Illumination in Zhou-Zhuang

by Jasjit Bawa, 12 June 2009

Zhou-Zhuang was the destination for our last day in China. It took us two long hours to get there as the traffic in Shanghai was relentless on the Friday morning. However, upon arrival we soon forgot the agony of the never ending bus ride. Zhou-Zhuang is a well preserved Venetian style village that has transformed itself into a popular tourist destination. Located on the Yangtze River delta the village seemed frozen in time long ago. With a series of narrow canals flowing and its antique infrastructure one could easily mistake oneself to be in Venice or some other old European city.

However, my first impression of the village was, for lack of better words, disappointing. Despite its beauty, the village from the outset seemed manufactured and artificial. It seemed that everything had been placed there, including the houses and its residents, as an attempt to create an imaginary town that belonged in painting or a poem. But closer inspection of the area soon cleared any delusions that I may have had initially. This village has been there for centuries and has a rich and profound history. The residents in their attempt to better their livelihoods had to transform their village to attract the tourist. The village is filled with souvenir stores and many of these stores are located inside the houses of the residents.

Walking through the narrow streets packed with tourists I got an uneasy feeling that somehow I was contributing to the exploitation of this ancient culture. But to truly get a sense of the town we took a ride on the Chinese gondola. The boat took us around town where we got a glimpse of the lives of the locals. Residents washing their clothes, fishing, sitting on the bank playing cards were a common sight and they did not seem to mind our presence or the loud singing of our gondolier (to whom we had paid 20 Yuan to sing us four folk songs). Or perhaps, they had just gotten used to the traffic of tourists and accepted the fact that we were bringing their town extra income.

My feelings of the visit remain mixed. Several questions kept me occupied throughout my time there. Why do the residents of this town need tourists? Is the ancient culture being preserved forcefully? Is this another attempt by the state to create tourist city to showcase China’s rise in the world? Despite several attempts I was unable to get answers to these questions.

The residents of the village were reluctant to engage in any discussions of the political economic state of their town. Nonetheless, our stay was too short for me to spend my time examining the socio-political particularities of the town. Only this time, it was more than just an interaction between myself and the sights, sounds and culture of the town. It was more than just a personal experience on which I could later reflect. For the first time in so many days, it was about experiencing China with the nine people who were previously just classmates, but now had become my friends. It was about sharing perspective. It was about conversation. And perhaps most importantly, it was about realising that together, and only together, can we understand each other in a larger effort to establish frameworks for expanding capabilities to which societies have decided to give significance and not, conversely, to impose our own moral standards.

Images: Zhou-Zhuang village