Bridging the Past and Future, Mitigating the conflicts between cultural identity and contemporary needs in Yuliang , China

Abstract

Because of the rapid urbanization in China, especially after the 1980s, lots of historical villages are facing the threat of abandonment or demolition. Many remaining villages are still waiting for appropriate preservation and development in order to adapt to contemporary needs. However, currently most developments are putting tourism first, ignoring the potential negative impacts of tourism. When tourism is booming, problems rise, like over-commercialization, inauthentic construction, environmental pollution, lose of local identity. As a result, villages loss their reputation and become empty villages in the end. This thesis tries to explore the methods that can mitigate the conflicts between local cultural identity and contemporary needs. This thesis takes Yuliang as an example to showcase how the new development could capture local culture as an expression in architecture and adapting essential elements of that architecture as a bridge between past and present.