Local Chinese Campaigners Call for Protect Traditional Villages and Resist Urbanization

The village was listed as one of China’s fourth batch of national historical and cultural villages in 2008. (Photo : Xinhua)

Over the past 10 years, there were about 900,000 natural villages have disappeared in china. A famed writer Feng Jicai predicts “The situation is becoming more serious than anticipated” on Wednesday.

Nowadays, many campaigners for the protection of villages same as Feng are concerned by their rapid decline having been the birthplace of Chinese culture and the origin of agricultural civilization.

Campaigners solemnly protest “No other country in the world sees its villages disappearing at such a rate”. Feng who made his point by saying: “100 villages have vanished in a day, as we are having this session.”

Many Chinese young people agree with writer’s point of view, and put into practice. Some campaigners think the main problem is the fact that villagers have no say in the matter, with power only in the hands of political officials, scholars and developers. Accompanying urbanization in China, most of the natives are moved from their hometown, folk ways vanish and the village becomes an empty shell with no cultural value.

Campaigners have catalogued 100 villages for preservation trough “Chinese Traditional Villages Archive-Building and Surveys” in June last year but there efforts only mark the first step, experts account that more than 5,000 traditional villages should be investigated.