Strolling around old villas with children
By Jenny Qiu
Photos by Yao Fan

8月12号上午, 一群可爱的小朋友聚集在厦门市少儿图书馆, 听原博物馆馆长龚洁先生给他们讲述关于鼓浪屿老别墅的故事. 一张张老房子的照片, 一个个关于老别墅的故事, 让小朋友们慢慢感受到鼓浪屿建筑和文化的独特魅力.

On August 12, many young children gathered together in the main hall at Xiamen Children's Library. Some came by themselves, some with their parents, as most of them were very young, some only 4 or 5 years old. They were waiting for a lecture: Stories of the Old Villas and Gulangyu.

Professor Gong Jie, who used to be the curator of Xiamen Museum, gave a lively presentation to his young audience. He has been in Xiamen since 1952 and has a deep connection to the city, especially Gulangyu. Though he majored in communications at college, he is very interested in architecture and history, and has done a lot of research in these fields. He is a walking history of Xiamen: talking to him, you can hear thousands of stories. He used to lecture 7 days a week, 9 hours a day, but still never came to the end of the stories he wanted to tell. This time, he shared some stories about Gulangyu with these young children. Professor Gong's lecture was in two parts: the history of the villas on Gulangyu; and stories about them.

The history of the villas

How did the villas come to be built? There are about 2000 old houses on Gulangyu, most of them in European style. Who built them? The history of these villas can be divided into two periods. The first period was from 1840 to 1920. After the first Opium War, the "Nanjing Treaty" was signed, and Xiamen was opened to foreign trade as a treaty port. Officials from 13 European countries came to Xiamen. In 1844, a British Consulate was built on Gulangyu, the first villa on the island. After that, more and more foreign consulates were constructed there. Churches, hospitals, schools, post offices and banks were built up one by one. The second period lasted from 1920 to 1935. During this period, many patriotic overseas Chinese came and settled down in Gulangyu. Huang Yizhu was the richest person on the island. He owned several houses, pavilions and gardens. His villa was called "the best in China". It cost a huge amount of money: one of his great staircases was worth 200,000 silver dollars. After him, many rich overseas Chinese returned to build beautiful villas on the island. By the end of 1935, there were more than 1500 rich houses on Gulangyu, in all kinds of fantastic styles.



The amazing villas

The villas on Gulangyu were a mixture of western and Chinese architecture. The different styles were reflected in the verandas, roofs and gates. The columns and windows show all kinds of styles. Gulangyu architects were crazy about columns, not only employing traditional Doric, Ionic and Corinthian styles but also inventing a few of their own. Classic Greek columns were carved with traditional fengshui diagrams, and a single column might incorporate Doric, Ionic and Corinthian forms with a Chinese ceramic trim. Villa windows might be European, American, Chinese, Gothic, Art Deco or Art Nouveau. Some buildings, like Fujian Road's Huang Rongyuan Villa use 3 or 4 different styles of window on one wall. You never find modern buildings with mixtures like this.

Professor Gong gave a lively account of the history and stories and showed many photos to the children. He used simple language and visual aids to make this lecture more lively and attractive. Sometimes, he used jokes and took examples from his surroundings to make it easy to understand. At the end, he told the story of Lin Yutang, an "international" Chinese writer. Lin Yutang was schooled on Gulangyu and taught at Xiamen University from 1926 to 1927. Through the photos of Lin's old houses, the children started to get familiar with the story of the world famous writer who bridged the gulf between east and west.

The children all enjoyed the lecture and you could hear their interest in the wonderful pictures. They were amazed by the old buildings and the stories. They had never thought that the old villas of Gulangyu could be so beautiful and could have so many interesting stories. Lin Hanzhi, a nine-year old girl, said that she had been to Gulangyu before, but she didn't know the history and wonderful stories that went with these delicate old houses. "I will definitely go to visit Gulangyu again and pay more attention to the architecture there. I like this kind of lecture very much. Next time I can tell my friends all the stories I've heard from Grandpa Gong."



The parents were also enchanted by the vivid story-telling. The father of a five-year old girl said that this kind of lecture helps to stimulate children's interest in looking deeper into their culture. Even for adults, it's a good chance to broaden their horizons and understanding of history. He suggested that this kind of lecture could be provided all over the city.

To enrich children's summer vacations and open their young minds, Xiamen Children's Library holds many lectures during July and August. Other lectures include the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson and Stories of Chinese and Foreign Writers. On August 19, Professor Gong will continue to tell The Stories of Old Villas and Gulangyu. Nowadays, so many children spend all their time watching TV, on the internet and playing computer games. It is rare for them to pay attention to culture and history. The library wants to build up the children's interest in literature, art and traditional culture through these lectures.

Vocabulary
stroll 闲逛
enchant 吸引
pavilion 亭子
Doric 陶立克式
Ionic 爱奥尼克式
Corinthian 科林斯式
Art Nouveau 新艺术主义

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