The Surging News reporter Luo Xin
The old village of Onding village has a history of nearly 400 years, and the original 105 families and 491 Wa compatriots live here. It is the best-preserved Wa village in China to date, a living museum of Wa culture, and was once praised by China National Geographic as "China's last primitive tribe".
However, at about 5:40 p.m. on February 14, the most serious fire in the old village of Onding Village in the past 400 years, the more than 100 traditional houses in the village survived, and the entire village was reduced to ashes. (For details, see Xinhua News Agency, Kunming, February 20 Title: Why was the old village of Wengding in Yunnan, a traditional Chinese village, destroyed in a fire?) ）
On March 6th, the "What is the Ancient Village of Wengding- The Symposium on the Reconstruction of Wengding" sponsored by the Research Center for the Protection and Development of Traditional Chinese Villages of the Feng Jicai Institute of Literature and Art of Tianjin University was held online. Feng Jicai, director of the Research Center for the Protection and Development of Traditional Chinese Villages, Ruan Yisan, director of the National Historical and Cultural City Research Center of Tongji University, Yuan Li, vice chairman of the China Folk Writers Association, Fang Ming, head of the Working Group of the Expert Committee on the Protection and Development of Traditional Chinese Villages, Xiang Yunju, vice chairman of the China Literary and Art Critics Association, and Ouyang Zhiqin, engineer of the Yunnan Academy of Eco-Environmental Sciences, and other experts and scholars attended the meeting.
Webinars
According to Ouyang Zhiqin, Laozhai of Onding Village is also a deeply impoverished village in Yunnan Province, which began to develop tourism in 2004, and in 2020, the Wengding Primitive Tribal Cultural Tourism Zone was rated as a national 4A-level tourist attraction. In order to develop tourism, a large number of villagers relocated to Onding New Village in 2018, and by the end of 2018, there were only 21 households left in The Old Village of Onding Village, and as of the time of the fire this year, there were 17 indigenous families living in the Old Village of Onding Village.
At the crossroads of the fate of the old village of Onding Village, everyone jointly discussed the reconstruction of the old village of Onding Village, the relationship between the protection of traditional villages and tourism, and so on.
"The purpose of reconstruction is to rebuild homes"
"We lost Ondin." Feng Jicai said. Previously, the media interviewed him about the fire in the old village of Onding, and he bluntly said that the cultural damage caused by the fire was no less than the fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, or even greater.
For the reconstruction of Onding, Feng Jicai stressed that it is first necessary to clarify the starting point of the reconstruction. "The purpose of the reconstruction was to rebuild the home, not to build a new and beautiful tourist attraction. It should be the 'land of nostalgia' for the Wa people. Therefore, he believes that there are at least two major principles for reconstruction, one is to respect the beliefs, customs and traditions of the Wa people, and the other is to follow the principle of cultural relics reconstruction and restoration. He also suggested that after the reconstruction, a small museum could be built at the mouth of the village, one is to display the images of the ancient village before the fire, the other is to display the precious cultural relics that have been preserved in the fire, and the third is to warn those who come here to pay attention to fire prevention and disaster prevention.
Yuan Li mentioned that some people believe that Onding cannot be rebuilt on the original site according to the Cultural Relics Protection Law, but he believes that this requires specific analysis of specific issues. "There are three kinds of cultural relics: one is that it has disappeared in history and only the ruins remain; one is that although it is destroyed, it generally retains its original appearance and construction technology; and the other is suddenly destroyed in use, but it can be scientifically restored in terms of appearance, volume, and construction technology, such as Ondin. From a technical point of view, if we can make it in its original form, there is no 'counterfeiting' problem. The benefits of reconstruction are twofold: one is that reconstruction can preserve more architectural civilization for mankind, and the other is that it can be rebuilt to pass on this intangible cultural heritage craft. ”
Onding Village. Yunnan Provincial Party Committee Propaganda Department WeChat public account picture
"Reconstruction should be based on indigenous people"
So, who will rebuild? Feng Jicai said: "I think it should be led by the government, with the participation of experts and the indigenous people as the main body. Why should the indigenous people be the main body, because it is a hotel built for others, not a home. When every indigenous person enters, he brings in the history, habits, aesthetics and hobbies of his own home. If the same house is built for others, the tangible and intangible culture will disappear. ”
He also mentioned that in recent years, when traditional villages develop tourism, it is popular to "change cages for birds" - clearing the aborigines and emptying the houses, so that operators can come in to develop. This is a major issue in his view. "The village is the carrier of the living culture of the indigenous people, the indigenous people are gone, the village has no owner, no memory, no soul, or the village? Some villages, because there were fewer people to travel later, the people who operated them moved away, and they completely became empty villages, who is still responsible for this village? The 'cage for birds' not only brings crisis to the future of the village, but also destroys the bottom of the barrel. ”
In Feng Jicai's view, all indigenous people are the inheritors of village culture and historical memory. "We should keep them. Especially in the case of a relatively large gap between urban and rural areas, we should find ways to find a source of production and livelihood for the indigenous people, improve their rigid living conditions, and improve their quality of life, which is the top priority in protecting traditional villages. ”
"Fires are terrible, but even more terrible than fires are hollowing out and natural destruction. The most important reason for the collapse of the village is the hollowing out, which collapsed after a few years without living. Fang Ming said that he personally firmly suggested that Weng Ding rebuild as it was, "Can you try more boldly and let the villagers rebuild their own villages?" There are able people, village elders, and literate people in the village, who are allowed to do it according to their own national characteristics, and we also make infrastructure supplements and provide suggestions for changes to their way. But let's not be in a hurry, let's come up with ideas and solutions first. ”
Onding Village Digital Museum of Traditional Chinese Villages Picture
"The ancient should be home, and the new should conform to the requirements of modern times"
Nguyen Yi San also believes that the reconstruction of Ong Dinh should "retain the indigenous people": "One side feeds the other side of the water and soil. The reason why the old village of Onding Village can become a characteristic ancient village lies in the natural environment of the landscape and jungle, and in the reasonable combination of man and nature. ”
He specifically mentioned that the reconstruction process should not be rushed, but carefully studied, planned, designed, and then constructed. "The restoration of the ancient village is not only about building houses, but also about infrastructure other than houses, including mountains, forests, flowers and plants." He gave the example of most of the houses destroyed in the earthquake in the ancient city of Lijiang, but the foundation of the old house was left, and the original reconstruction was restored well, and he also took the opportunity to remove the previous unreasonable things, and was quickly rated as a world cultural heritage. "The very important principle among them is 'raw materials, original structure, original technology, original style, original environment', that is, the 'five original' principle, as is restored." Ondin also has modern film and television materials and original objects, especially the aborigines, who will reconstruct the original things as they are through their own hands. ”
Ruan Yisan said that during the restoration process, local craftsmen and residents had to learn from them in order to make good use of the materials. "I am not in favor of the whole old as old, but should be the whole old, as it is, and restored as it is. The local people are a very important main force and can also play an important role in supervision. Try to use old materials as much as possible, and keep them as they are, in order to find their truth. I'm against fake antiques. For the material, content, structure, form should be well studied carefully. ”
But he also said that the implementation of reconstruction should also ensure the modernization of the village and improve the living environment. It not only meets the living requirements of modern people, but it must be a real antique in appearance. "As for whether it is a real antique or a fake antique, the local people have the most right to speak." The ancient should be home, and the new should conform to the requirements of modern times. We have to deal with the relationship between the two. ”
Only by protecting it can it be developed
Starting this year, China will comprehensively shift from "poverty alleviation" to rural revitalization, and effectively connect the achievements of poverty alleviation with rural revitalization. Xiang Yunju said that in this process, we should also think about the inheritance of history and culture. "Modernization standards should be diversified, and cultures should be diversified. How to protect, preserve and continue the original culture needs special consideration. ”
"We're talking about Ondin today, but we're not going to be limited to Ondin." In Yuan Li's view, protection and development can go hand in hand, but it must be mainly based on protection. Only by protecting it can it be developed.
He said that the vast majority of traditional villages now only focus on development and forget to protect. "A village can enter the list of traditional villages, it must be because it is good, its houses are good, its street mechanism is good, its ecology is good, if you change it, those original ecological 'good' naturally there will be no more, then the development will become destruction." I suggest that in the future, traditional villages should learn from Langde Shangzhai to arouse the cultural consciousness of local villagers, so that they can protect their villages, as long as the original taste is well protected, naturally some people will come. Of course, although the money earned in this way is not so much, it can be distributed to the villagers, and on average, it is not bad. Conversely, if we develop everything into a fake, once it goes out, people will never come back. ”
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang