Ancient Town of Chikan

Author: Zhang Guoxiong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: A Lingnan ancient town surrounded by the Tanjiang River, with swaying banyan trees. The diverse openness of the shophouses and the stern closure of the watchtowers form its dual personality. Under the impact of unique family culture and Western influences, it hased many moving stories. Chikan is an ancient town in the overseas Chinese hometown of Kaiping, Guangdong, located at the western edge of the Pearl River Delta. I often stroll in the quiet villages around it, sitting at the street-side herbal tea shop of the ancient town, slowly sipping Lingshan-style herbal tea and tortoise jelly, while observing the leisurely passersby on the streets. The vendors quietly waiting for customers to make tofu triangles by the roadside, and the silver-haired grandmas bending over with wrinkled faces, along with the Western-style shophouses and colorful mountain flowers, tell of the former prosperity of trade in the ancient town.
The beautiful passage "An ancient Lingnan town surrounded by the Tanjiang River, with swaying banyan trees. The diverse openness of the shophouses and the stern closure of the watchtowers form its dual personality; under the impact of unique family culture and Western influences, it hased many moving stories" appears on both the title page and back cover of Chikan Ancient Town by Zhang Guoxiong (writer) and Li Yuxiang (photographer) (hereinafter referred to as Chikan). This shows that the author's love and affection have completely "melted" into this ancient town, and their description of it has reached a transcendent level. Chikan is a famous ancient town in the overseas Chinese hometown of Kaiping, located by the Tanjiang River with intersecting waterways, serving as an important commercial port and water transport hub for Kaiping to Yangjiang. If we date back to when the family began trading by the Tanjiang River in the early years of the Shunzhi period, Chikan Ancient Town has a history of 350 years. However, at that time, the shops were all brick-and-wood structures, rectangular, with tiled roofs, very simple, with no architectural variations, and were traditional Southern Chinese buildings. After 1926, the Republican era, shops were demolished and streets expanded. The main street extended from Shangbu (starting from today's Guanzu Library) to Xiabu (ending at today's family Library), with a long embankment built along the northern bank of the Tanjiang River. with two to four floors, diverse designs, and various styles were constructed, with each shop adjacent to the next, reflecting in the clear river water, creating a breathtaking sight. This is the embankment building complex now known as the "European-style street." These well-preserved Sino-Western hybrid overseas Chinese architectural groups have added infinite charm to the ancient town, showcasing the unique new style of the overseas Chinese hometown.
Before and after the War of Resistance, the prosperity of the ancient town reached its peak. In 2002, Chikan Ancient Town was approved by Guangdong Province as a key cultural relic protection unit, and it is rare even within the five-county overseas Chinese hometowns and across the province. How did all this come into being, develop, and evolve? Chikan will provide you with a quite satisfactory answer.
Chikan is composed of 11 chapters, including the origin, water and land transportation boosting the ancient town, the rise of two major families, etc. The author uses elegant and concise language to provide a comprehensive and vivid description of the ancient town's history, politics, economy, and culture. The brilliance and success of Chikan lie in the author's ability to adopt a historical materialist and dialectical materialist stance, objectively and impartially "documenting the role of the two major families ( and ) in the rise and development of the ancient town, the evolution of their interfamily relationships, searching for the mechanisms behind the formation of the ancient town's image characteristics, and observing the process and driving forces behind the transformation of traditional Chinese bloodline family culture in modern times." The author believes that "the competition between the two major families in history promoted the rise and prosperity of the ancient town and also served as an important source and driving force for its culture," which "constitutes the main line of the historical development of Chikan Ancient Town." As for the conflicts, disputes, and even large-scale armed clashes between the two families, among different branches within the families, for certain interests (mainly economic), these "negative" situations "are not unique to any specific family but are common characteristics of traditional agricultural society." Undoubtedly, these summary conclusions are positive and correct, aimed at guiding people to summarize historical lessons and look forward to creating a glorious future.
In short, Chikan is an excellent read. It is a gift from the author to the Chinese (Jiangmen) overseas Chinese hometowns' carnival and the 2004 overseas Chinese hometown tourism festival, and it will also play a positive role in promoting the development of tourism in Kaiping City. It is worth reading.