Qiao Family Courtyard in Predicament: Tourism Development is Contrary to Rural Revitalization

At half past five in the afternoon, the jstars courtyard began to close. From the entrance of the scenic spot to the "National Monument" under the wall of the Qiao Family Courtyard, there is not only a tourist center in the middle, but also a 300-meter-long tourist passage, which was the standard of the Qiao Family Courtyard as a tourist attraction in the past.

The newly-built "Qiao Family Courtyard" archway stands tall beside the 208 National Road. Behind it is a shop in an antique building complex, opposite to the factory building of Beijing Yanjing Beer (Jinzhong) Co., Ltd., which belongs to Qixian Economic Development Zone and is close to Dongguan Town where the Qiao Family Courtyard is located. These landscapes have witnessed the changes that have taken place in this land in the past decades.

Seen from the air, today's Qiao Family Courtyard is a bit "isolated"-except for the tourist center and commercial plaza in the east, the other three sides are overgrown with weeds after demolition, and the foundation of the house is looming, and the gray guardrail guards the border, making it impossible for people to enter and it is difficult to spy.

According to the survey data of the School of Architecture of Taiyuan University of Technology in 2008, the total construction area of Qiaojiabao Village, where the Qiao Family Courtyard is located, is 148057 square meters, of which the folk museum where the Qiao Family Courtyard is located is 4 175 square meters, which is located in the center of the village, accounting for 2.8%. The area of traditional scenic spots (including renovation) accounts for 22.7%, and the building area outside the scenic spots accounts for 74.5% after the 1970s. The overall relocation of Qiaojiabao Village began on 20 13, and was announced on 20 17. The Qiao Family Courtyard finally lost its long-standing vault and was completely exposed to the tide of the times.

Whose jstars yard?

Before 20 14, the Qiaojiabao community where the Qiao Family Courtyard was located was also called Qiaojiabao Village, which was a consanguineous settlement dominated by the Qiao Family. In addition to the Qiao brothers' exquisite houses, there used to be temples, ancestral halls, academies, shops, stages, wells and ancient pagodas.

The Qiao Family Courtyard we are talking about now, in a narrow sense, refers to the "nave" built by Qiao Zhiyong, a famous Shanxi merchant in the Qing Dynasty, and his descendants. 200 1 year, with its outstanding ancient building value, it was identified as the fifth batch of national key cultural relics protection units. The Qiao Family Courtyard in a broad sense also includes Ningshou Hall, Dexing Hall, Baoyuantang and Qiao Family Garden (referred to as "three halls and one garden"), which was renovated and rebuilt after 2008. Located in the north and west of the main hall respectively, other halls belong to different Qiao's branches in history.

After the founding of New China, the Qiao Family Courtyard was returned to the public. After 1966, it was used as the Party School of Qixian County Committee for a long time. 1984, the government changed it into the Seven Immortals Folk Museum and the Cultural Relics Management Office, and began comprehensive renovation and maintenance. 1986 Folk Museum officially opened and tourism rose. In 2008, the Qixian government tried to take over the management right of the Qiao Family Courtyard, which has been listed as a national cultural relics protection unit, to a newly established tourism company, resulting in "the Qiao Family Courtyard was sold at a low price", which was finally recognized by the provincial government as a violation of the Cultural Relics Protection Law. Since then, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of Qixian County has set up a tourism company for operation and management.

20 15 Qiao's compound scenic spot was restructured again. A local private enterprise in Shanxi invested a lot of money in a tourism company to be responsible for the transformation and operation of "three museums and one park" and scenic spots. The company changed from state-owned holding to state-owned shareholding, which accelerated the tourism development process of the Qiao Family Courtyard. In the nave, it continues to be managed by the Qiao Family Courtyard Folk Museum, which is a self-supporting institution. Interestingly, the trademark right of "Qiaojia Courtyard" belongs neither to the government nor to this travel company, but to a travel company registered by Qiao Junhai, the former branch secretary of Qiaojiabao Village, in 2004, and now belongs to his daughter Qiao Anqi as the legal representative.

The development of tourism in just a few decades has made the ownership of Qiao Courtyard extremely complicated. The Qiao Family Courtyard is like an isolated fortress, and it is difficult to connect with the Qiao Family Castle in history. It has lost its position in the traditional historical environment, can no longer be measured by the texture of the village, and the original social structure has collapsed. Although it is a national security unit, it involves many management subjects and stakeholders, including governments at all levels, markets and individuals, and is a projection of different needs. The label of tourism is deeply printed on it, but for tourists, excessive commercialization and homogenization lead to the loss of attraction of the Qiao Family Courtyard.

Heritage Protection of "Left-behind"

Traditional villages in China were promulgated by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development in conjunction with other ministries and commissions, aiming at the overall protection of traditional villages, trying to give consideration to the protection objects such as traditional buildings, village patterns and intangible cultural heritage, and demanding the unified preparation of protection plans. 20 13 qiaojiabao village was selected as the second batch of "list of traditional Chinese villages". In the same year, Qiaojiabao Village began to be demolished as a whole, and the residential buildings, ancient trees and temples around Qiaojiabao Courtyard became the transformation targets to meet the needs of tourism development.

On 20 16, seven ministries and bureaus, including the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, issued the Interim Provisions on Early Warning and Exit of Traditional Villages in China (Trial), in which Article 17 stipulated that "those who merge the whole village or engage in the overall management and development of tourist attractions after moving out of the aborigines as a whole will quit directly". 20 1 1 to 20 14 was successfully accepted and then delisted on 20 19. The tourism of Qiao's compound has gone through a cycle.

Now the official website, China Traditional Village Digital Museum, has been opened, and Qiaojiabao Village is still registered without any warning or delisting notice. In May this year, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued a notice requiring all localities to complete the listing of traditional villages in China before the end of the year. I wonder where this 70×50 cm signboard will be hung in Qiaojiabao.

In 2008, the national protection plan of Qiaojia Courtyard clearly designated nave as a key protected area, and added a circle of general protected areas, setting up 29.3 hectares of two types of construction control zones, including several protected buildings. Under normal circumstances, the protection planning of cultural relics protection units should delimit or adjust the construction control zone according to the requirements of ensuring the integrity and harmony of the relevant environment, and control the related construction activities from the aspects of volume, height and color.

The "one demolition and one move" in Qiaojiabao Village makes people temporarily worry about the damage of illegal construction to the cultural relics environment. In the first half of 20 17, the demolition of Qiaojiabao has come to an end, and the Qixian government and tourism companies are planning new tourism projects on the original 900 mu of land in Qiaojiabao Village. In July of the same year, National Cultural Heritage Administration disagreed with the plan of transformation, protection and utilization of the surrounding environment of Qiaojia Courtyard, thinking that the plan might damage the village form and villagers' interests. From the procedural point of view, the present cultural relics (villages) environment has changed greatly compared with the original cultural relics protection plan, and the original control standard has failed, so the protection plan needs to be revised first. In other words, the destruction of the cultural relics environment has become an established fact.

It seems that heritage protection has fallen behind again. Is this because of the weakness of the cultural relics protection department or the inevitable result under specific social and economic conditions?

In 2005, ICOMOS (International Council of Monuments and Sites) adopted the Declaration on Environmental Protection of Historic Buildings, Ancient Sites and Historic Sites in Xi 'an, China (hereinafter referred to as the Xi 'an Declaration), holding that the heritage itself is closely related to its surrounding environment, including past and present social and spiritual practices and traditional customs, which are isomorphic into a whole local culture. In 2008, the International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) adopted the Quebec Declaration on the Spirit of Place, which further supplemented the Xi Declaration, and proposed that the spirit of place is composed of material and intangible elements, constructed by different groups, with multiple meanings, and traditional cultural groups generally know it best and are most qualified to defend it.

What kind of cultural inheritance is needed for rural revitalization?

Under the background of rural revitalization, we should actively seek solutions to rural problems, but we should also avoid some old roads and wrong roads.

On the one hand, there is an undercurrent of economic benefits behind the means of heritage protection called renovation. On the other hand, the "one size fits all" working method has also contributed to this trend to some extent. The practice of pouring a lot of money and resources, or major policy changes, such large-scale and high-intensity intervention, will often cause a devastating blow to the original natural and cultural ecology of a village. Once lost, it's hard to get it back.

The practice of heritage protection is first of all a kind of cultural inheritance, followed by economic, political and social activities. Using the latter standard to evaluate and measure the effect of the former is also the most easily discouraged point for many practitioners of rural heritage protection or rural construction.

Rural society is a complex system, which has its limitations from any angle. Just as the Qiao Family Courtyard can't solve all the problems of community development by tourism, other fields or occupations can't infinitely enlarge their respective utility and responsibilities.

The tourism development of Qiao Family Courtyard needs a system that can evaluate and manage its heritage protection and cultural inheritance, in addition to measuring the gains and losses with the "delisted 5A scenic spot". This system also needs a certain binding force and influence, and needs a clearer reward and punishment mechanism and power and responsibility system. Basically, it is to avoid alienating cultural heritage into a vassal of other activities. The newly published People's Republic of China (PRC) Law on Promoting Rural Revitalization (Draft) has a separate chapter on "Cultural Inheritance", and its significance can be seen.

In the process of old city reconstruction or urban heritage protection, there have been many negative cases of tearing down the truth and falsifying, tearing down the old and building a new one. Even today, reconstruction projects of old cities and old streets under the banner of cultural revival and heritage protection are still emerging everywhere. The Qiao Family Courtyard, which was completely demolished around, is a replica of this model in rural areas. People often ignore that quadrangles are marked with identity and status, but they were born in rural society in essence.

Rural revitalization is not to make the countryside "the back garden of urban people", nor is rural culture a simple copy of urban culture, and its success can not be judged by tourist popularity. At that time, Shanxi merchants made a living outside for a long time, leaving women, children and the elderly at home, which also caused the hollowing out of the countryside to some extent. However, due to the effective feedback of resources, it has not hindered the stable development of rural society and the intergenerational inheritance of rural culture.

Rural revitalization cannot require all villages to be "on fire", but under the principle of taking villagers as the main body, it can enhance the flexibility of policies, achieve the purpose of "returning home" of resources, and realize cultural inheritance in a more moderate and sustainable way.