What new approaches are there to traditional village conservation? These two are worth knowing about
“List-based protection” is undoubtedly the most important and most primary approach to traditional village conservation, yet this method cannot “do everything”, and finding more comprehensive and more effective solutions and protection methods has become a consensus. Treating neighboring and related villages, large and small, as a whole helps villages support each other culturally and pass on historical memory and maintain traditional vitality. On the contrary, isolating all villages one-size-fits-all for “protection” will inevitably lead to them becoming specimens and tourist attractions. An open-air museum is where scattered and precious folk dwellings in the countryside are collected, protected and displayed in a centralized way, and its significance is to preserve the hardest-to-preserve human heritage——historic dwellings and the details of daily life. It must be emphasized that historic buildings are most valuable only when preserved in situ. Of course, if they cannot be preserved in their original location, we cannot let them “sit and wait for death”. Against this background, adopting the open-air museum approach for centralized protection and utilization is indeed one of the best choices.
At present, our country's protection of traditional villages adopts the listing system, namely “list-based protection”, which means selecting and identifying villages one by one that have intact traditional forms, rich remains, and relatively high historical and cultural value, placing them on a list, and protecting them. For traditional village conservation, this method is undoubtedly the most important and most primary. However, can this method “do everything”? Are there still areas that “list-based protection” cannot reach and that require other methods as supplements?
As the whole society's awareness of cultural consciousness continues to rise and understanding of the value of traditional villages increases day by day, people are striving, according to actual conditions, to actively seek more comprehensive and more effective solutions, and some new protection methods have quietly emerged. Two methods are worth attention: one is the “ancient village protection area”, and the other is the “open-air museum”.
Promoting ancient village protection areas to avoid becoming specimens and tourist attractions
An ancient village protection area refers to protecting as a whole a group of villages (an ancient village cluster) in a region that share the same form and are culturally related. Some of these villages have already been included in the national traditional village list, and some have not, but they are a homeland-like historical community, usually called an “ancient village cluster”. Traditional villages that are not part of a cluster are suitable for individual protection; an “ancient village cluster” can adopt the protection area approach.
Although each village appears to be an individual, in reality the historical lives of the villages are related to one another. In some regions, neighboring villages often have countless ties in the process of their founding and development. In a shared historical destiny, natural changes, and ethnic evolution they have split or merged; under the same climatic conditions, natural environment, ethnic background, and way of life they share a consistent folk culture. For such an “ancient village cluster”, if a single individualized protection approach is adopted, it will cut off their historical threads and make their culture isolated and thin. On the contrary, if these neighboring and related villages, large and small, are treated as a whole, it helps villages support each other culturally and pass on historical memory and maintain traditional vitality. In our country's intangible cultural heritage protection, some “cultural ecology protection areas” have been established, with very good results, avoiding the problem of single “list-based protection” separating intangible cultural heritage from its cultural soil. We can imagine that if all villages were shut away and isolated for “protection” in a one-size-fits-all way, then as days turn into years, they would inevitably become specimens and tourist attractions.
Of course, it is by no means the case that all traditional villages need protection areas; this is conditional. The “ancient village cluster” referred to by a protection area must contain two major elements: first, it must include traditional villages listed in the national list, whether one or many, and this is the key point. Second, there are still some surrounding villages that, although not listed, historically and culturally depend on the traditional villages included in the protection list, and whose cultural ecology is relatively well preserved. Only such an “ancient village cluster” is suitable for establishing a protection area.
In recent years, although some places have not used the concept of a protection area, they have already adopted an overall or contiguous protection approach for such “ancient village clusters”, such as the Wuyuan area in Jiangxi, the Songyang area in Zhejiang, and some Miao and Dong villages in southeastern Guizhou, and so on. Through the self-cohesion, mutual complementation, and strengthening of the collective cultural power of each “ancient village cluster”, these areas have all achieved remarkable results and are successful models of ancient village protection.
At the national traditional village documentation and survey meeting recently held in Xingtai City, Hebei Province, a plan for a “Shahe Ancient Village Protection Area” drafted by the Shahe area government aroused my interest. Shahe is located on the western foot of the Taihang Mountains, with villages built against the mountains and houses stacked from stone, simple folk customs, and rich culture, and in the mid-20th century it was also a famous red revolutionary base area during the War of Resistance. Shahe already has 5 ancient villages included in the national protection list, and there are still some villages that, although not listed, are important members of this farming community; the environment and history and culture among the villages set each other off and their destinies are closely linked, so contiguous and overall protection is very necessary. The relatively well-preserved “ancient village clusters” in Hebei Province are not limited to Shahe; Shexian, Jingxing, Yuxian, and other places are likewise suitable for adopting the “protection area” approach. Of course, such “ancient village clusters” also exist in other provinces and regions of our country, and some local governments have already taken the initiative to propose establishing ancient village protection areas.
It can be said that ancient village protection areas are an active creation by local governments, a manifestation of cultural consciousness, and also a scientific protection method that conforms to the characteristics of traditional villages themselves, and should receive support from all sectors.