Shanghai architect spearheads rural revitalization effort
A little child stares curiously at the geometric images that are reflected on the ground from a wall and a roof in a remote mountain village.
"I don't get it, but they look nice," the transfixed child tells his mother.
The unusual setting that caught the fascination of the little child is in the village of Tengdai in Zhejiang Province.
An installation in Tengdai Village, the hometown of geometer Su Buqing
There is a reason for it being there. The village happens to be the birthplace of Su Buqing (1902-2003), former president of Fudan University who's regarded as Asia's best geometer.
And the creator who gave the village its distinct new identity is Wang Yong, a Shanghai-based architect and university professor.
When Wang first visited Tengdai in 2010, there were few villagers left. Young farmers had left to work in the cities, leaving the elderly and children behind.
The former home of geometer Su had been turned into a memorial, but the rest of the village was run-down and deserted.
The makeover has given a buzz to the village, and Wang is excited by the promise of a colorful tapestry of life.
"The village is greatly revitalized now," says Wang. "There are a lot of shops and visitors are pouring in, especially on weekends."
"It'll get even better," says the 57-year-old architect who graduated from Tongji University in Shanghai and did his master's at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Wang's initiation into rural development projects began with a natural disaster that rocked China in 2008. Following the Wenchuan earthquake in Sichuan Province, he was approached by a university classmate who sought his assistance in replanning and rebuilding the earthquake-damaged villages.
"I was shocked," Wang says. "I'd visited rural China as a tourist, including some villages in Sichuan, but that's not the same as the remote mountain villages with no tourism."
Shanghai-based architect Wang Yong (in black) works on a site in rural China.
There was no planning. The villagers built their own homes, many of which were dilapidated and had poor sanitary conditions. It was worse and more challenging than Wang had imagined, with little money to make. But Wang was drawn to it.
"Because you know what you're doing is really making a difference in people's lives," he says. "What could be more rewarding than that?"
Over the next 10 years, Wang was frequently referred to by colleagues and classmates who had till then been preoccupied with more profitable urban projects.
The architect and construction engineer is also head of the Department of Environmental Design at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology. Over the last 14 years, he has done overall or partial planning for nearly 200 villages.
The property boom in Wang's heydays offered ample opportunities to young architects in the country, but he was not stirred up by it.
"I was not drawn to quick apartment projects that can be easily copied anywhere in the country," Wang says.
"Cultural projects, such as museums or historical structures, have always piqued my interest. I was interested in rural development because, as an architect, you should be aware of larger social issues, but I had never worked on a rural project before 2008. Back then, there weren't many rural projects that would reach a Shanghai architect."
Many of his designs were never implemented or took years to complete due to a lack of interest or financial support. All that changed after "rural revitalization" became a critical component of the Chinese government's 2020-2025 work plan.
The Rural Revitalization Promotion Law came into effect in June 2021. It led to the creation of a harvest festival for farmers and an effort to improve the rural revitalization assessment system. It has also set rules for protecting farmland and educating farmers on farming, as well as a system for relocating farmers and giving them funds to help the environment.
A house before (above) and after (below) the renovation by Wang Yong in a mountainous village in Zhejiang Province
A corridor with "concealment and surprise," a distinctive feature of Chinese gardens. This is done with "moon gates" or windows with intricate latticework.
Wang worked on 35 projects in 2020 alone. Village and county leaders contacted him as investment from both the public and private sectors suddenly increased. He and his students are much sought after now as thousands of Chinese villages undergo or await "revitalization."
"Rural villages in Zhejiang Province have already improved significantly. In the more developed villages, you can pretty much enjoy everything that you find in a city – car-hailing, takeout, café, milk tea – so I do see some people coming back from cities," says Chen Sisi, who hails from Zhejiang Province and has just completed her master's degree.
"I'd return if I could open a clothing store in a village and earn a steady income."
Chen grew up in a mountainous village in the late 1990s and early 2000s before her family relocated to the city.
Wang believes that talking with villagers and listening to their needs is an important part of his research before designing.
"Most Chinese villagers want fashionable urban life, which is why many want to move to cities or build so-called American- or European-style villas. To them, owning such a villa entails living a modern lifestyle," he says.
"If we can give them a modern and convenient life that they wish for while preserving centuries-old Chinese aesthetics and traditions, it is not that bad."
"Villagers all know Professor Wang very well now because it takes years and many visits to do one project," says Zhang Xinyi, a second-year master's student, who went on a field trip with Wang last year in Zhejiang Province.
The Shanghai native now clearly understands why "rural revitalization" is needed for villagers, while previously dismissing it as just a concept on paper.
"They surround us when we take measurements and check out the houses. They tell us about their demands, from which parts of the houses are run down to their ideal life," Zhang said.
"And we are making a change – from fixing their houses to securing their messed-up electric lines to digging out economic potential so that they don't have to leave for the cities to work. The latter part is especially challenging and requires a different, tailor-made approach for each village."
For Zhang, "it is more satisfactory if it is achieved," even if it means making trips in 40-degree weather.
Rural revitalization includes fixing houses, securing messed-up electric lines, and digging out the economic potential for local residents.
A case in point is Fenglin Village in Zhejiang. It was Zhang's first field trip. The renovations have achieved desired results, and young villagers who had left for the cities are slowly returning home. But Wang sounds a cautionary note.
"I'm now concerned there might be an influx of too much investment too suddenly," Wang says, noting how a contractor had rented an over-100-year-old house from a villager immediately after it was renovated and redesigned. The contractor uses the refurbished house as his office and has bigger plans for the rented house.
Wang welcomes the return of people, both new and old, because "ultimately you need people to vitalize a place," but he is wary of the impact of capital, while some of his colleagues welcome it.
After Wang and his team fixed up a 100-year-old house, a villager who had moved to the city came back and rented it from the owner right away.
Many Chinese rural developers have encountered a mismatch between villagers' desire for urban life and designers' desire to adhere to rural Chinese aesthetics. The streetlight debate in 2014 between curator Ou Ning and Harvard University PhD graduate Zhou Yun epitomizes this mismatch.
In 2011, Ou launched a rural utopia project in Anhui Province's Bishan Village, with the goal of attracting artists and intellectuals to build a community and improve the quality of life for locals.
Zhou visited the village in 2014 and inquired as to why there was still no streetlight in the village. It seems that the villagers wanted streetlights, but the intellectuals argued that the lights would ruin the country feel.
Ou denied it, but it sparked a series of discussions about what the villagers truly required. Rural developers have tried a variety of approaches to address the mismatch. Some simply relocate all of the original residents to newly constructed apartment buildings and completely redesign the village. Others attempt to strike a balance between the interests of the original villagers and the newcomers.
Wang's vision always includes the original inhabitants and, preferably, some type of agricultural scenario for them, even if it's just some garden spaces to plant vegetables for their own consumption.
Above and below: Wang's idea of "rural revitalization" always includes the original people who lived there and, ideally, some kind of farming.
According to Wang, the streetlight debate isn't a big deal.
"We have enough technology to deal with both – you can have lights that don't interfere with watching stars," he says. "However, there are times when you need to find a good way to communicate with villagers in order to persuade them to abandon their pursuit of what's 'most fashionable.'"
"It's beyond urban, it's like the lights in the most crowded nightclub," Wang says of an incident in which his designed dim lights were implemented into purplish club lighting. "But the villagers like it because they think it's 'fashionable,' their ideal urban style. As a result, rural revitalization goes beyond the scope of an architect or even an urban planner."
Wang is confident that technology can solve the debate over lighting in villages.
"We need rural management talent who are committed to working there for years," he adds.
Looking back at that curious child from Tengdai Village, a thought crosses the mind of one of the young team members: What if he grows up to be a mathematician like Su Buqing?
"It might sound stupid," says Wang, with a certain sanguineness. "However, the thought that what you are doing right now might have an impact on someone makes me immensely happy."
Architect Wang Yong (left) has been working in rural areas with his young team.
