Tulou

Author: He Baoquan
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-08-01
Features: In the mountainous region where Fujian, Jiangxi, and Guangdong provinces meet, stretching for hundreds of miles are uniquely shaped and stylistically bizarre tulou. Among them live hundreds to thousands of Hakka people who migrated south from Central China to escape misfortune centuries ago. They live in clans, with one tulou resembling a large family castle and two or three tulous forming a village. Tulous come in various shapes: circular, square, five-phoenix, elliptical, bagua, crescent, and armchair. Each tulou has only one gate, with two thick, tall door panels. When the gate is closed, it becomes a self-contained world. Inside, two corridors act like long arms, encircling all rooms of the same shape and size into a circle or square. The first floor is the kitchen, the second floor is used for storing grain and farming tools, and the third floor is for sleeping. On the first floor, opposite the main gate, there is an open hall called the ancestral hall, where family ancestors are worshipped and where family rituals and meetings take place. Tulous are built with red soil mixed with bamboo strips, sand, glutinous rice paste, brown sugar, and egg whites, making them incredibly sturdy. Tens of thousands of such tulous are scattered across the mountainous areas of southwestern Fujian, growing silently like giant black mushrooms and nurturing countless mysterious, bizarre, and even terrifying family legends.
Tulou Chronicle:
In 1985, the CIA secretly reported to President Reagan that southwestern Fujian had thousands of buildings of unknown nature, resembling giant mushrooms, which might be a large-scale nuclear base. That same year, in December, CIA agent Baker came to China as a photographer to investigate secretly and discovered the "nuclear base," only to find it was ordinary Hakka residential architecture. This brought tulous to global attention.
In 1986, Professor Kazuyoshi Mogi of Tokyo University of the Arts led a research team to Fujian to survey tulous. Upon returning to Japan, he published a monograph, held thematic reports and exhibitions, and caused a sensation in the international architectural community.
In 1986, China's Postal Service issued stamps modeled after tulous.
In 1987, over 100 faculty and students from Tongji University's School of Architecture conducted on-site surveys of tulous.
In 2001, the State Council officially approved the application of tulous to the UNESCO for inclusion in the "World Cultural Heritage" list.
In 2006, tulous will undergo a three-year investigation by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, with the hope of gaining the "World Cultural Heritage" title in 2008.
In the towering mountains of southwestern Fujian, countless mushroom-shaped tulous stand tall and enclosed, like fortresses, forming self-contained systems. Through the ages of dynastic changes, they silently uphold tradition, weaving mysterious, bizarre, and even terrifying family legends. Zhang Nanqing and his siblings were reduced to servants in the floating. To survive, the brother married a woman with a cleft lip, while the sister willingly submitted to the head of the house, dreaming of becoming his wife. However, the hidden traps of fate threw them into a bloody cycle: Zhang Nanqing was forced to burn the head of the house's madwoman, then uncontrollably fell in love with the newly married head of the house—beautiful Jin Yezi, and even poured kerosene over his sister, igniting her with a match.
As time passed, Zhang Nanqing became the owner of the floating and finally possessed Jin Yezi, but in the process, he lost his basic male functions. At the end of the novel, the head of the house returns to invest in his hometown, and Jin Yezi regains control of the floating. The history seems to have come full circle, returning to its original position, but Jin Yezi's ageless face rapidly ages overnight, and the wildly spreading wrinkles seem to prove the absurdity of fate.
The novel features fluent language, a bizarre style, and a rich, mysterious local flavor of the Hakka culture in southwestern Fujian.