Houses as Local Culture Identity: The Case of Yanchuan District, Shaanxi
Résumé
The houses called yaodong are located in the northern part of the loess tableland, in the basin of Huanghe river, one of the most important alluvial deposit zones of the world. The golden coloured loess is sometimes two hundred meters high. In this area, there is a high concentration of dwellings called yaodong 窑洞 “hole in shape of a kiln” dispatched into four regions which shelter nearly forty millions people. In three of them (Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu) correspond to more than fifty per cent of the inhabitants still living in yaodong. Those houses may be divided into three different groups. All of them have in common their name “yaodong” and also their plan and the use of the vault shape. In the northern part of the Shaanxi province, yaodong architecture is very much a living tradition, and the population of district like the one Yanchuan county considers their houses as integral to their identity. Indeed the expression yaodong wenhua 窑洞文化 [yaodong culture] is often used to qualify village customs and folk arts. With respect to the house, there are numerous symbolic, ritual, technical and economic activities, fengshui but also ritual relations between owners, stone cutters and joiners: all are parts of the intangible culture of China. The different aspects of this original architecture were presented. The comprehension of this architectural value and its relations with all the other aspects of Shaanbei culture lead some local actors to found an association to promote their county. Among many others actions, they created a museum of folk traditions. A non-governmental initiative that aims at implicating villagers in this new style of local development was presented.
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