Rescue repairs and protection of ancient buildings, and revitalize villages by relying on cultural heritage
The new look of an ancient village (protecting the cultural heritage and showing the new meaning of the times)
core reading
Yongtai Zhuangzhai, located in the Daiyun Mountains in central Fujian, is a home-defense integrated vernacular building based on the mountain forest economy, with a history of thousands of years.
In order to protect these precious ancient buildings, the local area explores the mechanism of "Village Security Office + Council", and at the same time combines the construction of beautiful villages, explores business formats such as book bars, homestays, research bases, and rural maker spaces, forming a number of tourism boutique routes. Inject vitality into the new life of the old house.
In March this year, the World Architectural Heritage Conservation Foundation released the "2022 World Architectural Heritage Observation List", and selected 25 sites from 225 nominated heritage sites around the world as support objects. Among them, Huang's "Father and Son Sanzhuang Village" in Yongtai County, Fuzhou, Fujian was selected.
This means that the unique building of Zhuangzhai has entered the international perspective, and it also provides a new opportunity for the protection, activation and sustainable development of rural cultural heritage.
Zhuangzhai: the former glory of the deep mountains
Yongtai Zhuangzhai is located in the Daiyun Mountains in central Fujian. It began in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Ming and Qing dynasties. It is a vernacular building based on the mountain forest economy and integrated with residential defense.
The defense system includes watchtowers and organs, bamboo gun holes, racetracks, etc.
The deep wells, wide drainage ditches and private schools and other buildings also reflect the attributes of residence.
Historically, there were more than 2,000 Yongtai Villages, and 152 of them are still in good condition.
Today, the “Five Villages and Sixteen Villages” in Dazhan Village of Yongtai County and the “One Village and Nine Villages” in Xiayuan Village can still be seen in those days.
Yongtai Zhuangzhai adopts the unique architectural structure of "four beams carrying wells", and the exquisite wood carvings, colored paintings, gray sculptures, and tiled walls are amazing, and it has the reputation of "strange construction in the mountains".
In Yongtai, the culture of farming and reading has deep roots. During the Southern Song Dynasty, there were 7 champions of civil and military affairs. There are abundant documents that record family traditions and family mottoes passed down from generation to generation. The content is mostly respect for teachers, diligence, inspiration, solidarity and mutual assistance.
Nowadays, there are still many stories familiar to local people in Yongtai.
Zhuangzhai people are very honest. The owner of Jishantang borrowed money to build Zhuangzhai in 1905, and his descendants finally paid it off in 1996. After the descendants of the local people moved to other places, they still send people back to Yongtai to clean the ancestral house every year. Intermittently; using the front of the house to criticize "I love my house" is like what people say today "I love my home"... And this time, Huang's "Father and Son Sanzhuang Village", which has been included in the observation list, has a wealth of contract documents. It records the development process of mountain forests in central Fujian during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and reflects how the family, as the most basic social governance unit at that time, responded to changes in the environment through blood, geographical and contractual relationships and continued to multiply and develop.
Conservation: Discover the Unique Yongtai Experience
With the passage of time, many villages are few or uninhabited. In order to protect these precious ancient buildings, Yongtai County established the Office of the Leading Group for the Protection and Development of Ancient Villages and Villages in September 2015 (hereinafter referred to as the "Village Protection Office"). The existing relatively intact Zhuangzhai will be funded by the county finance and be repaired and protected in a focused manner.
Zhang Peifen, vice chairman of the Yongtai County Political Consultative Conference and director of the Village Insurance Office, said that the county has set strict thresholds for the use of reward and subsidy funds, including that repairs must be made first, and government subsidies cannot exceed 50% of the total cost.
In this way, the government can attract more funds with less, leveraging social resources to invest in cultural preservation.
Not only that, Yongtai County also created the Zhuangzhai Conservation and Development Council, which was established relying on the clan. As of February this year, 38 councils have been registered with the County Civil Affairs Bureau.
The geographical location of Zhuangzhai is scattered. To protect it well, it is inseparable from the participation of the masses.
Gradually, the enthusiasm of the people in Yongtai was mobilized, and people contributed money and labor to repair their ancestral houses.
Aijingzhuang is the ancestral home of more than 700 clansmen surnamed Bao.
Bao Daowen, secretary of the party branch of Aijingzhuang, who grew up in Zhuangli, said that his father's words made him firm in his determination to restore his ancestral house: "We cannot let Zhuangzhai culture be lost in the hands of our generation!" Run the call and take the lead in setting up a council.
Under the guidance of government funds, the council took the lead, the villagers participated together, and people were enthusiastic. A total of 4 million yuan was donated. Old furniture, tools, etc. were also gathered and displayed.
After years of uninterrupted efforts, Aijingzhuang has revitalized and won the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Cultural Heritage Protection Excellence Award in November 2018.
The mechanism of "Village Security Office + Council" solves the problem of cultural security.
The rescue and protection work of Yongtai County for several years has enabled more than 30 villages to not collapse or leak, and 18 of them have become provincial protection units. The unit, Yongtai Zhuangzhai was awarded the title of "Traditional Chinese Architecture and Culture Tourism Destination".
Activation: Develop a variety of cultural formats
"The purpose of protection is regeneration." Zhang Peifen introduced that the minimum function of the restored Zhuangzhai is to reproduce the grand occasion of ancestor worship and family gatherings, but cultural heritage protection does not stop there.
Yongtai is combining rural revitalization and beautiful rural construction to inject vitality into the ancient house.
At present, Yongtai Zhuangzhai has business formats such as book bars, homestays, farmhouses, research bases, and rural maker spaces. A number of Zhuangzhai tourism boutique routes have been formed in the county, and further plans are being made for the protection and utilization of Zhuangzhai and traditional villages. .
After the activation and utilization of Aijingzhuang, the function has been greatly extended.
The old objects collected by the Folklore Museum are covered in 5 exhibition rooms; the Red Memory Museum is jointly built by the surrounding 5 village branches. Love Books, with a collection of 13,000 volumes.
In Qingshi Village not far away, Bao Yong is busy in the maker space.
Working with him are a group of young people who have returned to their hometowns to start their own businesses. They use local specialties to launch cultural and creative gifts of “Zhaixia Courtesy”, and they plan to build an agricultural product processing factory.
Shi Haonan and Xie Fangling, a young couple who graduated with a major in design, rented an ancient house in Songkou Town from the Qing Dynasty and transformed it into a multi-functional fashion space. Their design studio is also located here.
Xie Fangling said that ancient buildings are old and life is new. Rural revitalization must find value and implant modern elements.
Zhang Peifen also believes that cultural heritage cannot be isolated. To achieve sustainable development, it is necessary to discover, reassess, and export rural values, so that urban and rural areas can form an intersection.
"Ten miles of bamboo forest to Yuezhou, a stream of peach blossoms accompanied by hibiscus." Yuezhou Village is the hometown of Song Dynasty poet Zhang Yuanqian.
Over the years, Yuezhou Village has restored Zhang Yuangan's former residence, Zhang's ancestral hall, Ningyuan Village, rebuilt Hanguang Pavilion, Shuiyue Pavilion, etc., and built a number of tourism infrastructure. The village has complete sightseeing farms, research camps and resorts.
The village's Zhai Ningyuan Village has been transformed into an ancient weapons museum after renovation. The village also holds a photography contest, a couplet contest, a beautiful rural tourism season and other activities. Camellia oil... Relying on cultural heritage to revitalize the countryside and activate the ancient Moon Island.
Yuezhou Village has been awarded the honorary titles of National Civilized Village and "Top Ten Drunk Beauty Villages in Fujian". It receives about 100,000 tourists a year, and the villagers have benefited from it, and migrant workers have returned to live and work in peace and contentment.
Village Party Secretary Zeng Gongrong said happily: "Now we don't go out to work, we don't have to worry about selling our products, and we are proud to go out."
Our reporter Lian Jintian