Chinese Houses of Southeast Asia. Ronald G. Knapp
arranged at right angles to and parallel with the fronts of other buildings creates configurations that are strikingly similar to the character 井, a well or open vertical passage sunk into the confining earth. The proportion of open space to enclosed space is generally greater in northern China than in southern China, fostered by the desire to welcome sunlight in the north but to avoid its intensity in the south. As a result, courtyards found in southern homes are usually much smaller than elsewhere in the country.
Chinese in southern China use the term tianjing to describe open spaces within their dwellings, whether they are fairly large or indeed even mere shafts that punctuate the building. The term tianjing is usually translated into English as “skywell” or “airwell,” terms that are especially appropriate in multistoried structures where the verticality of the cavity exceeds the horizontal dimension. Atrium-like tianjing are found in Ming and Qing dynasty residences throughout central and southern China, including along the coastal areas. Tianjing evacuate interior heat, catch passing breezes, shade adjacent spaces as the sun moves, and lead rainwater into the dwelling where it can be collected. Adjacent to skywells, which are relatively bright compared to enclosed darker rooms, “gray” transitional spaces such as shaded verandas are common in Fujian and Guangdong. In order to reduce humidity levels that effectively lower the apparent temperature felt by the body, architectural devices such as open-faced lattice door panels, half-doors, and high-wall ventilation ports are employed in southern houses to enhance ventilation. Throughout Southeast Asia, where the sun is elevated in the sky year round and ambient temperatures are high, it is not surprising that immigrants from southern China continued to use tianjing in their new homes. Many examples will be shown in the chapters that follow.
Throughout southern Fujian and eastern Zhejiang, manors with front-to-back halls and perpendicular wing halls represent the typical fully developed residential form. This residence of the Zhuang family is located in the Jinjiang area of Fujian province.
Where building lots were restrictive and space was at a premium, Chinese builders traditionally adjusted the dimensions and shapes of their structures. In urban areas, narrow residences adjacent to each other along a street were constructed as long structures with small skywells punctuating the corridor-like receding building. Where it was possible to construct a more extensive residence, either narrow or broad parallel structures were constructed alongside a wider central unit. Over time, if wealth and family circumstances allowed, additional side-to-side wing units were added. Examples of this modularity and replication of enclosed and open spaces can still be seen throughout Fujian and Guangdong, indeed throughout China.
The Tan Tek Kee Residence, Jinjiang
Migrants who departed Fujian and Guangdong were generally poor, leaving behind family homes that were simple and unremarkable. In some cases, however, where the family already had a home and migration by a son was part of a family’s strategy to further increase its wealth, there was usually hope that improvements in the residence would take place as remittances came from abroad. In the early twentieth century, travelers in the region noted the presence of emigrant communities because of the superior quality of the dwellings. Ta Chen states that these fine homes, traditional and modern, were “the most effective way to express one’s vanity.” Moreover, “an effective display of pride does not mean only a large house, but it has to have evidences of taste and culture. This may be supplied either by modernity or, on the contrary, by an ostensible show of liking for those things which traditionally stand for refinement.... The ideal of ‘complete happiness’... is not in fact anything new the emigrants bring back with them from abroad, but embodied in the folkways of the countryside. What they do contribute is financial ability to gratify these tastes and, sometimes, innovations which produce curious contrasts between old and new in the homes and the furnishing of homes” (1940: 110–11).
While there is no “typical” home of a migrant, the residence discussed below illustrates the dynamic nature of space in a fully formed residence of a family who sent their son to the Philippines. The dwelling expresses what Chinese broadly considered a fine home for harmonious family life during the late imperial period. It exhibits well the layout and materials of a traditional Fujian dwelling, as well as reflecting aspects of family organization, ways of living, and ritual requirements in one of China’s preeminent qiaoxiang in Jinjiang county to the south of Quanzhou. Because of deterioration over the past half-century and lack of documentation, however, it is not possible to ascertain with certainty the specific changes brought about by the remittances from their successful son.
This expansive residence was built sometime during the latter half of the nineteenth century either by the father or grandfather of Tan Tek Kee, who was born in the family home in 1900. Family lore recalls that Tan Tek Kee’s forebears themselves had migrated southward from Henan province in northern China, perhaps an explanation for the fact that descendants have been tall compared to their neighbors. Tan Tek Kee’s father is said to have gained fame and perhaps some modest wealth from his fishball business. Fishballs, made from minced fish mixed with other ingredients, are still a distinctive component of cuisine in Fujian, whether served in noodle soups or deep-fried, skewered, and served with various sauces. Raised by his elder brother and sister-inlaw, Tan Tek Kee married at the age of thirteen or fourteen before being sent to the Philippines in 1914 or 1915 with family friends surnamed Cheng, who served as his surrogate parents. Working first as a cook, then a courier, and then later a manager, he branched out on his own in the 1930s, even as he made many return trips to his family’s Jinjiang home and his birthplace. According to family custom, he retained some rights to the residence, which was sufficiently roomy so that the multigenerational families of his surviving siblings lived comfortably. The father of ten children, two of whom were adopted, Tan Tek Kee over time amassed sufficient resources to bring his wife to Manila where he died and was buried in 1966.
Resembling the typical architectural pattern seen on the previous page, the residence of Tan Tek Kee, also in Jinjiang, is much as it was during the late nineteenth century.
At one time, the home was a solitary structure surrounded by rice paddies, but as can be seen in the bird’s-eye view photograph, new-style multistoried structures have encroached upon it, diminishing to some degree not only its tranquility but also heightening its sense of being forlorn. Like other residences of this type, it was built with an overall rectangular shape, which could be considered square if one includes the walled open space in front. While its overall form remains today intact, renovation and dilapidation have altered its original appearance. In terms of the composition of its spatial elements, the three-bay central structure, with a generous square tianjing between the entry hall and the ancestral hall, has a pair of perpendicular structures that complete the quadrangular core. A second pair of parallel, perpendicular two-storied buildings was added to complete the layout. Each of the outer wings, called hucuo, is separated from the core building by a narrow longitudinal tianjing running from front to back, which could be entered directly from the outside via a doorway. Indeed, it would have been these two side entries that would have been used on a daily basis in the past, rather than the recessed central entryway, with its elegant didactic ornamentation.
From just inside a magnifi-cent entryway, which abounds in carved stone and brickwork, this view is across the first skywell looking towards the first hall.
Cut granite slabs, some of which are carved, were used throughout the residence for the foundation, steps, sills, and columns. Granite or huagangshi, a coarse-grained igneous rock known for being more durable than marble, was used in the core building. Readily available in the nearby mountains of the province, yet considered an expensive building material, granite has traditionally been employed as a building material in temples and fine residences throughout central and southern Fujian. (Today, parenthetically speaking, Fujian is a major source for polished granite countertops used in modern kitchens and bathrooms throughout the world.) The sunken entryway was created using interlocking vertical and horizontal pieces of granite of different dimensions. At the base of the entry portico, as well