Looking Beyond Ruins

Many qiaoxiang in southern Fujian and Guangdong appear derelict, but documenting the material heritage and interviewing people about its social significance reveals another image. The homeland of Overseas Chinese was not only found to be significant for the diaspora but serves as an enduring reminder of a grassroots-based modernity in rural China. The qiaoxiang effectively became a transnational legacy of migration from southern China that has undergone the following stages of transformation: exodus-led emergence of a remittance landscape, sudden abandonment, and sometimes revival. Today, it has become a “repository” or “living museum” where tourists and scholars alike can visit and ponder how humans adapted to post-rural life.