Upon arriving in Jiangmen's Cangdong Village, Reza Pirpiran, Counsellor of the Embassy of Iran in China, first asked, "Why didn't you paint the buildings in brighter colors?" After learning about the concept of "repairing the old as old" and observing how residents enjoy playing local folk music as part of their daily lives, he regarded the experience as a valuable lesson. He then attempted to record a video and share it on social media to inspire others.
Prior to the 2025 Understanding China Conference (Guangzhou), a delegation consisting of foreign dignitaries from Sri Lanka, Iran, and Fiji, as well as media representatives from The Russian Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (RTR), South Korea's Aju Business Daily, and CCTV.com, embarked on the GO Guangdong Unseen Rural China Tour in Zhuhai and Jiangmen from November 28 to 30. In Jiangmen’s Diaolou cluster and villages, visitors learned about the practices of world cultural heritage preservation and how ancient architecture is being revitalized in modern times.
Jiangmen is a major ancestral home of overseas Chinese and is home to Guangdong's only UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site, the Kaiping Diaolou and Villages. Having seen the Diaolou firsthand, Alexander Balitskiy, Chief of RTR Bureau in China, considers them an excellent example for global visitors to experience the local culture, particularly the unique blend of Western and Eastern influences. He also highlighted how these structures tell a compelling story of successful renovation and conservation efforts that have preserved the buildings to this day.
BAE IN SUN, Reporter of Aju News, had long been curious about Jiangmen because of the popular Chinese TV series The Knockout. After visiting, she was even more moved by the profound overseas Chinese history and culture, and was impressed by how Jiangmen's cultural heritage carries stories that transcend time and space.
In Kaiping's Cangdong Village, the delegation gained a deeper understanding of the efforts made to restore the buildings and, more importantly, the emotional bonds among residents and their relatives who may have immigrated overseas generations ago.
Launched in 2009, the Cangdong Project has been advancing living heritage protection through community engagement, the promotion of intangible cultural heritage, and experiential education. Its concept is to preserve not only the historic relics but also the natural landscape as well as the authentic cultural and emotional values, which have inspired the renovation projects ongoing in Jiangmen's Tangkou Town.
"If a plant has no roots, it cannot survive long," Pirpiran shared. "We have a large number of Iranians living overseas, and we also have many beautiful villages that have been left empty due to outbound immigration. We need to look at our history and culture, considering our values, and strive to attract and encourage the younger generation to build their own villages, towns, and country, while strengthening the bonds between residents and those living abroad."
On the day of the visit, a local wedding was taking place and reunited villagers from home and abroad. In front of a weather-beaten Diaolou, the lower section of the wall was covered with bright red “囍” characters, a traditional symbol of marriage. This indicates how architecture is becoming a living cultural space that bridges the past and the present, as well as the East and the West.
Reporter: Ding Hefei, Yin Juewen, Zhou Hongdou
Video: Luo Yuan
Photo: Ding Hefei
Proofreader: Chen Xuede