Gone For Good

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/02/once-the-villages-are-gone-the-culture-is-gone.html?_r=0

Aerial view of a Chinese village
cnn.com

Hello Everyone:

Once again it is time to go through the drop box folder and see what gems yours truly has.  Today's post is on disappearing Chinese villages. Villages, regardless of where they are in the world, are more than places to live and work.  They are cultural sites because within those rural communities is an entire culture that has endured hundred, if not, thousands of years.  Ian Johnson of the New York Times writes in his article, "In China, 'Once the Villages Are Gone, the Culture is Gone,'" of a group of musicians how meet under a freeway overpass outside of Beijing once a week.  The musicians used to reside in Lei Family Bridge, a community of three hundred households.  In 2009, the village was razed to make room for a golf course and the former residents were scattered across several housing projects.  The musicians have been meeting once a week but their numbers are dwindling and the younger people prefer other pursuits.  This example speaks volumes of how rapid urbanization in China is threatening to obliterate villages, taking with it their cultural contributions.

Rural Chinese village
ilookchina.net

Similar scenes are taking place across China, where traditional culture such as the the Lei family's musicians are threatened by rapid urbanization.  Mr. Johnson, citing Feng Jicai a well know writer and scholar, "Chinese culture has traditionally been rural based... Once the villages are gone, the culture is gone."  It is not just randomly isolated villages that are being targeted for destruction.  According to Mr. Johnson, "In 2000, China had 3.7 million villages, according to research by Tianjin University.  By 2010, that figure dropped to 2.6 mil, a loss of about 300 villages a day."  In previous decades, rural to urban migration was voluntary; people left the farm for jobs and other opportunities in the cities.  However, in the past few years, this migration has accelerated as successive governments aggressively pushed urbanization, leaving the villagers no other options but to move.

"Empty Chairs"
chinadaily.com.cn

Chinese leadership have misguidedly equated urbanization with modernization and economic growth. However, before we condemn the upper echelon, yours truly would like to suggest that you read up on modern Chinese history because this is not the first instance of rapid urbanization.  The local governments are going along with the sale of rural land rights as a way to make up for a weak tax base.  Eviction and selling long-term leases to potential developers is the preferred way for municipalities to balance the budgets and pad out their pockets. The latter has led to a number of local officials being investigated for corruption in conjunction with rural land sales.

The wholesale destruction of the villages and their culture also reveals long held biases.  Being called a farmer, a word synonymous with backwardness, is a typical insult in China while the most revered cultural traditions: landscape painting, calligraphy, and court music are elite practices.  The silver lining here is Chinese scholars are beginning to recognize the vast and diverse rural cultural heritage.  The government is undertaking a huge project, cataloging approximately 9,700 examples of "intangible cultural heritage," such as: song, dance, rituals, and martial arts.  About eight percent of these intangible cultural properties are based in the rural communities.  Mr. Feng has participated in cataloging the destruction of 36 villages in Nanxian, on the outskirts of Tianjian, famous for its woodblock printing.  Ian Johnson, quoting Mr. Feng, "You don't know if it will survive or not because when they're in their new homes they're scattered...The knowledge isn't concentrated anymore and isn't transmitted to a new generation."

Empty village
blog.socialventuregroup.com

    This is the problem facing the Lei Family Bridge             musicians.  Their village used lie on a former great         pilgrimage rout from Beijing north to  the holy                 mountains Yaji and west toward Miaofeng.  The             temples on these mountains would hold an annual           feast days, over a two-week period.  Faithful                     Beijing residents would walk toward the mountains,          stopping at Lei Family Bridge for refreshment and          entertainment.  Associations like Mr. Lei's are known      as pilgrimage societies, preforming pro bono for              travelers.  The music they play is based on stories of        court and religious life from about 800 years ago and      feature a call-and-response style-Mr. Lei sings the            important plot points while the other  costumed performers chant their response.  This genre of music is found in other villages, each with their own repertoire and variation that is just now being studied by musicologists.  When the Communists took over in 1949, the pilgrimages were mostly banned but revived in the eighties.  The temples, mostly destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, were rebuilt.

Terraced fields
ilookchina.net

Unfortunately the performers are growing older and declining in number.  The trappings of modern society have lured the younger generation away from more traditional pursuits.  Most important, the physical way of life for the musicians has been destroyed.  Ian Johnson recounts how he and Mr. Lei walked through the former site of the village, now overgrown with vegetation and reduced to piles of rubble.  Mr. Lei pointed out to Mr. Johnson where his grandfather used to live as a toddler.  Pointing to a small pile of rubble Mr. Lei said, "This was our home,...They all lived in the streets around here.  We performed at the temple."  The temple where Mr. Lei and the musicians performed is one of the few remaining buildings.  It was built in the eighteenth century and made mostly of wood beams and tiled roofs, encircled by a seven-foot wall.  The brightly colored paint has faded, the weathered wood is cracking due to the dry air from Beijing.  Part of the roof has collapsed and wall is falling down.  "It used to be on a list of historic preservation," said Mr. Lei.  "The government says it will be rebuilt, but no seems to know anything," he added.

Abandoned buildings
wordsbynowak.com

 The musicians would meet at the temple after work  to practice.  The group maintains a respectable 45-  member ensemble, with middle aged people joining  in.  However, the meetings have become too  difficult  to arrange, which does not allow newcomers much of  an opportunity to learn and playing under a freeway  overpass is not exactly the best venue.  Li Lan says,  "I guess for a lot of us it's a hobby...It's just so      inconvenient now to come out here and practice."  In  past two years, the Ford Foundation has underwritten  musical performances and classes for a group of  migrant children from other parts of China.  Mr. Lei  taught them to sing and how to apply the make up  used in performances.  The children performed at the Mount Miaofeng temple in May 2013, to the admiring looks from the other pilgrimage societies who are also dealing with an aging and declining roster.  However, funding for the project ended during the summer of 2013 and the children drifted away.

Rice paddies
blogs.worldbank.org

                                                                                    "I think it's pointless because you have be from our    village to understand how important this is,"  declared Mr. Lei.  "Anyway those children will  move somewhere else and won't learn enough to  become real members.  I was nice but didn't fix the  problem," he added dismissively.  The irony of this  situation is some traditional artisans are now  supported by the government.  They are listed on a  national register, put on organized performances, and  receive government subsidies.  In January of this  year, Mr. Lei troupe was featured on local television  asked to perform at Chinese New Year festivities.  The performances netted about $200 and allow for some recognition that what they do is important.

Rural village rooftops
galleryhip.com

Du Yang, the director of the district office of cultural heritage protection told Mr. Johnson that Mr. Lei group's music was among 69 protected practices.  "the goal is to make sure these cultural heritages don't get lost,...It would be a great pity if they are lost just as our country is on the road to prosperity."  Mr. Lei also suggested that keeping the village intact would have been greatly beneficial.  "It was really comfortable in the old village," said Mr. Lei from his new home.  "We had a thousand square metes and rented out rooms to migrants from other provinces.  Lots of buses stopped nearby, and we could get into the city easily," he added.

However, like all rural dwellers, the Leis and their neighbors never actually owned their land; all property belongs to the Chinese state.  Thus, when plans for the golf course were disclosed, they had very little choice but to comply with the eviction order.  "No one protested," said Mr. Lei.  "We knew we didn't have a choice.  You just go with the flow."  As compensation, everyone was given a free apartment and $50,000 to $100,000.  The irony here is the golf course was never built and the village is still in ruins.  No one is sure whether or not this is because the development was illegal or part of a corrupt land deal, under investigation.  No one is sure and everyone mostly wants to forget.

Ian Johnson's article, while sentimental, highlights one of the greatest problems faced by countries who embrace modernization and urbanization-the loss of traditional culture.  This issue is not unique to China or any other Asian or African country,  this is something that has been with us since the dawn of the Industrial Age.  There is hope for traditional culture to recover in China, through increased government sponsorship.  However, as Mr. Lei points, village culture is specific to the particular village it originated.  There is an intangible connection to a village's history that cannot be replicated anywhere else.  Once it is severed, it is gone for good.