The Chan Family Villa

The Chan Family Villa

The Chan Family Villa is a cultural heritage site protected at the Guangdong Provincial level.

The Chan Family Villa is located on Chen Zong Lane in the urban area of Foshan. Built in the early Republican era, it was the villa constructed by the renowned overseas Chinese businessman Chan Chak Nam. The property includes structures such as a gatehouse, main building, rear building, west building, storage building, and garden, covering an area of approximately 3,400 square meters.

The buildings feature a Western-style imitation combined with Sino-Western characteristics, and are built with reinforced concrete. The main building has two floors and is designed in the style of an Italian Renaissance-era residence. The ground floor consists of a central hall with side rooms on either side; the floor is paved with black-and-white marble tiles arranged in patterns, and the windows are made of frosted stained colored glass featuring designs of Chinese ladies, magnolia flowers, and birds and flowers—embodying a distinctly Chinese aesthetic. The staircase is entirely made of teakwood, while the banisters are in Western style. The second-floor flooring is paved with floral-patterned cement tiles, and the ceiling is finished, showing clear Western stylistic influence.

The main building and the rear building are connected by a sky bridge to facilitate movement. Unlike the main building, the exterior walls of the rear building are entirely covered in uniform glazed blue bricks, imitating the architecture of local mansions from the Qing Dynasty. The windows are adorned with locally common brick carvings, showcasing a distinct ethnic style. The west building is a three-story structure combining reinforced concrete and blue bricks in a Western-style imitation, while the storage room is a four-story building modeled after a traditional local pawnshop. This reflects the owner’s recognition and integration of both Chinese and Western cultures. Today, the buildings are well preserved.

Chan Chak Nam was the founder of the Hong Kong-based Nanyang Brothers Tobacco Company.

In 1989, the Foshan Municipal People's Government designated it as a cultural heritage site. On July 17, 2002, it was included in the fourth batch of Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage Sites.

Further reading:

· Fourth Batch of Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage Sites