Page 46 - JCAU-7-1

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Hakka settlement in the middle ground

A B

Figure 15. Mapping of permanent markets in the Middle Ground the peripheral Pearl River Delta. (A) Fu Min Wholesale Market. (B) Hua Lian Market.
Source: Drawings by the authors

of products they offer from the Pearl River Delta cities, elements remain inseparable in the daily lives of villagers.
exemplifying how high-end consumption is positioned Consequently, this research also discusses the role of rural
and adapted within the commercial center of the Middle heritage in the future development of the Middle Ground.
Ground. From the author’s field notes:
“Fu Min Wholesale Market is a concrete building 5.1. Authority, mobility, and spatial transformation
that includes several restaurants, tailors, and In the past, rural Hakka society was a folk society governed
barbers. The ground floor areas of the surrounding by local clan power, with social acquaintance networks
building are occupied by various shops selling formed among family, clan members, and neighbors.
daily necessities, such as cooked food, snacks and Consequently, the spatial morphology of traditional clan-
beverages, farm tools, and commodities for festivals based Hakka settlements was shaped by informal control
and rituals. The adjacent roads and alleys are also over local resources, economic conditions, social ethics, and
lined with temporary stalls selling small wares. customs. However, with the integration of state power into
Various courier express services and a coach station rural society, this transformation of authority has further
connecting to the Pearl River Delta cities such as driven social and cultural shifts, contributing to the spatial
Guangzhou and Shenzhen are also located near the transformation of the Middle Ground. Architecturally,
market.” this shift is embodied in top-down planning, development
Hua Lian Market, approximately 500 m away from Fu controls, and legislation affecting land use, traffic networks,
Min Wholesale Market, is another major market. Although and housing.
smaller, it offers a greater variety of businesses, which Land, a crucial resource in Hakka society, was
includes a wet market selling raw meat, and a department historically controlled by clan leaders and distributed to
store, called “Hua Lian Department Store.” Inside the family members. The Hakka clan leader, as the authority,
department store, in addition to shops selling clothes and was responsible for the overall village design, including
daily necessities, one can find gold jewelry shops, chain- site selection, configuration, housing scale and style,
store bubble tea shops, a supermarket, and even a cinema, construction process, and coordinating benefits among
comparable to those in city shopping malls. family members (Lin, 1995). Due to relatively sufficient

5. Discussion land resources and the technical limitations of traditional
construction, Hakka villages expanded horizontally as
The findings indicate that the traditional morphology of the population grew, forming clan-based settlements.
Hakka settlements is being blended with modern commercial Conversely, the Maoist urban-rural dualism in China
infrastructure and housing, creating an ambiguous condition. changed rural land ownership to collective ownership
This article documents these morphological variations and by the state, strictly restricting the scope of land use (Xu
attempts to explore the underlying socioeconomic factors et al., 2011). As a result, each household can now apply
driving these transformations. Urbanization is particularly for only a limited area of homestead land. Consequently,
overwhelming in peri-urban areas of metropolitan cities. new detached houses have grown vertically rather than
Nevertheless, as observed, numerous rural heritage horizontally, achieving generational and functional

Volume 7 Issue 1 (2025) 12 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3649