The Kaiping diaolou combine residential and defensive functions. Their varied architectural styles are connected with local overseas migration and flows of money. These towers testify to the social networks of emigrant communities. They are not simply copies of foreign buildings, as local needs also shaped their forms.
Historical background
Diaolou are fortified multi-storey watchtowers in rural villages, generally made of reinforced concrete. These towers are located mainly in Kaiping, Guangdong province, China. In 2007, UNESCO designated the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages a World Heritage Site, which covers four separate Kaiping village areas: Sanmenli, Zilicun, Jinjiangli, and Majianglong village cluster. These areas demonstrate a unique fusion of 19th- and 20th-century Chinese and Western architectural styles.
Diaolou structures were built from the time of the Ming dynasty to the early 20th century, reaching a peak during the Warlord Era in the 1920s and 1930s, with the financial aid of overseas Chinese, when there were more than three thousand of these structures. Today, approximately 1,800 diaolou remain standing, and mostly abandoned, in the village countryside of Kaiping. They can also occasionally be found in several other areas of Guangdong, such as Shenzhen and Dongguan.
The earliest standing diaolou in Kaiping is Yinglong Lou in the village of Sanmenli (Chikan township), built by the Guan lineage during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming dynasty (1522–1566). It was a massive three-storey rectangular fortress with one-meter thick walls, with little resemblance with the high tower diaolous built four centuries later. Yinglong Lou was renovated in 1919 and is 11.4 meters high.
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, because of poverty and social instabilities, Kaiping was a region of major emigration abroad, one of the "pre-eminent sending area" of overseas Chinese. Diaolous built during the chaotic early 20th century were most numerous around the centers of emigration. Monies from emigrants wanting to ensure the security of their families, villages, or clan lineages were used to fund the diaolou. Although the diaolous were built mainly as protection against forays by bandits, many of them also served as living quarters. Some of them were built by a single family, some by several families together or by entire village communities. Kaiping became also a melting pot of ideas and trends brought back by overseas Chinese. As a result, the villagers built their diaolou to incorporate architectural features from China and from the West.
It was not until after 1949 when an administrative system that extended down to the small villages was created that the diaolou lost their defensive purpose and were then abandoned or converted. Still, they stand as a tribute to overseas Chinese culture and the perseverance of the peasants of Kaiping.
The World Heritage inscription recognizes four groups containing twenty representative towers and their village settings. That selected property should be distinguished from the roughly eighteen hundred diaolou surviving across the wider Kaiping area. UNESCO emphasizes the combination of Chinese and Western architectural traditions and the continuing links between emigrants and their ancestral communities. The listed groups are in Sanmenli, Zilicun, Jinjiangli, and Majianglong. Their importance includes the relationship among towers, village houses, and the surrounding agricultural landscape.
Examples
Yinglong Lou, located in the village of Sanmenli (Chikan township), was built by the Guan lineage during the Jiajing era of the Ming dynasty (1522–1566). As the oldest preserved diaolou in Kaiping, it retains the primitive model of a watchtower with traditional square structure and is not influenced by western architectural styles.
Jinjiangli Diaolou Cluster, situated behind Jinjiangli Village (Xiangang Township) of the Huang family, includes three exquisite diaolous: Ruishi Lou, Shengfeng Lou, and Jinjiang Lou. Ruishi Diaolou, constructed in 1921, has nine floors and is the tallest diaolou in Kaiping. It features a Byzantine style roof and a Roman dome.