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Migration of ancient houses
By Feng Shu Source:Global Times Published: 2012-9-26 21:25:03
The skywell of Yin Yu Tang, a Qing Dynasty house at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, US. The house was moved from China's Anhui Province in 1997. Photos: Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum
Wrapped in a modern house with its façade decorated with huge glass windows, a typical ancient house with 220 years of history has found a new lease of life in downtown Beijing, more than 1,000 kilometers away from its origins in Jiangxi Province, adjacent to Anhui Province.
Mixing a modern flavor with traditional Huizhou architecture dating back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), the building has become a very popular restaurant called Le Quai.
Wood carvings on a beam of the theater stage re-erected by Wang in the outskirts of Beijing. Photo: Feng Shu/GT
"Look at these beautiful wood carvings on the beams, and the very compact layout of the house, I could hardly find such a masterpiece again. The more I see it, the more affection I have for it," said 44-year-old Wang Zhengqing, an Anhui-native antiquary living in Beijing, who found the deserted house in a remote village.
As a veteran carpenter, Wang dismantled the house and transported its lumber and bricks to Beijing by truck. It then took Wang and more than 10 workers more than a year to restore the house, making it the first Huizhou-style architecture in the capital.
Almost eight years since the restaurant opened, Wang visits the restaurant every two or three months to make sure the house stays in good shape. Infused with modern technology, the former entrance foyer of the house has turned into a lobby for guests, while each former bedroom now serves as a separate private dining area.
Wang originally intended to move the house to Beijing for his personal use until the owner of the restaurant made him a good offer and promised a careful preservation of the house.
"It's the best way to leverage both its commercial and cultural value, when so many people can come to appreciate its unique beauty," Wang added, with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Moving across the Pacific
Before Le Quai, another house went on a much farther journey. In 1997, Yin Yu Tang, a 16-bedroom Qing Dynasty home, was meticulously transported piece-by-piece from Xiuning county, Anhui Province, to Salem, Massachusetts, for permanent display at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). Compared with the three truckloads it took to move Le Quai, Yin Yu Tang's parts filled 19 containers across the Pacific Ocean, including 2,735 individual pieces of wood, 972 pieces of stone, and a lot of assemblies, such as the timber frame, roof framing, room partitions and wood flooring, according to PEM's official website.
As the only Qing Dynasty building to have left China, Nancy Berliner, PEM's curator of Chinese art and the originator of the project, called the house "an ambassador of Huizhou culture in America."
"Look at these beautiful wood carvings on the beams, and the very compact layout of the house, I could hardly find such a masterpiece again. The more I see it, the more affection I have for it," said 44-year-old Wang Zhengqing, an Anhui-native antiquary living in Beijing, who found the deserted house in a remote village.
As a veteran carpenter, Wang dismantled the house and transported its lumber and bricks to Beijing by truck. It then took Wang and more than 10 workers more than a year to restore the house, making it the first Huizhou-style architecture in the capital.
Almost eight years since the restaurant opened, Wang visits the restaurant every two or three months to make sure the house stays in good shape. Infused with modern technology, the former entrance foyer of the house has turned into a lobby for guests, while each former bedroom now serves as a separate private dining area.
Wang originally intended to move the house to Beijing for his personal use until the owner of the restaurant made him a good offer and promised a careful preservation of the house.
"It's the best way to leverage both its commercial and cultural value, when so many people can come to appreciate its unique beauty," Wang added, with a look of satisfaction on his face.
Moving across the Pacific
Before Le Quai, another house went on a much farther journey. In 1997, Yin Yu Tang, a 16-bedroom Qing Dynasty home, was meticulously transported piece-by-piece from Xiuning county, Anhui Province, to Salem, Massachusetts, for permanent display at the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). Compared with the three truckloads it took to move Le Quai, Yin Yu Tang's parts filled 19 containers across the Pacific Ocean, including 2,735 individual pieces of wood, 972 pieces of stone, and a lot of assemblies, such as the timber frame, roof framing, room partitions and wood flooring, according to PEM's official website.
As the only Qing Dynasty building to have left China, Nancy Berliner, PEM's curator of Chinese art and the originator of the project, called the house "an ambassador of Huizhou culture in America."
A bedroom inside Yin Yu Tang. Photo: Courtesy of Peabody Essex Museum
Today, the beauty and uniqueness of the building is being appreciated by many visitors from the US, few of whom have ever been to China before. "A house is one of the best ways to communicate cultural values, as everyone (or almost everyone) lives somewhere and understands the concept of home. Exploring the rooms and details of a house can offer a visitor a much richer experience of Chinese life than, for instance, viewing a porcelain vase," Berliner told the Global Times in an e-mail.
But no matter whether the commercial use of the Huizhou house represented by Wang's efforts, or the cultural purpose of Berliner's endeavor, both feel that they helped preserve the houses and their history.
As China rapidly urbanizes, many such architectural treasures are disappearing, together with many villages, at a tremendous rate.
For Wang, this justifies his efforts to relocate a total of 16 Huizhou-style houses to other parts of the country over the past decade. Besides Le Quai, two were restored in Chongqing, two in Guangdong Province, one in Shanghai, with the rest still in his own hands.
"In my eyes, these houses tell the stories of many ordinary Chinese families. Every house can be a thick book to read about our history and culture," said Wang, standing in the middle of one of his three re-erected houses in the outskirts of Beijing.
As an antique furniture dealer, Wang said his passion and love for Le Quai all started with the delicate wood-carved windows he originally purchased to sell. "I wondered what the house looked like when I found those beautiful windows," said Wang. "I was immediately attracted by its beauty," Wang said, trying to express his feeling upon first seeing the house in 1999.
Difficult decisions
But even as a skilled carpenter for more than 20 years, it took Wang several years before he decided to move the house to Beijing. "For many years, I felt that the houses, which always stood more than 7 or 8 meters high, were impossible to move," Wang added.
Now, after he has restored nearly 10 such houses himself, Wang still finds the restoration very challenging. "It's very difficult to find similar materials from the era when the house was built, especially if certain parts are missing," he commented.
It took six years for Berliner's team to re-erect Yin Yu Tang in Salem. The most challenging part was how to present the house's appearance as it had been lived in by people across different eras. Unlike Wang who put all of his attention to the structure of the house, Berliner's team tried to pay special care to details. This involved thorough research on the house's appearance as well as the lives of the people who lived there in the past century.
In the refurbished Yin Yu Tang, traces of history can be found everywhere, from the poster dating back to China's Cultural Revolution (1966-76), to the utensils of daily life such as thermos flasks or a loud speaker.
Despite the mammoth task behind every migration of these ancient Huizhou-style houses, many have followed suit since the late 1990s. In Shexian county, Anhui Province, a big yard features a total of 26 Huizhou-style houses, all found and re-erected by a local entrepreneur. In Shanghai, a total of 12 Huizhou-style houses, otherwise scattered in remote villages, have found a second wind in a theme park, having moved from Anhui and Zhejiang Provinces. At the Expo City of the Folk Houses of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Hengdian, Zhejiang Province, a total of 120 houses have been rebuilt, many of which have been used in period films and TV shows.
Not very ethical
Though most houses on the move were purchased from individual owners, who hadn't been using them for many years, the sales of such houses remain a legally murky market, especially when they are to be shipped overseas.
In 2006, the proposed purchase of an old tea house called Cui Ping Ju in Shitai county, Anhui Province, by a Swedish company for 200,000 yuan ($31,740) was finally denied by the local government at last minute by claiming it a historical building along an ancient alley, which is regarded as a provincial-level cultural heritage site. The news immediately attracted huge controversy. While some see such moves as a good way to preserve the old houses before they are dismantled for scrap wood, some decry the industry as smuggling cultural relics.
As a result, the Cui Ping Ju tea house was finally tagged as a cultural relic by the local authorities and remained there.
"The house was not sold in the end, and neither has it been used for commercial purposes. Today, the Tianfang Tea Company is in charge of protecting it, but the house still belongs to its original owner," Li Xiuyun, director of the Shitai Bureau of Cultural Relics, confirmed with the Global Times.
"In principle, any buildings built before 1911 should be under our supervision and protection. But in reality, it's hard to effectively implement this rule due to the lack of capital in cultural heritage preservation," said Chen Rongjun, curator of the Dongyang museum in Zhejiang Province.
In Dongyang alone, only around 180 houses have been named cultural relics, while another 1,350 need protection. In the past, Chen's museum only received 1 million yuan a year as its cultural protection budget. Despite a huge boost to 5 million yuan from this year, Chen laments that it is still not enough to protect the 180 houses already listed. Over the past five years, the Dongyang museum has spent a total of 25 million yuan, mostly from private sector fundraising, for the protection of 125 houses.
"Our most important job is to protect the most valuable ones within our capability, for those not in the list, if house is sold to be better conserved, then why not?" Chen noted.
Slimmer opportunities
In the face of the rapid losses of many Huizhou-style houses, China has seen an increasing interest and concern from the government to preserve traditional architecture nationwide. Recently, the government of Huangshan in Anhui Province approved a 600 million yuan investment to move a total of 140 houses into an "international cultural corridor" for better protection.
As cultural heritage protection authorities have issued stricter regulations to prevent ancient houses from being moved out of their original regions, antique dealers find it harder to find good houses. But for Wang, the biggest concern now is how to make the best use out of those already in his care.
Among Wang's collections, a theater stage that he rebuilt in his workshop is one of his favorite pieces.
"Beside a broken main beam and part of the wooden materials, the whole stage was mostly buried in the earth and some of it had rotten away," Wang described the status of the 450-year-old stage when he first found it.
After the local cultural heritage protection authority failed to restore the house in its original home at a cost of 1.5 million yuan, Wang purchased it from the house owner and finally restored it at two times the cost of the proposed budget.
"If I just had only this one house, I would feel no regret for my whole life," said Wang, who hopes to turn the stage into a place for performances and variety shows. "I hope that in this way, more and more people could have the chance to appreciate it. After all, we always take our own heritage for granted but more houses like this could be saved with a joint effort," he added.
Zhang Yan contributed to this story
Today, the beauty and uniqueness of the building is being appreciated by many visitors from the US, few of whom have ever been to China before. "A house is one of the best ways to communicate cultural values, as everyone (or almost everyone) lives somewhere and understands the concept of home. Exploring the rooms and details of a house can offer a visitor a much richer experience of Chinese life than, for instance, viewing a porcelain vase," Berliner told the Global Times in an e-mail.
But no matter whether the commercial use of the Huizhou house represented by Wang's efforts, or the cultural purpose of Berliner's endeavor, both feel that they helped preserve the houses and their history.
As China rapidly urbanizes, many such architectural treasures are disappearing, together with many villages, at a tremendous rate.
For Wang, this justifies his efforts to relocate a total of 16 Huizhou-style houses to other parts of the country over the past decade. Besides Le Quai, two were restored in Chongqing, two in Guangdong Province, one in Shanghai, with the rest still in his own hands.
"In my eyes, these houses tell the stories of many ordinary Chinese families. Every house can be a thick book to read about our history and culture," said Wang, standing in the middle of one of his three re-erected houses in the outskirts of Beijing.
As an antique furniture dealer, Wang said his passion and love for Le Quai all started with the delicate wood-carved windows he originally purchased to sell. "I wondered what the house looked like when I found those beautiful windows," said Wang. "I was immediately attracted by its beauty," Wang said, trying to express his feeling upon first seeing the house in 1999.
Difficult decisions
But even as a skilled carpenter for more than 20 years, it took Wang several years before he decided to move the house to Beijing. "For many years, I felt that the houses, which always stood more than 7 or 8 meters high, were impossible to move," Wang added.
Now, after he has restored nearly 10 such houses himself, Wang still finds the restoration very challenging. "It's very difficult to find similar materials from the era when the house was built, especially if certain parts are missing," he commented.
It took six years for Berliner's team to re-erect Yin Yu Tang in Salem. The most challenging part was how to present the house's appearance as it had been lived in by people across different eras. Unlike Wang who put all of his attention to the structure of the house, Berliner's team tried to pay special care to details. This involved thorough research on the house's appearance as well as the lives of the people who lived there in the past century.
In the refurbished Yin Yu Tang, traces of history can be found everywhere, from the poster dating back to China's Cultural Revolution (1966-76), to the utensils of daily life such as thermos flasks or a loud speaker.
Despite the mammoth task behind every migration of these ancient Huizhou-style houses, many have followed suit since the late 1990s. In Shexian county, Anhui Province, a big yard features a total of 26 Huizhou-style houses, all found and re-erected by a local entrepreneur. In Shanghai, a total of 12 Huizhou-style houses, otherwise scattered in remote villages, have found a second wind in a theme park, having moved from Anhui and Zhejiang Provinces. At the Expo City of the Folk Houses of Ming and Qing Dynasties in Hengdian, Zhejiang Province, a total of 120 houses have been rebuilt, many of which have been used in period films and TV shows.
Not very ethical
Though most houses on the move were purchased from individual owners, who hadn't been using them for many years, the sales of such houses remain a legally murky market, especially when they are to be shipped overseas.
In 2006, the proposed purchase of an old tea house called Cui Ping Ju in Shitai county, Anhui Province, by a Swedish company for 200,000 yuan ($31,740) was finally denied by the local government at last minute by claiming it a historical building along an ancient alley, which is regarded as a provincial-level cultural heritage site. The news immediately attracted huge controversy. While some see such moves as a good way to preserve the old houses before they are dismantled for scrap wood, some decry the industry as smuggling cultural relics.
As a result, the Cui Ping Ju tea house was finally tagged as a cultural relic by the local authorities and remained there.
"The house was not sold in the end, and neither has it been used for commercial purposes. Today, the Tianfang Tea Company is in charge of protecting it, but the house still belongs to its original owner," Li Xiuyun, director of the Shitai Bureau of Cultural Relics, confirmed with the Global Times.
"In principle, any buildings built before 1911 should be under our supervision and protection. But in reality, it's hard to effectively implement this rule due to the lack of capital in cultural heritage preservation," said Chen Rongjun, curator of the Dongyang museum in Zhejiang Province.
In Dongyang alone, only around 180 houses have been named cultural relics, while another 1,350 need protection. In the past, Chen's museum only received 1 million yuan a year as its cultural protection budget. Despite a huge boost to 5 million yuan from this year, Chen laments that it is still not enough to protect the 180 houses already listed. Over the past five years, the Dongyang museum has spent a total of 25 million yuan, mostly from private sector fundraising, for the protection of 125 houses.
"Our most important job is to protect the most valuable ones within our capability, for those not in the list, if house is sold to be better conserved, then why not?" Chen noted.
Slimmer opportunities
In the face of the rapid losses of many Huizhou-style houses, China has seen an increasing interest and concern from the government to preserve traditional architecture nationwide. Recently, the government of Huangshan in Anhui Province approved a 600 million yuan investment to move a total of 140 houses into an "international cultural corridor" for better protection.
As cultural heritage protection authorities have issued stricter regulations to prevent ancient houses from being moved out of their original regions, antique dealers find it harder to find good houses. But for Wang, the biggest concern now is how to make the best use out of those already in his care.
Among Wang's collections, a theater stage that he rebuilt in his workshop is one of his favorite pieces.
"Beside a broken main beam and part of the wooden materials, the whole stage was mostly buried in the earth and some of it had rotten away," Wang described the status of the 450-year-old stage when he first found it.
After the local cultural heritage protection authority failed to restore the house in its original home at a cost of 1.5 million yuan, Wang purchased it from the house owner and finally restored it at two times the cost of the proposed budget.
"If I just had only this one house, I would feel no regret for my whole life," said Wang, who hopes to turn the stage into a place for performances and variety shows. "I hope that in this way, more and more people could have the chance to appreciate it. After all, we always take our own heritage for granted but more houses like this could be saved with a joint effort," he added.
Zhang Yan contributed to this story
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