Lingnan culture
The Lingnan culture ( Chinese 嶺南 文化 , Pinyin Lǐngnán Wénhuà ) is a Neolithic culture in Guangdong and also the name for various contemporary cultural phenomena in Guangdong and the nearby provinces in southeastern China.
Neolithic origins
Guangzhou is now regarded as the center of Lingnan culture. Historically, the Lingnan culture is located near the city of Yingde ( 英德 , Yīngdé ). This city lies in the area of the Neolithic culture of the Lingnan area and was called Yingzhou ( 英 州 , Yīngzhōu ) at that time , after a type of stone that was mined there in the Neolithic. During the Southern Song, the area was named Yingde. Today it is the largest administrative unit at the county level in the province of Guangdong with an area of 5671 km² and administers 30 villages in a tourist area. In the course of history this area has been visited by numerous personalities who left behind imperishable stone documents. There are numerous stone artefacts here, which are evidence of the Neolithic culture in Lingan.
Lingnan culture in the present
The Lingnan culture of the Neolithic has found no direct successor. What is now known as the Lingnan culture takes place in the geographical area of Lingnan and initially refers to climatic peculiarities and characteristics of the population in this area, which differ from those of the Han Chinese in the central Chinese plain. These differences are located in the areas of the value system, social competence, aesthetics as well as in the culturally determined areas of martial arts and nutrition.
In science and business, efficiency and pragmatism should prevail, as well as the ability to replace the old with the new. Thought processes are based on imagination and close observation. Lingnan is seen as a developing area for new thinking and new methods for all of China. Here the original thinking in Lingnan mixes with the way of thinking in the central plane and in Western thinking. This is being driven by the presence of numerous overseas Chinese.
In aesthetics and art, the Lingnan culture is based on an almost divine worship of nature, on emotional straightforwardness and the rejection of obscure details and artificial effects. Aesthetic culture in Lingnan focuses on the design of the park, the opera, music, literature, painting and calligraphy as well as architecture.
Chinese overseas culture as the basis for Lingnan culture
The emergence of the modern Lingnan culture is based on the culture of the Chinese overseas . This, in turn, was created in the hometowns of the Chinese Abroad in Guangzhou and Fukien . The history of the culture of the Chinese Abroad is not just a history of suffering, enterprise and patriotism. The fundamental factor is to promote the exchange between foreign cultures and Chinese culture. This bridging function (“侨”, the Qiao sign in Huaqiao, Chinese Abroad) includes studying, understanding and choosing from foreign cultures and rejects submission to these cultures. It promotes the development of the hometown culture in Guangzhou and Fukien. It activates the historical development of the ethnic minorities in this area.
The Macao culture and the Lingnan culture
Macau is considered Chinese territory and is part of the Lingnan culture. Since the lease agreements with Portugal in the 16th century, Macao has played an essential role in the cultural mediation between West and East. First of all, the knowledge gained in Macao by Chinese personalities about the West penetrated to Guangdong, from there to penetrate all of China. This concerned the areas of science and technology, religion and art, the value system and the education system. This west-east mediator role is a constituent part of what is counted as part of the Lingnan culture. Another requirement is that Macao was firmly anchored in Chinese culture.
Hong Kong's Influence on Lingnan Culture
Since Hong Kong developed a different political and cultural development than Macao and Guangzhou due to its role as a crown colony , it cannot be fully assigned to the Lingnan culture. The concept of the Lingnan culture therefore remains limited to Macao and the Pearl River area. However, there is a mutual understanding of the similar structures in both areas. Since the 1960s in particular, Guangdong has recognized that Hong Kong has undergone more rapid modernization. Hong Kong, which also served as the “port of birth” for Guangdong and brought with it significant investments, has had a major impact on management methods, lifestyles, nutrition and fashion trends in Guangzhou. A certain indifference to politics and culture, as shown by the Lingnan culture, divergent ways of thinking about sustainability, the joy of life and the satisfaction with a modest prosperity have been influenced by Hong Kong.
Expressions of the Lingnan culture
The term “Lingnan culture” was developed around 1920 when painters and architects began to integrate the special features of this region into their work. The local peculiarities of the geographical region of Lingnan, which differed from the Han Chinese culture, played a role here, which had developed through both the climate and the minority population and the lively contacts with foreign countries, mediated by the overseas Chinese.
New painting in Lingnan
The general points of view in the section “Culture of the Chinese Abroad…” are concretized using the example of a trend in painting, the Lingnan School of Painting . During the time of the “New Cultural Movement” from 1920 to 1930, intellectuals from Canton (Guangzhou) looked for expanded possibilities of painterly expression through an organic combination of Western and Chinese traditions. The possibilities of Chinese ink painting were expanded by methods of Western painting, in which the possibilities of Orthodox painting were enriched by "secular" elements from the West. This synthesis was possible due to the openness of the people from Guangdong to humanistic, liberal and scientific views from the West.
Lingnan architecture
Xia Changshi , who was trained in Germany, can be seen as the first architect who consciously based his buildings on the elements of Lingnan architecture . Lingnan architecture, like the Lingnan School of Painting , has been scientifically researched since the 1930s. Designated active is Lu Yuan Ding . The Lingnan architecture is defined by the foreign influence, favored by the location near the China Sea, on the delta of the Pearl River and by Hong Kong and exploited by cultural and commercial contacts. Regional forms arose in the area of Changsha , the Pearl River Delta and the Hakka . Overarching elements are adaptations to the climate, such as the large arcades, horizontal ventilation systems through perforated bricks and air-permeable roof structures. This also includes the construction of movable shade donors made of wickerwork.
Indigenous elements
The indigenous decorative elements of stone processing, painting on wood and wall painting of Lingnan architecture were developed in Shawan ( 沙湾 , Shāwān ) near Guangzhou.
Family temple in Lingnan
A mature example of this direction of Lingnan architecture is the ancestral temple of the Chen family ( 陈家祠 堂 , Chén Jiā cítáng ) in Guangzhou. This architecture is lavishly decorated with monochrome bas - reliefs and colored, painted scenes carved in wood on the facade and roofs of the buildings. This group also includes the Liugeng Hall ( 留 耕 堂 , Liúgēng Táng ) from the time of the Kangxi emperor in Shawan.
Tulou and square houses of the Hakka
The Hakka ethnic group had immigrated from the Central Chinese Plain to the area south of the Nanling Mountains before the establishment of the Chinese Empire. There they developed an independent culture, which u. a. shows in specific forms of living to this day. The more well-known part of this architecture are the tulou (round houses), which protect up to 500 (800?) People from attacks in a building reinforced by an outer wall. The square houses (sijiaolou) are a further development of this environmental architecture. In addition to warding off enemy attacks, they are primarily designed to survive the floods in the Li Jiang river basin . Apart from a double drainage system for normal water and flood water, the walls are very water resistant. They consist of tamped clay, layers of stone and layers of rice porridge, the latter to strengthen the structure. You have u. a. survives to this day in the Xingjing district of the city of Linzhai. The Hakka are ethnically attributable to the Han Chinese. By adapting their way of life to the Lingnan environment, they have become a founding force of the Lingnan culture.
Climate-related features of the Lingnan architecture
Characteristics caused by the climate are wide passageways, colonnades, a natural horizontal ventilation system using perforated bricks and roof constructions with sufficient gaps for ventilation. According to an in-depth analysis of southern Chinese architecture by the architect Hsia Changshi in the 1950s.
Features of Xiguan property
The family estate in Xiguan is considered an example of Lingnan architecture in Guangdong . These traditional building complexes were built as brick and wood constructions with masonry made of black bricks and granite stones to highlight the main entrance. The floor plan corresponds to the tradition of the Central Chinese Plain and unfolds on a south-north axis as seen from the main entrance. The main hall and then the women's complex follow the entrance hall. On the right and left of the buildings on the central axis, there are ancillary buildings that each fulfill specific tasks. A hall for worshiping the gods and the ancestral hall belong to the main hall. Other outbuildings are z. B. the library and the guest rooms.
Another special feature of Lingnan architecture are the Qilou ( 骑楼 , qílóu ), arcades on the street side of the buildings, which spread from here to all of southern China and the neighboring countries. The idea is climate-related, the arcades protect against frequent rainfall.
Architecture due to foreign influences
Kaiping Diaolou
The Kaiping Diaolou (watchtowers) ( 开平 雕镂 , kāipíng diāolòu ) are an example of the definition of belonging to Lingnan architecture based on the merging of foreign and Chinese cultures. Due to the geographical location between different administrative areas and the resulting rule of bandits in the area of Kaiping, which was also impassable by heavy rains and numerous rivers, the population had been forced to stand in high towers, which were used for defense, since the Ming period and served to ward off floods. With the pacification of the area at the beginning of the Qing period, the diaolou became rarer, but after 1840, with the outbreak of the Opium War, this type of construction was revived. Because of the anti-China politics, numerous Chinese abroad from the USA and Canada returned to their hometowns. They built, bought land, and got married. In order to secure themselves against the daily gang attacks, they resorted to the design of the defense towers (Diaolou). The large number of Diaolou, which combined Chinese and Western features in different ways, formed a cultural feature in the modernized Kaiping of the 20th century. At the time (2007) there are still 1833 Diaolou. At the 31st UNESCO Conference, they were included in the UNESCO World Heritage List (Asia and Oceania) .
Garden design in the Lingnan culture
Yuyin Garden
The Yuyin Garden ( 余 荫 园 , Yúyìn Yuán ) in Panyu ( 番禺 , Pānyú ) is counted among the four most famous gardens in Guangdong. Its assignment to the Lingnan culture is based on its location in Guangdong and on the basis of its stylistic features. With an area of 2000 m², it is very small, but contains all the components of a Chinese garden such as pavilions, terraces, pagodas, halls, restaurants, kiosks, bridges and galleries, rocky mountains and clear water. It is "National Significant Protected Cultural Object" Monuments of the People's Republic of China (Guangdong 5-501) .
Liang Yuan
Liang Yuan ( 梁园 , Liáng yuán ), is a collective name for the gardens of the Liang family in Foshan ( 佛山 , Fòshān ). The most important of them are The 12 Stone Studios , The Hut Under the Starry Sky , The Grass Hut on the Fen River and the Estate of the Cool Scent . The names show that these are individual gardens. They were not built according to a given plan, but adapted to local conditions. They were built within 40 years during the government currencies of Jiaqing and Daoguang (1796-1850) by the writer Liang Airu and three other members of the Liang family. The Liang Gardens are the classic representative of the gardens of the educated class in Lingnan. They are praised for being individually designed. It is emphasized that the plants fulfill their natural function, the trees provide shade, the flowers create a carpet-like pattern and the water flows naturally through the facility. The compositions are geared towards the ideas of classical poems and paintings. This gives rise to the peculiarities of the lingnan style.
Individual evidence
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- ↑ Source: HIST 7510 - South China Studies . Instructor: Prof. Stefanie Chung Po-yin. Semester 1, 2010–2011 - Term Paper. Name: LEE Kwun Leung Vincent. Student ID: 09429670. Program of Study: Master of Social Science in China Studies (HISTORY) - Year 2. Date: 8 October 2010.
- ^ Lingnan architecture of South China. transculturalmodernism.org, accessed December 5, 2015 .
- ^ Pearl River Delta and Lingnan architecture. Travel Cathay, accessed November 11, 2015 .
- ^ Four Corners Building of Hakka People. (No longer available online.) China Scenic, archived from the original on December 8, 2015 ; accessed on November 29, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ 岭南 建筑 西 关 大 屋. Overseas Chinese Language and Culture Education Online, accessed November 20, 2015 .
- ^ Pearl River Delta and Lingnan architecture. Travel Cathay, accessed December 4, 2015 .
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