China’s vernacular architectural heritage and historic preservation

This review article explores the trajectory of vernacular architectural documentation and preservation in China, including both notable successes and unfortunate failures. While the documentation and preservation of monuments of the past have a long-recorded history, the story of the ‘discovery’, documentation, and preservation of vernacular sites—individual structures as well as building complexes—is less known. This essay presents how ‘outsiders’—mainly intrepid academics within China—travelled to out-of-the-way villages and towns after 1949 to find historic structures that were known to local residents but not to the broader world, even within China. Tragically, their findings were unpublished for decades. During politically charged periods, there was an orgy of calamitous destruction of countless vernacular buildings, an astonishing loss caused by the abandonment, renovation for alternative uses, and even razing of historic residences, temples, lineage halls, bridges, and walls in both rural and urban areas. Despite these enormous losses, many today marvel at the abundance of seemingly ‘historic’ structures that are still standing. This essay examines the roots of this apparent contradiction. Rural revitalisation has become a national issue for China in recent decades. In support of this initiative, an extraordinary amount of successful historic preservation work in villages has been accomplished. Today, unlike in the past, heritage protection focuses on broader village landscapes rather than on individual buildings. The challenges of preserving architectural sites are centred around issues of restoration versus recreation as well as redevelopment, that is, demolition followed by reconstruction. The commodification of heritage through the acceleration of tourism continues to have both positive and negative impacts. Judgements about authenticity often continue to be at odds with investors’ need to recoup costs and ensure ongoing profits.