After living in Jiangmen for nearly four years, I occasionally visit some scenic spots and have the honor to witness the "Kaiping Diaolou" under the influence of overseas Chinese culture. Kaiping Diaolou, located in Kaiping under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen, is a multi-storey tower building that integrates defense, residence and Chinese and Western architectural arts, which is produced by China traditional culture actively absorbing foreign cultures. It is a combination of Chinese and western dwellings, with many styles such as ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Islam.
Next, let's talk about "Kaiping Diaolou"!
Kaiping Diaolou is a famous scenic spot in Jiangmen, and the most suitable tourist season is April-June or September-10. At this time, when you travel near Kaiping Diaolou, you will see a quiet pastoral scenery, with bright spring and a breeze blowing layers of "bamboo sea". The pond next to the bamboo forest is full of tiny ripples, and fish are playing in the water. This is a unique scene of Jiangnan water town, but it's nothing special.
However, when you look up and look far away, you will see towers standing in fields and flowers, which are surprising in the style of ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Islam.
On June 28th, 2007, "Kaiping Diaolou and Ancient Village" applied for the World Heritage Project, which was approved at the New Zealand 3 1 World Heritage Conference and officially listed in the World Heritage List, becoming the 35th World Heritage in China, thus giving birth to the first overseas Chinese cultural world heritage project in China.
In its heyday, there were nearly 3,000 Kaiping watchtowers, and there are 1 833 existing ones. According to their functions, these towers can be divided into residential buildings (built separately by local rich people for daily life), more buildings (built at village entrances, river banks and other places for early warning) and public buildings (built jointly by villagers to temporarily avoid bandits or floods); Diaolou is divided into reinforced concrete building, blue brick building, mud building and stone building. Reinforced concrete building is the hardest, while blue brick building is a combination of hard and beautiful.
Kaiping Diaolou is a miracle of local architecture in China, an excellent building combining Chinese and Western, with a bitter and beautiful historical story hidden behind it.
The so-called "watchtower" is a building that combines the defensive bunker with the architectural appearance. It appeared in the Han Dynasty and was widely used in rural areas. However, the story about Kaiping Diaolou has to start from the Ming Dynasty.
Now, if you look at the map of Wuyi area in Jiangmen, you can see the special geographical location of Kaiping, which is located at the junction of Xinhui, Taishan, Enping and Xinxing counties. Every intersection in history will be chaotic, "the mountain is high and the emperor is far away." Government policies and officers and men simply can't be achieved, and naturally they can't be managed. Therefore, since the Ming Dynasty, Kaiping has become a land of "four noes", where bandits are rampant and social security is chaotic; Moreover, due to the low terrain and numerous rivers, whenever there is typhoon and rainstorm, floods will occur frequently.
For various reasons, the local people were forced to build towers in the village to protect themselves. During the Jiajing period, in order to protect their families and ensure the safety of people's lives and property, the Guanjia of Sanmenli Village in Kaiping built a large-scale shelter-Ying Long Tower, which is the oldest existing watchtower in Kaiping.
Ying Long Building is simple and plain, not beautiful, but exceptionally strong. Yinglong Building faces south and covers an area of 152 square meters. Every corner of the building has a tower with small windows on all sides. In the local area, the older generation said that Ying Long Tower had protected their generations and escaped several floods and bandits. People call it "life-saving building".
In the late Ming dynasty, the situation that officials forced the people to revolt became more and more serious. In order to strengthen local security, local officials encouraged landlords to set up local armed forces and set up camps to protect themselves. Therefore, during the Chongzhen period, Guan Jia built the Ruiyun Building.
1848, a large number of gold mines were discovered in northern California. Then 1849, the "gold rush" began to appear. With the construction of the Pacific Railway, the news of recruiting Chinese workers spread to China, and people rushed for gold. In Kaiping, some young people embarked on a "gold rush" trip for a bright future. These people have the same name-"Jinshanke".
However, after nearly three or four months of wandering, Jinshan tourists who arrived in the United States found that the reality was not as they imagined. In order to find gold and build railways, they have been running around in remote mountainous areas for a long time, doing the hardest and most tiring work, and their lives are extremely difficult.
However, heaven rewards diligence. With the long-term efforts of Jinshan customers, we have gradually gained a firm foothold in the United States, Canada and other places.
At this time, Jinshan customers began to remit their hard-earned money back to their hometown in order to take care of their families. At the beginning of the 20th century, Wuyi area in Jiangmen became the hometown of overseas Chinese, and the life of their relatives was improved, which also laid a solid economic foundation for the rise of Kaiping Diaolou.
By the time of the Republic of China, the society was in turmoil, the public security in Kaiping was more chaotic, gangs were rampant, and the rich life of overseas Chinese led to their murder.
During the period from 19 12 to 1926, only 14 years, there were eight school robberies in Kaiping, and 100 teachers and students were captured.
However, one night at 1922, things changed for the better.
In 65438+February of that year, many gangsters in Chikan attempted to hijack Kaiping Middle School and were discovered by searchlights in Yingcun Diaolou. The personnel of Sixiang Group intercepted it in time and successfully rescued the headmaster and 17 students.
This incident caused a sensation in the county, and overseas Chinese were very happy when they heard the news. They think that the watchtower can prevent robbers. As a result, overseas Chinese who didn't want to be "fat" in the eyes of gangsters began to fight back against "barbarism".
Overseas Chinese began to work hard outside, scrimping and saving, raising funds to repatriate to their hometowns, and let the villagers build watchtowers to protect themselves. Moreover, because of the shortage of domestic design talents, many overseas Chinese invited people to design the blueprint of the watchtower in their country and send it back to their hometown, which also created the diverse styles and artistic characteristics of the watchtower in Kaiping.
So, since the 20th century, many bunkers have been built on the land of Kaiping 1659 square kilometers.
Later, in order to ensure the safety of their families, some overseas Chinese did not lose their property. They returned to their hometowns to build new houses, and they also built new houses into various towers, which also contributed to the blowout development of Kaiping Tower in the Republic of China.
Among them, the display psychology of some overseas Chinese also makes the watchtower used for defense extremely exquisite, and it also brings together different styles of foreign architectural art in different periods, such as colonnades in ancient Greece, columns, arches and domes in ancient Rome, Gothic pointed arches and Islamic arches in medieval Europe, components of European castles, arcades in Portuguese architecture, renaissance architecture and European Baroque style in17th century, which is extremely artistic.
There is a record in Kaiping Ming Pao that Yu (the interviewer) took advantage of Longtang City and met a red Cambodian poster at the entrance of He Ancestral Hall. Before he left, he took a look. His article said: the poster is from Longtang Lianbaotang. Today, it is worrying that bandits are very fierce and attack people everywhere. In view of this, our department held a meeting to discuss business.
Therefore, in Kaiping, as a "sheltered harbor" for defense, the watchtower is generally four or five stories high, and the highest reaches nine stories. Some towers are uninhabited at ordinary times, and only bandits will go in to hide, so the indoor space is mostly narrow. In order to save money, there are many boards between floors.
Windows and iron plates with downward openings are arranged around the wall; On the roof, for accurate warning, there are prominent square or rounded castles and shooting holes.
In the diaolou, the gate is the only way in and out, and the door panel is made of heavy steel plates. Generally, there are three or four locks in the door and iron gates outside. There is a small hole above the door, which is very strong.
In that turbulent era, the insecure overseas Chinese in Kaiping built a watchtower to protect themselves with hard-working hands. However, the watchtower can protect the family, but it cannot accompany the family.
At that time, the status of overseas Chinese was very low, and the money earned could not support the expenses of overseas Chinese relatives living in foreign countries. Therefore, overseas Chinese in Kaiping are often separated from their families and do not see each other twice a year.
In the years of separation, the contact between overseas Chinese and their families can only rely on a letter from home. In the local archives in Kaiping, there are hundreds of home letters about overseas Chinese. Therefore, in order to reunite with their families, overseas Chinese usually earn money overseas and then return to China for development.
As a result, many overseas Chinese began to pay attention to the beauty of watchtowers and began to build many exquisite watchtowers, which are villas according to the current words.
At this time, the watchtower is not only used for defense, but also a symbol of the status and identity of the landlord, and it is also entrusted with the deep homesickness of overseas Chinese. Having the funds to build a good building means that overseas Chinese don't have to wander anymore and can reunite with their families.
Overseas Chinese began to pay attention to the appearance of the watchtower, making it more beautiful and artistic in the Republic of China. Because of this, today, we can witness the miracle of local architecture in China.
In the diaolou in Kaiping, relatives of overseas Chinese sent letters to their families, saying, "My little daughter has learned to speak", "Did you receive the letter I sent yesterday" and "My parents are very concerned".
These letters also tell the story of Kaiping locals living together. This is a bitter history, but it has also created a miracle of local architecture in China.
Under this indestructible tower, there is not only the love of local people for their families, but also the deep homesickness of Jinshan customers.
cuticle
References:
Kaiping Diaolou and Village, Kaiping County Records and Kaiping Ming Pao