ABOUT FRIENDS OF TULOU
Friends of Tulou is a not-for-profit family organization that has “adopted” a tulou building as a laboratory and model for studying sustainable tulou development. We are based at a round tulou called Qingxing Lou (constructed between ~1950-61) in Tianzhong Village, Shuyang Township, Nanjing County, Fujian Province, China, about a 3-hour drive from the coastal city of Xiamen.
The condition and predicament of our tulou is in many ways representative of hundreds of others in the area: prior to the recent renovations in 2010, the building was nearly deserted and on the verge of delapidation, as most of the inhabitants have migrated to the city or moved to the nearby modern developments in the area. At the same time, the recent UNESCO designation of the nearby tulou clusters has rapidly increased public interest in, and traffic to, the region.
Through a combination of long-term community collaboration, architectural restoration, and creative programming and research, we aim to help to find the tulou’s new position within the urgent cultural contexts of preservation, development, and urbanization in contemporary China.
The condition and predicament of our tulou is in many ways representative of hundreds of others in the area: prior to the recent renovations in 2010, the building was nearly deserted and on the verge of delapidation, as most of the inhabitants have migrated to the city or moved to the nearby modern developments in the area. At the same time, the recent UNESCO designation of the nearby tulou clusters has rapidly increased public interest in, and traffic to, the region.
Through a combination of long-term community collaboration, architectural restoration, and creative programming and research, we aim to help to find the tulou’s new position within the urgent cultural contexts of preservation, development, and urbanization in contemporary China.