A History of "Yang-lou"(Mansions of Chinese Diaspora) in Fujian and Guangdong Between the 1840s-1960s: Social and Spatial Change

• Main Authors: Chiang, Po-wei, 江柏煒
• Other Authors: Hsia, Chu-joe
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2000
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/09396438477625130486

博士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 建築與城鄉研究所 === 88 === As a special building type, the cultural meaning of “Yang-lou” represents the social change Fujian and Guangdong underwent from 1840s-1960s. The emergence of Yang-lou helps understand the lives of Chinese Diaspora. Western colonialism held a firm grip of Southeast Asia and China in the 19th century. The demand for labor enticed waves of migration to Southeast Asia from Fujian and Guangdong. Overseas remittance sent back to native places contributed to the construction of Western style houses. In the meantime, family structure started to change. Overseas Chinese identity shifted from identification with family to that with a nation. At the same time, under the ideologies of economic nationalism and cultural nationalism, the new rising merchant-gentry moved on social mobility through investment and education to ensure their autonomy in the political arena. In China, the West colonial apparatus changed the landscape and social life of traditional Chinese cities. Social hierarchy reflected in urban planning and in architecture directly. Sanitary management aspired local gentry to apply Western sanitation to traditional Chinese dwelling. They learned from colonial modernity to improve Chinese cities and rural areas. Yang-lou is a “heterotopia” by combination and transformation of Chinese traditional spatial organization, with colonial veranda and Western decorative pediment in houses. It shows these Chinese Diaspora’s family honor, new identity and cultural imagery. Yang-lou was rare before 1870s, although migrations increased after 1840s. We also saw the cases that the main buildings or part of traditional housing transformed into Yang-lou between the 1870s and 1890s. Toward the end of the 1890s, many new Chinese Diaspora’s communities and housing were built with profits from investment. And then, many vernacular buildings added defense facilities between the 1910s and 1930s which was the high tide of overseas remittance and the Yang-lou period. After World War II, the original communal identity and remittance of overseas Chinese declined gradually, the number of Yang-lou also decreased. The Yang-lou period technically ended during Mao’s Cultural Revolution. There are many types of Yang-lou, according to different identities and localities. In concession of Amoy and Guangzhou, Chinese merchants transplanted the colonial architecture to build their mansion. In Chaozhou and southern Fujian, traditional houses were added with Western facade, called “Hauan-a-tsu”. The defense building appeared in the higher area of or outside of the settlement. There were many “Diau-lou” that combined dwelling and defense function common in Guangfu area, and its form was similar to Western castles, and the forms of the roof varied. “Lu-jiu” was a building type in the area of Gouangfu and Meishian that maintained the local traits but adding the veranda or the Western decoration. The most popular type was the “Five-foot Way”. It originated from the regulation of shop house in the colonial cities of English Strait Settlement in the 19th century, and brought to Southeast China by overseas Chinese. They transformed the “Five-foot Way” to the veranda of housing, and used the same name. The new “Five-foot way” also displaced the courtyard of a traditional building. Yang-lou as a heterotopia challenged the tradition, so this “other” must be located at a distance to traditional power center, such as ancestral halls. But there was a few cases that ancestral halls actually adopted the cultural form of Yang-lou. The maintenance or challenge of traditional spatial system of organization and cultural form was the process of cultural change of folk society in modern period. The movement of enlightenment and social education also occurred in the same time, and many schools and libraries were built in the urban and rural areas. The most important person was Jia-geng Chen. Chen was a nationalist and he wanted to make China more prosperous and powerful by education. He built the Gimei schools village and the University of Amoy. The architectures of the campus combined the local roof with the veranda’s wall, and represented the ideology of nationalism. In the beginnings of the 1920s, Chen’s was the first Chinese man working on the issue of the national form. Until 1950s, “the national form, the Socialism content” ideology pushed the “Jia-geng style” to another high tide. The building of the Museum of Overseas Chinese was the final typical work of Chen. “Yang-lou” is hybridism, not only challenged Chinese cultural tradition, but also transferred the symbolic presentation of Western colonial architecture. Its cultural meanings represent the hybridity of Chinese Diaspora’s identity, and shape a new building type and a cultural form of space in local societies.