Page 39 - JCAU-6-2

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Regenerating tradition: Rural revitalization

Figure 8. Vernacular life in Yulong Village. Source: Drawing by the authors

water corridor system’s morphology through topographic
modeling revealed potential benefits. These tools for
hydrological modifications could project a succession
ecology, with native mangroves eventually mitigating
riparian erosion. Li family’s ecological knowledge, together
with modern tools, could enable multifunctional benefits:
the water corridor system brings sediment to the riverbank
edge, shaping the riparian wetland, enhancing mangroves,
restoring soil nutrients, and reducing flooding impacts on
higher ground.
Our field surveys uncovered the narrative of Li family’s
agriculture, encompassing abstract beliefs and concrete
practices. This approach allows a deeper understanding
of the spiritual core of Li family’s culture, even for those
unfamiliar with Li family backgrounds. Despite the lacking
of a written language, Li family’s farming traditions are
usually kept alive by word of mouth between generations
of the Li family clans and by subtle influences in daily life.
In Li family’s farming traditions, the language of landscape
and its flux has a strong vitality. Although modernization
has greatly interfered with the communication of Li family
traditions and, to some extent, diminished their carriers of
language, the spiritual core of Li family traditions persists
in the collective subconsciousness of Li descendants. This
influence shapes the lives and behaviors of the current
Figure 9. Runoff analysis. Source: Drawing by the authors Li family members, enabling them to find a relatively
comfortable way of life in the ever-changing environment.
plug-in to identify potential depressions. Results propose Protecting and enabling these oral traditions are crucial
a system of water corridors connecting these depressions for the realization of rural revitalization. For this research,
in both the mountainous cash crop area and the lowland uncovering the remnants of living Li family traditions in
agricultural fields (Figure 9). This proposal catalyzed the text-based research posed a challenge. Mapping from field
exploration of design options for the riverbanks, where surveys proved more effective in understanding the Li
erosion problems are escalating due to frequent annual people’s culture and agricultural sensitivity. Consequently,
water-level changes. the research introduces a cartographic technique that
We speculated on a series of riparian wetlands by may supplement the oral narrative, contributing to the
simulating the submerged areas caused by rainfall and revitalization of the diminishing Li family’s farming
the rising of the reservoir’s water level. Superimposing the culture.

Volume 6 Issue 2 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1304