no highway access.　

Zhang Canzhong can trace his ancestry back 23 generations in Zhang Guying Village, in Yueyang, in the northeast corner of Hunan Province. In the 1980s, he left his home to seek opportunities in the outside world. A music lover and guitar player, he never wanted a conventional village life. He started the first karaoke bar in downtown Yueyang City. He joined the military, and after he finished his service, he became a businessman in Beijing. But in 2017, he gave it all up to open a guesthouse called Wanshun, which means “all success.” The tradition of hospitality has been in the family for centuries.　

The same year, Zhang Guying Village, an ancient village with well-preserved traditional architecture of more than 500 years old, was given government assistance to launch a conservation project. It established Zhang Guying Ancient Village Preservation and Development Office, and efforts started to attract tourists. In 2001, it was already listed as a national key cultural relic for preservation, and in 2012, experts selected it to be on the first list of officially recognized traditional villages.　

Zhang Canzhong’s family home sits by a brook at the edge of the community. One of his ancestors opened an inn during the reign of the Qing Dynasty Jiaqing Emperor (1796-1820). Called Wanshun Hostel, it was an overnight stop for merchants.　

“I spend most of my time here now. I feel so relaxed looking at the babbling river, just doing nothing. I eat fresh vegetables and cook using natural spring water. It’s a lifestyle I enjoy to the utmost at this stage of my life,” Zhang Canzhong said as he sipped his tea. He lives with his parents, and his siblings return for the holidays.

Clan of Zhangs

The remoteness of the village enabled it to survive wars and turmoil during the centuries.　

The Zhang clan counts 26 generations from Zhang Guying, a feng shui master who gave his name to the place in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). More than 2,500 people in the village now claim ancestry from the original Zhang, and all have the same surname.　

In southern China, single-surname villages were not only common but were the predominant order of rural society. British anthropologist Maurice Freedman (1920-75) used the term “lineage-villages to describe this pattern. According to historian Professor David Faure’s Emperor and Ancestor: State and Lineage in South China (2007), “It was Freedman who specifically made the tracing of descent to a common ancestor, rather than the functions of village rules, the basis of territorial definition.”　

“I’m the 22nd generation descended from Zhang’s family,” Zhang Shengli, 83, told the reporter. Presenting a newly edited version of the Zhang Family Genealogy he has been working on for years, he is dedicated to revising the book. His major preoccupation is maintaining the spiritual legacy that has been passed down for generations which though invisible, permeates the entire village.　

This legacy is not only reflected in the lineage system, it is carried and embedded through the unique design of the village, referred to as Zhang’s Big House. It is an enormous connected complex of traditional houses, courtyards and alleys, unlike anything else in China. The complex includes over 1,700 connected houses in an area of 51,000 square meters, and it can accommodate some 2,000 to 3,000 people at once. It is also referred to as the “Folk Palace Museum.”　

Since all the courtyards and complexes are connected at the roof level, one can travel anywhere without being exposed to sun or rain. Each of the 206 courtyards has a sky well above and a pit on the ground. The biggest is 22 square meters, while the smallest is only 2 square meters.　

Viewed from above, the interconnected houses and courtyards resemble a honeycomb, endless tiles layered and juxtaposed onto one another forming a “dragon” that extends into the surrounding mountains.　

The narrow alleys are designed to help air circulate and prevent fires from spreading. They also support a drainage system that has never overflowed, even though it rains frequently. The workings of the system remain a mystery. Despite numerous investigations, no expert, domestic or foreign, has been able to track where the wastewater goes. A Japanese researcher tried experimenting with dyes in the water, to no avail.　

Li Guilong, a resident who has studied the history and culture of Zhang Guying Village, told NewsChina that the Zhang family compound follows the traditional construction compound layout and boasts a special architectural structure. The oldest son lives in houses along the central axis, and younger sons live in houses on both sides.　

As the houses and courtyards share common walls and lanes, the structure forms an interdependent relationship among families and siblings. No single household can decide if a house is demolished, so the legacy of the common ancestor can be preserved. Moreover, no house can be sold to anyone outside the Zhang clan, which protects the integrity of Zhang’s Big House.　

According to Wang Shaozhou, a professor at the Shanghai-based Tongji University who was among the first scholars to research the village, it reflects the essence of Chinese traditional culture, civilian consciousness, architectural art and aesthetic taste, which is of great value in the history of architecture in China and even to the whole world.

Miracle of Survival

It is somewhat of a miracle that the village and the clan have survived, particularly as urbanization is so rapid now. Enhanced initiatives in traditional village preservation and the rural revitalization program have seen an extraordinary push to preserve traditional villages.　

Factors including neglect, population increases, destructive political rampages and rural-urban migration have resulted in the loss of many villages of historic importance.　

Many cultural experts started calling for government assistance to preserve ancient villages several decades ago. The first national strategy came in 2003, when the Ministry of Construction and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage organized the initial selection of “Famous Towns and Villages in Chinese History and Culture.”　

But due to the lack of real government-supported efforts, many traditional villages were lost anyway. Statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs indicate that from 2002 to 2012, the number of villages nationwide dropped from 3.6 million to 2.7 million. According to the Research Center for Chinese Village Culture at Central South University, the total number of ancient villages with historical, ethnic, regional cultural and architectural value was 9,707 in 2004, but only 5,709 remained in 2010. In 2014, the Chinese Traditional Village Culture Research Center returned to 1,033 traditional villages in the Yangtze River and Yellow River they had surveyed in 2010, and found that 461 villages had disappeared.　

Shao Yong, a professor at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning at Tongji University has been researching villages since the 1990s. She told NewsChina that many of the disappeared villages and towns could be considered traditional relics with certain inherent characteristics, but they still have relatively little historical and cultural value based on evaluation criteria for both visible and intangible heritage. Thus not all can be listed as “significant,” so they will not be protected.　

In April 2006, two of the foremost experts in cultural preservation in China, author and scholar Feng Jicai, director of the China Traditional Village Protection Expert Committee at Tianjin University, and Ruan Yisan, a former professor of urban planning at Tongji University, convened the International Forum on the Protection of Ancient Villages in Xitang, Zhejiang Province. It attracted researchers from all over the world to discuss the value, significance, methods and approaches to preserving ancient villages. At the closing ceremony, all participants agreed on the “Xitang Declaration” which said: “We call for an immediate investigation and survey of Chinese ancient villages and their cultures, to find out the basic situation of our cultural heritage, establish a complete list of ancient villages, and carry out classified protection.”　

This forum resulted in several nongovernmental initiatives led by scholars and universities that aimed to investigate the situation of ancient villages and provide guidelines for research and protection efforts. In 2007, Tongji Urban Planning and Design Institute and China Land Economics Association launched the selection process for “China Landscape Villages,” and in 2010, Chinese Folk Literature and Art Association and the School of Architecture of Tsinghua University selected representative ancient villages.　

Although they wanted to attract attention to the cause of preserving ancient villages, since their efforts were not government backed, there was little actual effect.　

In 2011, there was a turning point. In June 2011, at the symposium on the 60th anniversary of the China Central Institute for Culture and History, Feng gave a speech on the lack of preservation of ancient villages. In September, he submitted suggestions on the preservation of ancient villages to the government. Finally, in April 2012, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Culture, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Ministry of Finance issued a “Notification on the Investigation of Traditional Villages,” which for the first time, would protect traditional villages at the national level.　

In September 2012, the government set up an expert committee to evaluate and identify ancient villages, and choose which to put on an official list recognizing them as such. The first list of 646 traditional villages was announced on December 19 of that year, and another 915 villages were added to the protection register in August 2013.　

Funds and publicity soon followed. At the beginning of 2014, China’s No. 1 central document (which focuses on rural policymaking) proposed to “formulate plans for the protection and development of traditional villages, promptly select traditional villages and dwellings with historical and cultural value onto the protection list, and increase investment and protection efforts.” In March 2014, the Ministry of Finance announced funding of 11.4 billion yuan (US$1.57b) in the following three years to promote village preservation.　

By September 2014, enthusiasm was so great that 4,548 villages applied to be listed, with 994 chosen. Driven by the momentum of national efforts, local governments launched their own assessments. A fervor for traditional village preservation swept across the nation, at government, academic and business levels.　

Some universities set up research institutes. In 2013, Tianjin University established the Research Center for the Protection and Development of Chinese Traditional Villages, providing standards and suggestions, communication concepts and methods to protect villages.　

In 2014, Central South University also set up the Chinese Village Culture Research Center, dedicated to creating an interdisciplinary platform incorporating historical anthropology, cultural anthropology, ethnic linguistics, architecture and materials.　

Many enterprises set up non-profit funds to help traditional villages financially. In November 2014, an NGO named Friends of the Ancient Village was established. It raised funds, set up volunteer networks and monitored the destruction of villages through a hotline service. Its founder, Tang Min, told NewsChina that he has visited over 2,000 listed traditional villages, and he remains absolutely impressed by “the best traditional Chinese culture embedded in that heritage.”

Locals of Zhang Guying Village dine in a banquet held at the village hall (Photo Courtesy of the Administrative Offfce of Zhang Guying Village)

Two women spin yarn on an old spinning wheel in an ancient house in Zhang Guying Village (Photo Courtesy of the Administrative Offfce of Zhang Guying Village)

Men take turns bowing to a statue during an ancestor worship ceremony in Zhang Guying Village (Photo Courtesy of the Administrative Offfce of Zhang Guying Village)

Tourism vs Tradition

Despite these new efforts, traditional villages continue to decline and disappear.　

For example, Xiaqiao Village in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province was on the second list in 2013. Merely two months later, media reported that new buildings crowded the roads and water system in the village, overshadowing and encroaching on ancient buildings and farmland.　

This is a result of urbanization and uncontained sprawl. There is a contradiction between cultural experts who want to preserve, and residents who want a better life.　

“Sometimes, these experts would prefer an ancient protected village to remain underdeveloped and poor rather than it getting rich,” Shao Yong said. This push to modernize ends up destroying valuable cultural resources as their intrinsic wealth is ignored, and plans for sustainable development are rushed and incomplete.　

In other cases, traditional villages are hollowed out by tourism developments, despite retaining their traditional buildings. Occasionally, this ends in tragedy. In 2021, Wending Village in Yunnan Province was destroyed by fire. The village where people from the Wa ethnic group lived in traditional homes with distinctive straw roofs had been mostly emptied of its inhabitants in 2015. They had been relocated to a modern settlement, leaving the village as a tourist attraction in which the residents returned every day to “act” out their former lives. When the fire started in the evening, there was almost no one in the village left to fight it, and most of the 104 houses, which were recognized as provincial cultural relics, were destroyed.　

“Protecting the outer appearance of these houses but with no one living in them is completely contrary to the original intention of traditional village preservation,” Pu Jiao, deputy director of the Research Center for Conservation and Development of Chinese Traditional Chinese Villages, told NewsChina. According to Pu, preservation of traditional villages is different from preserving an individual building. Villages should not be turned into a museum, but must be kept as a home for locals. “They need to stay alive – if no one lives there, it’s just a place that’s full of guesthouses,” Pu said.　

“Tourism can be good for development. However, excessive exploitation is a form of destruction, because as traditional villages are non-renewable resources, any development without a proper plan will have irreversible consequences,” Pu said.　

A new type of tourism is developing that provides more stable income for Zhang Guying villagers, which allows them to continue living in the old houses. Groups of student visitors, sometimes up to 1,000, participate in study tours organized by primary and middle schools. Art majors come to the village and stay there for weeks to paint.

Proud Lineage

A bigger challenge is the preservation of intangible cultural heritage, or the essence that sustains the village’s cultural spirit.　

When people talk about their family history in Zhang Guying Village, they are proud to recite their family mottos, such as “honor your parents,” “be kind to your brothers,” “advocate honesty” and “exercise forbearance.”　

Many of the Zhang clan believe these mottos are tenets to live by that have been handed down through the generations. Zhang Canyan, Zhang Shengli’s son, told NewsChina that the family has strict discipline. For example, they should behave very politely and sit upright in the presence of elders, pick up any rice that drops on the table when they are dining, and not steal.　

A few years ago, Zhang Guying Village’s lineage council, composed of 11 senior clan members, was established. Zhang Shengli is vice chairman of the council and a respected village patriarch. The council presides over ancestor worship and other ceremonies and assists in coordinating villagers’ affairs. To some extent, the council refers to the traditional clan discussion mechanism to solve modern disputes.　

“Villagers are very polite and cultured here,” said Zhang Anmeng, a documen-tarian. She said that when she first arrived in the village in the 1980s, she was greeted by everyone, even though she was a stranger. People were very hospitable and invited her to their homes for tea. She observed that young villagers still studied traditional knowledge with the older generations. One night, as she glimpsed inside a house with dim light, she saw an older man reading a book to other villagers, young and old, men and women. The scene surprised and touched her. “I almost burst into tears right then. The old man was wearing thick glasses, which reminded me of the venerated traditional teachers in the old days,” Zhang Anmeng said. “Inside Zhang’s Big House, you can still witness some unchanged traditional social customs, such as harmonious relations between villagers. It’s rare to see disputes or quarreling. This is really amazing.”　

The best way to preserve Zhang Guying is to ensure people continue living there, as they are more likely to maintain the buildings and continue their own clan culture.　

Despite authorities encouraging people to stay, young people are leaving, a common phenomenon across rural China.　

In 2023, China’s urbanization rate reached 66.16 percent. When people leave rural areas, the best preservation efforts will falter. Even in Zhang Guying, most people living in Zhang’s Big House are middle-aged or older.　

Zhang Shengli admitted that sustaining the culture is difficult now. He works hard on his record of Zhang family genealogy, and he wants to have the family mottos and rituals listed as intangible cultural heritage. This is the way to preserve and rescue the Zhang family culture, which he fears is disappearing. He hopes to find successors who can carry on his preservation work or to involve more young people in the village council.　

Ao Wei, director of Zhang Guying Village management office, is more upbeat.　

“In another 10 or 20 years, as living conditions improve in the village, we might see a reversal and get young villagers back,” Ao said. Already two young people have returned and opened a tea house and a cafeteria.　

Although it has been a decade, the protection and development of traditional villages has only seen some initial success. Hu Binbin, a professor at Central South University and director of the Research Center for Chinese Village Culture, said it will take time.　

“The protection and development of traditional villages are not static, but constantly evolving. Time is the best answer,” Hu said.

An aerial view of the interconnected roofs of Zhang Guying Village (Photo Courtesy of the Administrative Offfce of Zhang Guying Village)

A covered wood bridge crosses a creek in Xiaqiao Village, Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province, May 26, 2008 (Photo by FOTOE)

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Saving the Foundation