After visiting my ancestral homes, I became curious how these spaces were designed and organized. Even though they were located in different parts of Toi Shan county, the layout of my father’s ancestral house was almost identical to how my mother’s ancestral house was arranged. Each house had a central room surrounded by two smaller rooms; the entrances were located in the same section of the houses; and all the altars were placed in similar locations.
During my stay in southern China I first heard the term Lingnan while learning about cultural traditions unique to the Pearl River Delta region. Historically, the land south of the Nanling Mountains is often referred to as Lingnan (south of the mountain range). Because the mountain range formed a natural barrier, people who resided in this area developed their own traditions separate from central China—considered to be the birthplace of Chinese culture.
I learned that these houses are part of the Lingnan architectural tradition and distinctly southern Chinese. The homes are organized in a three-bay-two corridor style involving homes with three rooms and an open skylight in the central room. My family’s ancestral homes were constructed into what is called a single row layout, and the floorpans above from the Kaiping Tourism Bureau provide an accurate view of how these houses were arranged. The only thing not represented are the second-level rooms located on top of each of the side rooms. These rooms were the sleeping quarters of the houses, and where I saw remnants of past lives. ■