Not long ago, at the 2nd China (Shenzhen) Ancient Villages and New Countryside Thematic Exhibition (Countryside Expo) in 2017, during the "Peak Forum on Characteristic Towns and Rural Complexes under New Urbanism/New Pastoralism" themed "Urban Innovation and New Countryside in the Context of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area/Pearl River Delta World-Class Urban Agglomeration," Chen Keshi, Chief Designer of China Ying Urban Design Research Institute and Professor at Peking University, shared his insights in the speech titled "Traditional Villages and Towns Are the Last Carriers of China's Great Agrarian Civilization," which received significant attention. The following is a sharing of that speech.
"Traditional Villages and Towns Are the Last Carriers of China's Great Agrarian Civilization"
By Chen Keshi
Good morning, everyone.
Over the past decade, we have completed planning and design for more than 20 characteristic towns, adopting the garden city as our main design philosophy. I would like to share some insights from this experience with you today.
I. British Garden City Theory
Speaking of garden cities, we must start with the theory of the "garden city" in Britain. I lived in the UK for six years, and my deepest impression was how beautiful and picturesque the British countryside is. However, after returning to China, I felt a stark contrast—many villages fail to showcase the beauty of pastoral life. In ancient times, our villages should have been very beautiful, as many Tang and Song poems describe the pastoral charm of rural China. Therefore, I have devoted much effort to the planning and design of villages, hoping to revive that beauty.
Additionally, I feel that rural areas in China, especially in remote regions like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, have preserved more of their natural beauty. As a result, many of our projects are concentrated in these areas.
A fundamental theory of the garden city is that both the countryside and the city have their merits. From a sociological perspective, it explores how to combine the advantages of both, which is the famous "Three Magnets Theory." The countryside offers clean air, fresh food, and a close-knit community where people grow up together, know each other well, and feel secure. The countryside provides an ideal environment and social structure for human life, making it a perfect setting for living.
Why do people leave the city? Because cities have many problems, such as environmental pollution, traffic congestion, and the breakdown of close human relationships due to stress and pressure. Why do people go to the city? Because cities offer better medical care, education, job opportunities, and the chance to change one’s fate. Therefore, Howard proposed the theory of the "garden city," suggesting that the countryside has its attractions, and so does the city. The ideal urban-rural planning is one where the countryside and city can be integrated.
Let me show you the British countryside I am familiar with. This village is located in the suburbs of London, and you can see how its planning reflects harmony between humans and nature. The UK has a strong awareness of environmental protection—you rarely see trees being cut down or grass being pulled out arbitrarily. There are no signs of ecological damage in the countryside. When driving through the countryside, it’s hard to find a single patch of bare soil—all is covered with vegetation. I think this is the ideal countryside we should aim for. I often wonder when China’s countryside can look as green and idyllic as this photo.
This is the town of York. You can see that the entire village has largely retained its pre-Industrial Revolution layout. The most iconic element of a typical British village is the church, usually located at the heart of the village and serving as a center for community activities. In many of my village and town planning projects, I’ve lamented the lack of spiritual spaces. Many villages no longer preserve traditional sacred spaces such as Confucian temples, Guan Yu temples, wealth god shrines, or Buddhist halls. Therefore, I hope China’s future villages can have spiritual spaces like those in British villages—places that carry their own cultural heritage. In all the villages I design now, I reserve space for future spiritual development, hoping that these cultural spaces representing traditional Chinese culture can be restored.
II. Eastern Pastoral Philosophy
As an ancient civilization in the East, we have deep roots in traditional pastoral philosophy. Summarizing the origins of China’s pastoral thought, I found that it began to emerge during the Wei and Jin dynasties. Many ancient Chinese literati, represented by Tao Yuanming, may have relied on Confucian ideals in their youth but turned to pastoral life later in life. Thus, we see that during the Wei-Jin and Ming-Qing periods, officials often retired to immerse themselves in nature and live a reclusive pastoral life. This shows that pastoral philosophy is a crucial pillar of traditional Chinese culture.
What is the difference between Chinese and British pastoral philosophies? I believe we have a deeper-rooted love and dependence on nature. What does our traditional culture advocate? It promotes the idea of fishing, woodcutting, farming, and studying—in a poetic and pastoral environment. In many of my town and village planning projects, I have emphasized the importance of Chinese pastoral thought. I believe that a peaceful and fulfilling life is a great value of our agrarian culture.
Later, as an advisor to the Chengdu Municipal Government, I led the planning and design of many tourism towns and ancient towns around Chengdu, such as Luodai Ancient Town and Wenchuan Shuimo Town. It was through these practical experiences that I truly understood the relationship between Chinese pastoral philosophy and traditional ancient towns. If industrial civilization began in Britain, then Britain represents great industrial civilization. But I believe the achievements of agrarian culture are mainly reflected in China. Agrarian culture has had a profound impact on our country and has shaped the great Eastern civilization. The lifestyles depicted in Wei-Jin prose, Tang-Song poetry, and Ming-Qing novels represent the way of life of our great agrarian civilization. Therefore, I feel fortunate to have dedicated most of my efforts over the past 15 years to designing traditional towns, tourism towns, and characteristic towns, pursuing a modern interpretation of agrarian civilization.
We have practiced following our traditional culture for thousands of years, and through this, we can identify many continuous ideals that have shaped our spiritual world and become the foundation of our philosophy. From paintings, we can see the traditional Chinese ideal of life—a longing for fields, paths, and landscapes. This ideal living environment is concentrated in towns and villages. Last month, I just returned from a research trip to Tokyo and found that over half of Tokyo’s population lives in the suburbs or small towns, not all crammed into crowded high-rises. Therefore, I believe that as a similarly densely populated country, China should allow this way of living to return and rebuild our rural areas.
III. Lessons from Europe’s Beautiful Villages
Now let’s look at the construction of beautiful villages in Europe. Having visited European villages and cities many times, I’d like to share some insights. This photo shows the Lake District in England, where the countryside still preserves its architectural and cultural traditions, including the use of sloping roofs, traditional craftsmanship, and materials. Last year, during a speech, I repeatedly emphasized the importance of preserving traditional craftsmanship, materials, and values; otherwise, it would have a significant impact on traditional culture and the appearance of urban and rural areas. In the process of rural construction, we have learned some painful lessons, the most regrettable being in Zhejiang. While accelerating the development of township enterprises and economic growth, Zhejiang destroyed many beautiful traditional villages. What replaced them? Styles that even locals couldn’t recognize—Spanish, Italian, or something unidentifiable—losing the unique characteristics of traditional villages. These lacked regional and cultural identity, making it unbelievable that they were Chinese villages because the craftsmanship, materials, and cultural features were not their own.
Yorkshire was bombed flat during World War II. What was their attitude? They aimed to restore traditional buildings and preserve the original craftsmanship, texture, and spatial layout. Therefore, Yorkshire was rebuilt on the basis of respecting tradition. Let’s look at the city walls of Yorkshire—they were destroyed during the war, but the outer layer was restored, and a city wall park was built. This case inspired me greatly, and I have applied this approach in multiple projects. For example, in recent projects in Heyuan Tuocheng and Guizhou, we recommended restoring the original appearance of the city walls. I believe that if an ancient town can restore its walls, it creates a boundary—the area inside can preserve the village as it was 300 or 500 years ago, while the area outside showcases a more modern urban landscape.
Our town and village construction must return to the cultural roots of traditional China. At present, Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan have preserved relatively well, but I am concerned that development in these regions over the next ten years may lead to the destruction of traditional towns. I visit Guilin every five years. The photos from 15 years ago are the best—the ones from 10 years ago already show some strange buildings that disrupt Guilin’s unique landscape. When I went back five years ago, I didn’t take any photos of the villages because they had lost their poetic pastoral charm and the beautiful scenes we once saw. We are actually destroying our own traditions and ruining our villages. How can we prevent further destruction of traditional villages? I have a proposal: we should leave things as they are for another ten years—perhaps the Chinese people will come to their senses by then. Over the next decade, there will be a struggle between destructive forces and protective forces. Therefore, I believe we should learn from Europe’s rural planning and construction experience—they do a better job in cultural heritage preservation and protection, and their values are worth learning.
This is Provence in France, a photo I took last year. I don’t think they did anything particularly special—they simply preserved traditional architectural culture and the original spatial layout, which is what I believe made them successful. As for rural landscapes, they created many attractive scenes—I believe these are achievable in China as well. Many European villages have preserved such scenes, with people painting watercolors or students sketching. I think European values are highly worth emulating.
Let’s look at Switzerland. Switzerland is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. The Swiss government mandates that mountainous areas must have sloping roofs—a simple concept, but one that is disappearing in China. Why sloping roofs? Because mountain architecture has a fifth facade—the sloping roof itself is a facade.
Freiburg was flattened by American planes after World War II. They also restored and preserved the traditional urban layout of Freiburg from the ruins. Within the traditional urban form, new urban lifestyles can still be integrated—this is what I think Europe does well, and it’s worth learning from. I hope everyone has the opportunity to visit places like the British countryside, Provence in France, and the Black Forest in Germany. Their experiences will inspire our urban and rural development.
Every year, I make time to revisit these beautiful villages in Europe to learn from their experience. I hope that our future villages, like those in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan, will preserve as much as possible as we move forward—because these are the genes of our culture, the carriers of our agrarian civilization. If we destroy the houses and replace them with the brick buildings we see today, our beautiful villages will be lost. So what do we need? We need to learn from successful foreign experiences and break free from the blind worship of modernization.
IV. Practice of Beautiful Villages in China
When I was pursuing my Ph.D. in the UK, I mainly studied Western architectural art, particularly ancient Greek architecture from 520 to 460 BC—also the late Spring and Autumn period in China. During this time, Europe laid the foundation for Western architecture. My travels in Europe left me deeply puzzled—Europe and China have very different values when it comes to rural construction. After returning to China and joining Peking University, over 60% of my graduate students focused on researching traditional towns, tourism towns—now called characteristic towns. In my design practice, I have completed more than 20 town projects, many drawing on the experience of European towns. One of these is a classic case of post-disaster reconstruction in Wenchuan, called Shuimo Town. In the design, we prioritized landscape, drawing on the Swiss experience by utilizing the town’s river to create a lake and develop a high-quality waterfront landscape. The most successful aspect of Shuimo Town was our emphasis on landscape priority.
Last year, we completed the Nyingchi Lulang International Tourism Town in Tibet. I believe this is an upgraded version based on the modernization of traditional ancient town and village architecture. Six years ago, when I was commissioned for this project, I set a prerequisite with the Guangdong Provincial Government: I must be the chief designer to ensure design consistency in style and overall form. The now-completed Lulang International Tourism Town has received widespread acclaim and international attention. It is the first tourism town established in the 60th anniversary of the Tibet Autonomous Region, featuring traditional Tibetan architectural styles overall. However, traditional Tibetan style is not without innovation—we carried out secondary creation based on traditional styles. Because wooden structures are complex, we commissioned a wooden structure company in Lhasa to assist us with the design. We have designed many towns before, but the workload for Lulang Town far exceeded our expectations. By normal national standards, achieving this level of detail—for over 250 individual buildings, each with unique forms and painted designs—required tremendous effort.
When we were designing the resettlement housing, I had one particular philosophy: we must create a business-friendly environment. Because if you help local residents relocate to new homes, you must also provide them with a source of income so they can live better—that’s what makes a beautiful countryside. It shouldn’t be like some places where they build six-story buildings with elevators, move everyone in, but then the former dog owners can’t keep dogs, the chicken farmers can’t raise chickens, and the vegetable growers move into high-rises but lose their farmland, cutting off the original residents’ livelihoods. So I believe a new type of beautiful countryside must allow the original inhabitants to live better lives—that is the direction we should strive for.
Four years ago, by chance, I came into contact with Heyuan’s Tuocheng. At that time, I felt Tuocheng was truly remarkable because it is the first city established in Lingnan and the birthplace of Hakka culture. Over the past four years, Tuocheng has not undergone any major damage or changes. After we completed the planning and design for this ancient town, a listed company immediately took over the project, secured funding by introducing an investment fund, which brought new hope to this ancient town. I believe this is a very good model for urban and rural development: first, create a solid plan and design, then promote it to society to expand investment and financing channels, and ultimately achieve the project’s implementation, attaining a high-quality transformation and upgrade.
V. Final Message
I hope that with our efforts, China’s traditional villages can continue to progress, can be continuously preserved, and can achieve sustainable development. Through beautiful countryside initiatives, we can reflect our pastoral ideals, showcase the greatness of China’s farming culture, and express our deep love for our hometowns and native land. Let us live within China’s traditional culture and spaces, and be true Chinese.