China Focus: Clock ticking for preservation of China's villages

          Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-23 09:08:17|Editor: Yang Yi
          Video PlayerClose

          TIANJIN, Dec. 23 (Xinhua) -- Every time Feng Jicai, an acclaimed Chinese writer in his 70s, walks through a Chinese village, he becomes deeply concerned.

          Skilled at portraying characters in rural China, Feng knows that hundred-year, or even thousand-year old villages, are slowly disappearing.

          In sharp contrast to the thriving megacities packed with high-rises, China, once an agricultural state with a civilization going back 5,000 years, is losing its villages.

          These old villages, which witnessed the heyday of ancient Chinese culture, feeling the sorrows and falls of many dynasties, are part and parcel of Chinese history.

          But modern lifestyles are squeezing their existence. Young villagers are leaving for the bigger world, where they can achieve bigger dreams than in their village homelands.

          Feeling the pinch, Chinese authorities initiated an archive-building and survey program in 2012 to catalogue ancient Chinese villages, led by Feng, who is also a counselor to the State Council.

          Over 4,150 villages have been listed as national traditional villages, and 223 of them have been catalogued for preservation. The progress is encouraging, but Feng dares not slow down.

          "About 80 to 100 villages are disappearing in China every day. From 2000 to 2010, a total of 900,000 villages disappeared," Feng said. "Preserving villages preserves our country. It shows our respect for culture."

          HOW TO PROTECT THE VILLAGES

          But even for those under protection, the situation is not satisfactory.

          "Overdevelopment has become a cliche in the stories of reviving traditional villages," Feng said. "Some villages move away local residents and hand land to tourism companies to build homestays. They even make up fake folktales to attract tourists."

          "These villages often end up with the same faces, and if the situation continues, we might lose them again," Feng said.

          The make-up of village populations also causes difficulties.

          Earlier this year, a group of researchers went to Da Pin Village in northern China's Shanxi Province. The 1,500-year-old village only had 16 residents, mostly women and the elderly.

          "A village is a community. If the residents cannot make their living, it is natural for the youth to leave and the villages to become empty," Feng said.

          "As urbanization accelerates, conflicts between traditional villages and modern life grow, causing the collapse of traditional culture. This is a dilemma," said Pu Jiao, deputy director of the center for traditional village protection and research.

          It will be almost impossible to revive the villages without local people, as Feng knows only too clearly.

          "We must work out a way to find locals a stable source of income, upgrade facilities, offer educational and medical support to arouse their cultural consciousness," Feng said. "The recent 'toilet revolution' is a good step."

          In the meantime, efforts to promote village culture continue. In November, a virtual museum was established to use video, three-dimensional images and other multi-media to record villages with distinct regional or ethnic features.

          Visitors can access the museum online to check traditions, buildings and even lifestyles of the villages, and hopefully play a role in keeping them alive.

          "There is no fixed pattern in the conservation of villages. We should accumulate all manners of resources and broaden the mindset of local officials," Feng said.

          TOP STORIES
          EDITOR’S CHOICE
          MOST VIEWED
          EXPLORE XINHUANET
          010020070750000000000000011100001368468011
          无码人妻一区二区三区四区av_亚洲精品911在线永久观看_精品一区二区国产在线观看_日韩不卡一区二区视频在线

                  日韩精品一区二区三区免费视频喜 | 亚洲美女性爱视频在线观看 | 免费一级a一片久久精品 | 青青久在线视频视频在线 | 伊人大杳蕉久久综合 | 亚洲欧美日韩αv在线电影 亚洲欧美日韩国产一区二区三区精品 |