The documentary consists of 10 episodes, each lasting about 13 minutes, and visits 10 distinctive houses across China:
Guizhou Qiandongnan Miaozhai, Shanxi Wangjia Courtyard, Henan Shaanzhou Dikeng Courtyard, Fujian Tulou, Huizhou Ancient Residence, Sichuan Luocheng Boat-type Ancient Town, Yunnan Tengchong and Shun Ancient Town, Yunnan Dai Stilt House, Suzhou Garden-style Residence and Shanghai Shikumen.
Due to China's vast territory and many ethnic groups, the natural environment and humanistic customs of each region are not the same, which has created a unique residential culture.
Traveling with the documentary can not only explore the beauty of China's folk houses, but also get a glimpse of the different styles of various parts of China.
1. Ancient villages below the horizon.
Located in Shaanzhou, Henan Province, the underground pit courtyard is a magical ancient residential building, "into the village does not see people, see the trees do not see the village" is its true portrayal.
The villagers dug down to live in the burrows, so they entered the village, "only heard people laughing, chickens and dogs barking, but did not see the cottage houses."
The strong and durable, warm in winter and cool in summer, wind and sound insulation, earthquake-proof and earthquake-resistant pit courtyard is the excellent wisdom of the ancients.
2. Live together as a group.
The Wang Family Compound in Shanxi Province was built by the Jingsheng Wang family through the Ming and Qing dynasties and lasted more than 300 years.
The total area is 250,000 square meters, arranged in four rows of courtyards, symmetrical left and right, and a main road in the middle, forming a regular "Wang" character layout.
The large and small courtyards distributed in it show different appearances according to the identity and preferences of the owners.
Flowers, birds and fish, mountain and stone water features, character allusions, or skeletonized in wood, or carved in bricks, or carved in stone, not only reflect the architectural style of the Ming and Qing dynasties, but also leave the family's profound cultural heritage.
The tulou houses distributed in Fujian also live in clusters of ethnic groups, showing very different styles.
In the Fujian Tulou, which has a building in the building and a ring in the ring, there are people of the same clan who are closely related by blood.
With earth as walls and layered interlaced ramming, these earthen buildings are either square or round, with a concise structure, no ornate decoration, and more attention to practicality.
In the era of war and chaos outside, people of the same ethnic group lived in an earthen building to form an independent society, which was the best way to live in the imperial outer condensation.
3. The combination of practical and artistic.
(1) Huizhou ancient residences
According to the selection of the village site by the mountains and rivers, the architectural form of white wall and gray tiles is characterized by patios, high walls, hollow carved windows, and heavy eaves flying angles, forming a unique architectural style of huizhou ancient residential buildings.
The intricate carvings of landscape figures, flowers, birds, fish and insects create an elegant and interesting living environment, which not only shows the attitude of life in ancient Huizhou, but also preserves the profound and exquisite emblem carving skills such as wood carving, stone carving and brick carving.
(2) Suzhou garden-style houses
"Don't go out of the city to get the pleasure of the mountains and rivers, and live in the downtown area and get the fun of the forest spring."
Gifted gardeners divert water into ponds, build soil for mountains, plant flowers and trees, and combine pavilions and stones and springs in a limited space to create a living environment in harmony between man and nature.
It is also decorated with plaques, links, calligraphy and paintings, carvings, steles and other furnishings and ornaments that contain profound cultural heritage, thus forming a landscape garden full of artistic conception. The house and garden are one, can be lived in, can be appreciated.
(3) Yunnan Tengchong and Shun ancient towns
Heshun Ancient Town, which also preserves a relatively complete ming and qing dynasty ancient architectural complex, has a simple and elegant pink wall dewa, and there are also lifelike door and window wood carvings.
The difference is that as a famous overseas Chinese village in Yunnan Province, the architecture here also has a strong European and South Asian style.
The returning wanderers brought with them the foreign culture they had absorbed, blended and collided with the local regional culture, and endowed the ancient town of Heshun with a combination of Chinese and Western residential architectural culture.
4. Stilt house above the pillars.
The stilt house standing next to the water and built by the mountain has distinct national characteristics and is a traditional residential building of many ethnic groups such as Miao and Dai.
The wet ground floor is elevated for raising poultry, placing farm implements, etc.; The second layer of high hanging is ventilated and dry for eating and living.
The stilt house is a characteristic creation of the people who are confined to the natural environment and climatic conditions.
5. Old streets and lanes.
Every city has an "old street" that belongs to the memory, whether it is big or small, or still prosperous, or has declined, and still retains the style of the past.
(1) Sichuan Luocheng boat-type ancient town
With a length of 209 meters and a maximum width of 9.5 meters, Luocheng Old Street looks like a large boat and is called "Boat Street".
The streets are flanked by long rows of old tiled houses with timber-framed eaves that are unusually wide and are not afraid of rain and sun, forming a promenade known locally as the "cool hall".
For hundreds of years, the people of Luocheng have been drinking tea and listening to music here, and have read all kinds of life. Today, some of the old shops that once played an important role in the lives of ordinary people have disappeared without a trace.
Fortunately, Luocheng Old Street still retains some of the humanistic features of the old Sichuan culture of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the older generation who are accustomed to drinking tea and chatting here makes Luocheng Old Street still lively.
(2) Shanghai Shikumen
Shanghai's alley culture carries the warm memories of old Shanghai, citizens live and live here, revolutionaries secretly operate here, and literati and inkers nurture masterpieces here.
Today's alleys are still full of human fireworks.
The elderly continue to write homely fragments and neighborhood tacit understanding here, and young people also like to live here to feel the style and afterglow of old Shanghai.
6. These buildings and those people.
In addition to visiting residential buildings in various places, the documentary also interviews several people closely related to it.
"The Wang family tree records the lives of tens of thousands of people with the surname Wang in the 28th dynasty", which is the precious result of the efforts of the descendants of the Jingsheng Wang clan who spontaneously continued to repair the family tree.
The university teachers who sold their houses and bought Jiashutang in Suzhou spent three years renovating, attached to the elegance and rich forest interest of the garden.
Ren Qingwen, who restored the Wang family compound, Wang Dehong, who restored the ancient residence in Huizhou, and Xue Lingen, who restored the Suzhou garden, are their efforts to restore the ancient buildings that were once badly damaged.
The famous composer Shostakovich once said: Many things have aged and disappeared before our eyes, but I think that many things that seem to have passed through time will eventually appear fresh, powerful and eternal.
These frozen poems of time and poems of history are exactly that.