The history of Kaiping Diaolou

——The collision of Chinese and Western cultures at the bottom level

There is a common understanding that the bottom level of traditional Chinese society is a group that rejects external factors. An important force, China's modernization is basically a product of colonization. Even if there is automatic acceptance, it is mainly the behavior of the upper class of society. In the face of Kaiping watchtowers and residential buildings, we need to re-examine this point of view.

On June 28 this year, the 31st UNESCO World Heritage Conference was held in Christchurch, New Zealand’s “Garden City”. The representatives of the 21 countries who are members of the Council took only 8 minutes and almost no dispute. The "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" application project in Guangdong, China, was unanimously approved, and "China's youngest World Heritage" was born. ! Just the previous day, representatives were still arguing over another application project that was pending a vote.

In China, there are many relics with thousands of years of history. Why is it that the "Kaiping Diaolou and Folk Residences" with a history of less than a century have successfully become the 35th World Heritage in my country? One of the evaluation conclusions voted by the World Heritage Conference is that it "can provide a unique or at least special witness to a vanished civilization or cultural tradition."

"Foreign elements"

Kaiping City is located in the west of the Pearl River Delta and is under the jurisdiction of Jiangmen City. It is known as the "Five Towns" together with Taishan, Xinhui, Enping, Heshan and other places that also belong to Jiangmen. It is a famous hometown of overseas Chinese in China. Less than two hours after traveling west from Guangzhou, buildings that looked like Western castles began to flash outside the car window, and we arrived in Kaiping.

There are 1,833 Kaiping watchtowers in existence, and there were more than 3,000 in its heyday. They are scattered in rice fields and villages, showing ancient Greek colonnades, ancient Roman arches and columns, Islamic Leaf-shaped arches, Gothic, Baroque, and even Art Nouveau and industrial architectural techniques. There are so many "foreign elements" that make people walking among them feel like they are in the western fields.

The successful application as a World Heritage Site made Kaiping, a "small place", instantly lively. Countless tourist buses and private cars were carrying tourists from all directions. Zili Village in Tangkou Town is one of the four places nominated for World Cultural Heritage application for Kaiping Diaolou and Villages, and it is also the place that receives the most tourists. In the Mingshi Building, the most well-preserved and luxuriously furnished reinforced concrete structure watchtower in the village, a large photo of the owner Fang Runwen and his three wives hangs in the middle of the first floor. The top floor enshrines the Fang family’s ancestral tablets. In addition to the beautifully furnished Lingnan In addition to furniture, there are also many "imported items" such as American table clocks, French perfumes, German floor clocks, gramophones, sewing machines, leather sofas, etc.

This "reasonable abnormality" amazed tourists. Even historical experts couldn't help but feel excited when they first saw the watchtowers and entered them.

Zhang Guoxiong, a professor at Wuyi University, is the chief expert on the "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" application for World Heritage. On August 22, 2006, the three residences of the three brothers Fang Guangkuan, Fang Guangrong, and Fang Guangyin in Zili Village and their family ancestral houses were opened respectively. After Zhang Guoxiong entered the house, the scene he saw was similar to what is displayed in the Mingshi Building today. are the same: there is a gramophone and more than ten records in the room, including Western music, records by popular domestic singers Zhou Xuan and Wang Renmei, and also Cantonese opera master Ma Shitsang. This shows that the poster enjoyed both Western music, but also the inclusive mentality of domestic music and local music; there are hair oil for men and perfume bottles and talcum powder for women on the dressing table. ,

The Kaiping Diaolou shows the combination of Chinese and Western styles. Under the extremely exotic appearance, the Kaiping Diaolou almost without exception has a "very Chinese" name, such as the Mingshi Tower and the so-called "Kaiping No. 1 Ruishi Building on the first floor; in the details of the watchtower, people can also see the gorgeous traditional murals, carp-shaped drainage outlets, relief sculptures of lions, unicorns or birds on the door frames and eaves... Emerging Western Culture And the ancient Chinese tradition is harmoniously blended with the casual and practical concepts of life.

The reason why the "young" Kaiping Diaolou successfully won the fierce competition and was successfully included in the World Heritage List lies in their uniqueness. Zhang Guoxiong said that whether it can become a world heritage site does not mainly depend on its length of history, but its historical and cultural value. Kaiping Diaolou is first of all unique in value. Western architectural art has entered the Eastern rice farming civilization area and survived in large numbers. It is harmoniously integrated with the local natural elements and traditional dwellings. This landscape is unique in the world.

Zhang Guoxiong said that many coastal cities in China have modern buildings that combine Chinese and Western styles, but most of them were built by foreigners during the colonial period. The Kaiping Diaolou is the product of Chinese rural people's initiative to learn and absorb Western architectural culture and integrate it with local culture. "Kaiping Diaolou and Villages" is not only the first in China, but also the first in the world to reflect immigrant culture.

After the First Opium War, Kaiping people began large-scale overseas immigration to the United States and other countries. However, from the end of the 19th century, the prevailing anti-Chinese policies in the United States, Canada and other countries made it difficult for them to take root in foreign lands. , and formed a climax in the construction of overseas Chinese housing from the 1910s to the 1930s. Most of the watchtowers that people see today were built during this period. They have the dual functions of preventing bandits and avoiding floods.

As early as September 2001, Dr. Henry, the United Nations World Heritage Coordinator, came to visit the Diaolou and was greatly surprised: “I don’t know how to describe what I saw. This phenomenon has not been seen in other areas of China, that is, the local people have brought some of the advantages of the West back to their hometowns. This phenomenon of going out and bringing in traditions has not ended yet, it has not been interrupted, and it is still going on.

”