(Essential question) Zhang Guoxiong: Why did China's first overseas Chinese cultural world heritage appear in this place?
China News Service, Jiangmen, September 15th, title: Why did China's first overseas Chinese cultural world heritage appear in this place?
——Interview with Zhang Guoxiong, professor of Guangdong Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute, Wuyi University
China News Agency reporter Sun Qiuxia
In Kaiping, Jiangmen, the famous hometown of overseas Chinese in China, 1833 watchtowers are distributed in 15 towns (streets).
A large number of these towers were built in the 1920s and 1930s and were funded by local overseas Chinese living overseas. They not only have the characteristics of traditional Chinese vernacular architecture, but also incorporate a strong Western style.
On June 28, 2007, "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List, becoming China's first overseas Chinese cultural world heritage site and the first world heritage project of international "immigrant culture".
Why did these Chinese and Western architectural groups appear in Kaiping, Jiangmen?
What are the inspirations for the current cultural exchanges between China and the West?
Zhang Guoxiong, a professor at the Guangdong Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute of Wuyi University and the chief expert on "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" declaration for world cultural heritage, recently accepted an exclusive interview with China News Agency "Question about East and West" to give an in-depth interpretation.
Professor Zhang Guoxiong accepts an exclusive interview with China News Service on "Questions of East and West" (Photo by Chen Chuhong, China News Service)
The summary of the interview record is as follows:
Reporter from China News Service: Kaiping Diaolou is a very special type of Chinese Diaolou, full of rustic flavor, and integrated with Western architectural elements. Why does this kind of architectural group appear in Kaiping, Jiangmen?
Zhang Guoxiong:
Diaolou is a very common defensive building in rural China. There are many places where Diaolou remains in China, including Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou, etc.
In comparison, Kaiping Diaolou not only has the largest number, but also has the characteristics of traditional Chinese Diaolou architecture, but also integrates foreign architectural culture, forming a special type of vernacular architecture.
Kaiping is known as the "Hometown of Diaolou in China", and it comes from this.
The combination of Chinese and Western towers is found in the entire Wuyi area (referring to the three districts of Pengjiang, Jianghai, and Xinhui under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen City and the four cities of Taishan, Kaiping, Enping, and Heshan), but the most typical and exquisite towers are all in Kaiping, and Kaiping also has the largest number of watchtowers, which is related to the local social environment and the history of overseas Chinese.
Before Kaiping was established as a county, it was located between Xinhui, Taishan, Enping, and Xinxing counties. It was a place of "four no matter". Bandits were rampant and public security was chaotic. As a result, Kaiping had many blockhouses in the Ming Dynasty to prevent banditry. .
The earliest remains of Kaiping Diaolou are buildings in the middle and late Ming Dynasty, with a history of more than 400 years.
Another important function of Diaolou is flood prevention.
Kaiping is located in the middle reaches of the Tanjiang River, and floods are frequent. Local people are forced to build towers in the village to protect themselves.
Kaiping is also the hometown of overseas Chinese.
The Kaiping people used to make a living in Southeast Asia through the Guanghai Port in Taishan a long time ago, and some people later went to America and Oceania.
These overseas Chinese came into contact with Western culture overseas and began to bring back foreign construction materials, construction technology and construction culture.
For example, the steel of Kaiping Diaolou is imported from Germany, the wood is imported from Indonesia, the cement is from Britain and Sweden, some ceramic tiles are from Italy, and some stained glass is also imported from foreign countries.
In rural China, reinforced concrete buildings first appeared in the hometown of overseas Chinese in Wuyi, Jiangmen where Kaiping is located.
Kaiping Zili Village (data map) Photo by Xiao Xiong
China News Agency reporter: The appearance of these towers reflects the attitude of the overseas Chinese who went abroad to make a living towards Western culture at that time? What role does local traditional culture play in the exchange and collision of Chinese and Western cultures?
Zhang Guoxiong:
Traditional culture has a great influence on overseas Chinese.
In the Ming Dynasty, there was a philosopher Chen Baisha in Wuyi area of Jiangmen.
The most important feature of his philosophy is pragmatism. He tells people not to follow rules to restrain themselves, but to find a way to make a living based on their environmental feelings.
Overseas Chinese in Wuyi area of Jiangmen went to North America and Oceania, and they felt the industrial civilization of Western countries.
At that time, China was still in the stage of agricultural civilization, which was obviously incomparable with the scale and speed of industrial civilization and economic development. This had a great impact on the hearts of overseas Chinese and made them see the backwardness of their hometowns.
It is precisely because the overseas Chinese in Wuyi area of Jiangmen come from a place that pays attention to reality and obeys their inner feelings, the heterogeneous industrial civilization makes them even stronger in their desire to transform their hometown.
Diaolou is a concrete representation of overseas Chinese's transformation of their hometown.
In addition, many schools, residential houses, and clan ancestral halls in Kaiping are a combination of Chinese and Western.
The ancestral hall is the most sacred place in the spiritual world of Chinese rural people. It is not only a sacred place to worship ancestors, but also a rural physical management center. They can incorporate a large amount of Western architectural culture into it. How strong the psychology is.
In Kaiping City, Guangdong Province, there are many towers, one village with more than a dozen, and one village with two or three.
Photograph by Chen YianYian Image source: CTPphoto
Reporter from China News Service: What kind of changes have taken place in the concept and behavior of overseas Chinese due to the impact of advanced industrial civilization on them?
Zhang Guoxiong:
This change can be roughly summarized into two aspects.
One is that after the Opium War, a large number of overseas Chinese who went to America and Oceania strongly saw the gap between China and the world, and felt that there was no strong government support behind it.
Since ancient times, the Chinese have a feeling of "family, country and world". In addition to maintaining an open attitude to foreign culture and the desire to improve family life, the overseas Chinese in Wuyi area of Jiangmen have a strong desire to change and promote national progress.
Therefore, overseas Chinese have always been an important force in the Chinese revolution.
During the Revolution of 1911, they supported Sun Yat-sen's use of revolutionary means to overthrow the Qing government. Overseas Chinese made a large amount of donations, and even many overseas Chinese returned to participate in the armed uprising.
Many of the 70 martyrs killed in the Huanghuagang Uprising in Guangzhou were overseas Chinese.
Secondly, the overseas Chinese changed their views on the new China, and the resistance to U.S. aggression and aid to Korea played a very important role, because they saw that a new regime dared to attack foreigners and the world's most powerful United States, which they had never seen in their historical experience. Over.
Many overseas Chinese said in their letters that this country is now an independent country.
The pursuit of independence has always been the wish of the Chinese people after the Opium War.
This is why every major scientific and technological achievement made by China can cause huge shocks among overseas Chinese.
When China's first atomic bomb exploded, the letters sent back by overseas Chinese expressed excitement.
They live in such an environment, and they even more eagerly hope that their country will be stronger.
Whenever the country has any needs, they enthusiastically support it. This is the biggest change in the concept and behavior of overseas Chinese after they went to sea.
Kaiping Diaolou, Jiangmen, Guangdong, has a unique Lingnan rural scenery.
Photo by Ran Yujie Image source: CTPphoto
China News Agency reporter: What is the unique value of Kaiping Diaolou and villages for the study of overseas Chinese culture and the culture of the hometown of overseas Chinese?
Zhang Guoxiong:
Western architecture is uncommon in modern Chinese cities, such as the Bund in Shanghai.
A combination of Chinese and Western architecture, such as Kaiping Diaolou, is also found in many cities in China.
The Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Nanjing and the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Guangzhou are both classic Chinese and Western architectures.
In terms of the standardization and exquisiteness of buildings, Kaiping Diaolou is not comparable to these buildings in the city.
Western buildings and buildings that integrate Western culture in the city are designed by professionals, with academic requirements and norms, and they are made exactly the same as those in foreign countries. The academic circles call it "cultural transplantation."
In the opinion of professional architects, Kaiping Diaolou is not standardized and not beautiful. The reason is that ordinary overseas Chinese and people from hometown of overseas Chinese accept foreign culture. They have not received professional training. In addition, Cantonese people follow their feelings. There are many architectural cultures. Integration will naturally break some academic boundaries.
This is the Western culture brought back by overseas Chinese. It is fundamentally different from the Western culture understood by intellectuals. It is not cultural transplantation, but cultural absorption and creation.
Not only the overseas Chinese, but also the people in the hometown of overseas Chinese, they combined their local culture to learn and absorb foreign cultures, and carried out mass cultural creation practices. It is precisely this practice that carries our national characteristics.
Such a kind of "no soil, no foreign, no Chinese and no Western" architecture is the only one in the world, and it has more global significance.
The reason why those buildings in cities have not become world heritages is the same. I call them "the creation of Chinese peasants".
Kaiping Diaolou, Jiangmen, Guangdong.
Photo by Li Yongjie Image source: CTPphoto
China News Agency reporter: Currently, in the tide of globalization, what inspiration does Kaiping's hometown of overseas Chinese have for Sino-Western cultural exchanges?
Zhang Guoxiong:
The cultural psychology, cultural behavior and cultural vision of the people in the hometown of overseas Chinese reflected in the Kaiping Diaolou is very meaningful for today's globalization.
Kaiping Diaolou is a product of globalization. China's rural areas entered globalization from the hometown of overseas Chinese.
Especially after the Opium War, the local chronicles of Kaiping recorded that the people here "clothed, food, shelter, and travel, all were foreigners", which means that the life of the local people and the society of overseas Chinese have been connected to the world as a whole.
When the United States and Europe experienced economic crises, the standard of living here immediately declined, because a large number of Kaiping people depend on remittances to live on. This is the first Chinese village to integrate into globalization.
As one of the villages with the highest level of development in China before the reform and opening up, Kaiping was in the forefront of China's rural areas in terms of transportation infrastructure construction, industrial and commercial development, cultural education, etc.
After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, there was a saying in Guangdong that “you can see Siyi when you look at Guangdong”. Siyi is the Xinhui, Taishan, Kaiping, and Enping under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen today.
At that time, these villages had a two-story house with one family and had water and electricity connections, which benefited from its integration with the world.
Therefore, China's development must be open and integrated with the world.
At the same time, this process of cultural integration means that China’s rural society is not closed and xenophobic, and the people in the hometown of overseas Chinese are not closed and xenophobic. While adhering to the excellent culture of their own nation, they are also learning from foreign cultures.
This is the enlightenment given to us by Kaiping Diaolou. The Chinese have such a cultural mind, cultural vision and cultural psychology.
(over)
About the interviewee:
Professor Zhang Guoxiong (photo by Chen Chuhong, China News Agency)
Zhang Guoxiong, Director of the Academic Committee of Guangdong Wuyi University, Professor of Guangdong Overseas Chinese Culture Research Institute, Member of the Expert Advisory Committee of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, Librarian of the Guangdong Provincial Museum of Literature and History, and an expert enjoying the special allowance of the State Council.
He is the chief expert in the declaration of the World Cultural Heritage of "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" and the declaration of the World Cultural Heritage by "Overseas Chinese Banking and Overseas Chinese Approval Archives".
He was honored with first-class merit by the People's Government of Guangdong Province for his outstanding contribution to the declaration of world cultural heritage.
Long-term research on the history of overseas Chinese, the culture of the hometown of overseas Chinese, and the world heritage.