Diaolou — castles in the South of China you didn’t know about. Part 2. Exploring the details
In the previous post, I explained how and why Diaolou, fortress-like houses with distinct colonial architecture, appeared in southern China. Today, let’s take a closer look at these houses.
The first thing that catches the eye is the blend of cultures. This is well evident in the first photo. On the roof of a five-story building, there is a stone gazebo in a purely Chinese style, but a fence in the neoclassical style surrounds the roof itself.
The roof of the fifth floor is supported by columns in the Greek style, and there are balconies visible. The Chinese guide, with whom I joined during the walk, mentioned that these are Roman balconies. I don’t understand anything about it, but I’ll trust the guide.
Representing a Chinese element of Roman balconies there are openings for rifles in the walls of the balconies, a standard element of Chinese Diaolou, to shoot at bandits. Such openings were also made on the floors to shoot downwards.
Another example of a cultural mix is the bedroom. There are pillows made of jade (yes, stone pillows) that the Chinese have been using since medieval times, and next to them is a modern English safe box where the owner put his money. In the adjacent room, there is a box of American whiskey next to a small ancestral altar — a necessary part of every Chinese home.
The second notable aspect is the blending of historical layers. These houses were built in the 1920s-30s, which means that the homeowners were born during the time of the emperor. Moreover, they were born in a village where medieval feudal orders often persisted. And then, future Huaqiao (overseas Chinese) go abroad, and suddenly there are photographs, steam engines, automatic pumps drawing water from wells, and other blessings of civilization. It’s hard to imagine the profound impression this must have had on them.
The family altar is a good example of this transition of eras. Usually, an ancestral altar consisted of tablets with the names of departed relatives and a table for candles and offerings. Previously, you could read the names of ancestors, but it was impossible to see what they looked like. In the house of a wealthy Huaqiao, large photographs were added to the name tablets. Modernity was added to the medieval tradition.
On the ancestral altar, there are photos of a man and three women. These are all his wives. I may be mistaken, but if I understood correctly, in mainland China, one could take multiple wives up until the establishment of communist rule in 1949. And in Hong Kong and Macau, even after that, there was still a loophole — one could use the family laws of the Qing Dynasty. So, even now, there are likely people still alive who legally took several wives.
Pay attention to the clothing of the wives: one wears traditional Chinese attire, another wears qipao — a dress that emerged after the 1911 revolution, and the third one is dressed in Western-style clothing. And all of them are married to the same man. I don’t know what better illustrates the blending of cultures and times than the clothing of these women.
In Diaolou, you can see not only echoes of the imperial era and the Chinese Republic. For example, above the entrance to one of the buildings, there is a slogan 毛主席万岁 “Long live Mao Zedong” — this is the 1950s or later.
I also found a slogan on the walls 打到美帝打修苏 “Crush American imperialism, fight against Soviet revisionism.” Here, it could refer to the rule of Khrushchev or Brezhnev — in China, they consider revisionism as the reevaluation of Stalin’s policies after his death.
Conclusion: if you a planning a trip to Guangdong, set aside a couple of days for Diaolou. You won’t regret it.
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