Southern Chinese Architecture: Hokkien, Hakka, and Cantonese style
My recent obsession with Aman Resorts made me digging architecture-related stuff on the internet late at night— combined with the thought of succumbing to the void and endless loop of Kangen Band’s jam .
I feel the urge to play the main character in a quirky low-budget indie movie with a reverbed soundtrack, with my Docmart — which I don’t know how long does it take to stop hurting because it’s been a year and it is not getting any better — wired earphones and messy braids, I often enjoy an afternoon walk through a housing complex, nothing much to see, a densely populated city with a monotonous row of old townhouses (透天厝), and barred windows. Lots of them take you back on a journey through time, it is as if they are all stuck in the 80s. The older apartments were built around 4o years ago, they have vintage mailboxes on the first floor, no elevators; just stairwells.
In the rural areas, a whole different canvas is drawn. They offered quite different scenery, not as dense, and here I feel connected with the history; the history of people who became the majority on this island today. In the countryside, you could find a Chinese courtyard called Sanheyuan (三合院).
Han Chinese — especially those from Fujian — came to this land from a long time ago, most of them came from a province just across the strait. When Taiwan was annexed by the newly established Manchu-led Qing Dynasty, there was a major migration of Fujianese, seeking new lives in the beautiful Formosa — well, this sentence is rather inefficient because Formosa itself already means ‘beautiful’, but we will move on to the next part. The Han Chinese subgroup from the southern part of Fujian, Hokkien (Hoklo) people constitute almost 70% of the Han-Chinese population in Taiwan today, bringing their food, language (Taiyu), culture and architecture to this land.
While the Southern Fujian immigrants in Indonesia do not retain this kind of sanheyuan housing anymore, both Minnan immigrants in Taiwan and Indonesia have some things in common as part of the Hokkien architecture style, which I will later elaborate with other types of Southern Chinese architecture below.
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Since the Southern Song Dynasty, Southern China has been flourishing as the economic center of China, way before the iconic ‘Mr. Hu’ in your Shopee package from Guangdong, port cities along Southern China’s coastline already become an important area that witnessed trade, cultural exchanges, increasing middle class, and so many more (quick q: do I have too many things to mention, thus I said ‘and so many more’ or did I just ran out of words to say?). These qualities, along with the abundant natural resources, have made the southern region develop a distinct architectural style. This area is also an ancestral home to millions of Chinese migrants across the world (you can refer to this article for this topic https://vizal.medium.com/on-fujianese-chinese-diaspora-88ca11d5d1fd), which also brought some of the architectural aspects from their hometown to their new settlements.
Southern Fujian (Minnan) and Hokkien architecture
While courtyard houses are widely known in other parts of China, Southern Fujian’s courthouses are known to use orange-red bricks, giving it a distinct look. This style was said to be originated in Quanzhou, Fujian, the starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, as well as the birth place of the culture.
A significant number of Chinese migrants around the globe came from the land of Southern Fujian. While it is evident that the Formosa Island aka Taiwan became heavily “Minnanized” due to a large amount of Minnan settlers here, massive waves of Southern Fujian migrants also came to other parts of the world, bringing their cultures, foods, and architecture style to the whole new land in Southeast Asia, where Indonesia is no exception.
Hokkien architecture puts so much emphasis on its roof. Take a stroll around the old Chinese housing areas of Glodok and there you go. Although they did not build the house as a courtyard nor use the orange-red bricks, the swallowtail roof (燕尾脊) is easy to spot! This upward-facing ridge is a distinctive factor in Hokkien architecture,
In Taipei City, you could see these characteristics in Beimen (the North Gate 北門). This city gate was constructed in 1884 and now becoming the only city gate that still preserves its original appearance in Minnan architecture, thanks to the petition by Taiwanese scholars after the other four gates were remodeled by Chiang Kai-shek in his sinicization attempt. Beimen incorporates the red brick as the outer wall and a Xieshan-style swallowtail roof.
Another feature that you may spot from a distance is the cut porcelain carving (剪瓷雕), a practice of carving brightly colored porcelain into figures, animals, flowers, landscapes, and mythical creatures and putting it on the roof ridges, gate towers, window frames, or other parts of the building. It was said that this practice has been around since the Song Dynasty, but it is not before the Ming Dynasty that cut porcelain carving became popular and later spread to Southeast Asia during the Qing Dynasty due to the flow of migrations and trades.
Hakka architecture
Throwing it way back for my Mulan (2020) movie rant. So, TLDR; this so-called ‘Mulan’s house’ architecture that took its inspiration from Hakka style round building (客家土楼) originated from the Song and Yuan dynasties, about 800 years later from the era of Mulan.
This traditional communal Hakka people’s residence was made with rammed earth to protect its people from invaders. To give you some context, the Hakka people in Chinese are known as the ‘guest family’ (客家人), they were thought to have originated from the northern province, they started migrating from northern China to the south in the 11th century to escape from Jurchens and later Mongols. As they constantly moving, lots of Hakka food is made of preserved and handy ingredients.
After a series of migrations, they decided to settle. But here comes another trouble, not everyone is pleased to have guests. The Hakka migrants started having some frictions with their neighbors, some of them escalated into something bigger, that was how the idea to make this walled house or tulou emerged. Hakka people began building this communal living space from brick, stone, or rammed earth for defensive purposes. Several families, usually part of one clan or sharing the same surname, live in one tulou. It is like a whole society in an apartment complex with its water well, livestock, food supplies, and an anti-siege design.
Imagine living here, everyone you know since you were born are all here, you fall in love with someone and living dangdut song, Pacar Lima Langkah by Iceu Wong (Wong? Is she Cantonese? Does she has anything to do with Wong Fei-hung? Does Hitler really died in Garut?).
Cantonese or Lingnan architecture
This style is heavily influenced by the Han culture of the Tang and Song Dynasties. It was the time when Buddhist monks from the Central Plains would travel far to the south, to Lingnan. Lingnan itself is a region that now covers Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hong Kong, Macau, as well as today’s northern to central Vietnam.
The Lingnan style that we see today is mainly formed during the Sinicization of the region back in the Southern Song dynasty. Quite contrast with the showy and bright style of Minnan architecture, the classic Lingnan aesthetics incorporate more of a calm, basic, and earth tone color palette with heavy use of wood materials.
Due to the sub-tropical nature of Canton, its architecture focuses on the veranda, balcony, and materials that ensure good indoor ventilation and resistance to mold and moisture.
They especially build a ‘cold alley’ (冷巷) to increase the wind speed within the building and make a cooling effect on the building.
Another contrasting trait with Minnan architecture, instead of using red bricks, Lingnan architecture prefers green bricks (青磚) which have better water absorption, and hydration, and are more suitable for the Lingnan climate.
Of course, we cannot miss the wok roof. Wok, as in the wok, wok. Yeah, wajan, as my fellow Indonesian call it. The wok roof or wok yi uk (鑊耳屋) in Cantonese, is a unique feature of Lingnan or Cantonese architecture, the curved walls on the roof which resemble the shape of the wok also made the lessens the amount of sunlight on the roof, thus lowering the temperature indoor.
With the population boom in the mid-19th century, people also saw the rise of the multistorey tong lau (唐樓) in Guangdong, the townhouse model also gained popularity in Fujian, then brought to Taiwan, Southeast Asia, and other regions as a convenient and suitable housing for the Chinese immigrant families, it is compact and practical. This type later became popular in Indonesia as ruko (you can read for further reference here, https://vizal.medium.com/from-southern-china-coast-to-the-southeast-asia-this-is-ruko-shophouse-b915260f9691).
Anyway, I just found a very interesting blog that collects information about Chinese architecture in Singapore (https://nanyangtemple.wordpress.com). It provides the current status (conserved, demolished, etc) and a brief explanation of historic Chinese buildings in Singapore with their distinct styles; from Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Cantonese, to Hainan architecture. This page is worth the visit.
Oh, how I wish I could have the time and resources to do the same for historic Chinese architecture in Indonesia… Perhaps, one day?
References
https://www.ym.edu.tw/ymnews/308/sub_travel.html
https://m.gujianchina.cn/news/show-5385.html
Debate on the Characteristics of Traditional Architectures in South Fujian and Its Inheritance. Liu Yifang, Journal of Wuyi University
https://www.easyatm.com.tw/wiki/剪瓷雕
Heaven and Earth — Sustaining Elements in Hakka Tulou Keith D. Lowe
