Preserving the past to safeguard the future

Local authorities and concerned citizens are at the forefront of moves to ensure the survival and profitability of China's ancient villages, as Xu Jingxi reports.

West of the grand, modern Fuzhou South Railway Station in Fuzhou, the capital of Fujian province, stands a heap of rubble that was once Lulei, a village famous as the birthplace of several major figures in Chinese history, including the mathematician Chen Jingrun (1933-1996), a renowned expert on number theory, and the Kuomintang admiral Chen Shaokuan (1889-1969).

Despite its 700 years of history, the village was razed to make room for the new rail station. The great mathematician's former home isn't immediately identifiable amid the rubble, but at least the admiral's house managed to survive, even if it does sit in the shadow of an overpass.

The only other building still standing is the village's ancestral hall, where residents traditionally gathered to make rules and regulations, and descendants worshipped their ancestors when they visited from overseas.

The hall only narrowly escaped the bulldozers after Lulei residents and their descendants ouside of China rallied round to protect what they called "the anchor of their memories".

Business tycoon Chen Yu was moved when he stopped by the now-closed ancestral hall in May. "It epitomizes local architectural techniques, and is a focus of people's emotions about the village. It's the soul of the village. Tearing down the ancestral hall would mean cutting off the roots of the village's descendants."

Chen, who hails from Zurong, a village within the boundaries of Lulei, was moved by a red banner he saw on the hall's closed gates that read: "For the interests of the whole, our village can relocate. However, history cannot be rebuilt (if the ancestral hall is pulled down)."

The sight prompted the 45-year-old founder and president of Guangdong Modocom Food Group to begin a seven-month journey across China that took him and his team to 91 ancient villages, where they assessed the chances of survival amid the country's rapid urbanization, and raised public awareness of the issue.

Chen sponsored and led the 13-strong team on the voyage of discovery. Starting out on May 6, the team left footprints all over China as it traveled east to Dandong in Liaoning province, west to Hami in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, south to Sanya in the island province of Hainan, and north to Mohe in Heilongjiang province.

The team members were surprised by the modern industrial prosperity of some ancient villages - such as Beiwan in Guangdong province, a 515-year-old former hamlet that's become a manufacturing base for toys and woollen goods - that are rapidly being transformed into small towns.

The team also visited villages that are steeped in traditional arts and boast beautiful old buildings, but have been deserted by young people. In one, Yanwo in Anhui province, it found the exquisite Hui-style buildings, one of the major architectural styles of ancient China, now house just a few dozen seniors and two children. The rest of the younger generation was nowhere to be seen.