Musings on Chinese Furniture and Culture: 2011

Success stories about Chinese immigrants are often overshadowed by the ones of prejudice, violence and discrimination. The latter was part of US history’s shameful past; as for the former, I would hesitate to name one, until my visit to Kaiping. But I do have a good story now, one that relates to an edifice that withstood a world war and two devastating revolutions. It was built with the idea of gracious living executed in the most advance technology of its time. The houses and gardens are fine examples of the fusion of Eastern and Western style of architecture and design, to showcase the results of financial success abroad.

I stumbled into this amazing compound quite by accident on a visit to my ancestral village in Kaiping, Guangdong Province. Previously when we shopped for antique furniture, we never made time to visit to visit Kaiping which is only two hours away. But in 2009, after a disappointing shopping trip we found we had time to spare, so our friend Yin suggested that it was high time that we take a ride to Kaiping to visit the village where my ancestors had lived, to see the famous Diaolou – fortified houses and to lunch at Liyuan, a UNESCO protected site.

My first glimpse of Qiupan, the great house at Liyuan Garden

The magnificent Entrance

In the garden looking at the elegant back

Liyuan is the name of a garden. The story I am about to tell began in the 1920’s when Xie Weili, a Chinese immigrant from Chicago who used the fortune he and his family made in the herbal medicine business to build a garden in his ancestral village in Kaiping, Guangdong Province. They had envisioned a garden modeled after Daguanyuan. Grandview Garden from the famous 18 century novel Honglou Meng (Dream of the Red Chamber.) The efforts took more than 10 years, and it must have been a successful. But I was so taken by the main house named Qiupan I saw very little of everything else.

The yellow washed three storey building with a roof top garden was built in what is known as the “Oriental” style, a combination of the best features of eastern and western architecture. What appears to be a neo classical structure is topped with pagoda like green tiled roofs, and the interior and exterior have architectural artifacts and furniture that were physically transported from the US by way of steamships, river barges, rails and carried to the site by manual labor.

Ornate plaster moldings lined an exterior alcove

Teco Tiles on the Ceiling, imported electrified Chandelier and Clock

Wood panel walls, tiled fireplace and floor and Chinese style Child Minder

Marble handrails under vaulted tiled ceilings


Teco tiles on ceiling,Corinthian columns

Built-in Chinese style four burner stove on tile floor

Built-in Western style sink with drain board

Imported bathtub

The floor plan of the second and third floors is divided into living space, bedrooms, bath and kitchen. I love the multi Chinese style stove top with graduated size burners and the convenience of the sink with built in dish drain. Large water cisterns located on the top level provide running water for kitchen and bath. The bathrooms have bands of teco tiles in art deco design as accents.

Few pieces of furniture are extant. This washstand could have been a Chinese version of a Shanghai style art deco piece.


Living space is decorated with 1920's Chinese rosewood furniture

A suite of well made imported bedroom furniture is in one of the upstairs bedroom. Pieces of traditional Guangdong style black wood furniture filled the living space.The windows have heavy iron bars - a protection from bandits who targeted rich returnees like Xie.

Another imported case piece stands next to a coat rack, under a transom window in a beautiful linear design.

Wall painting in Chinese themes

Ornate wood panel in red, black and gold placed under Teco ceiling tiles

Beautiful garden structures one would expect to find in the southern states. The verticulated transom windows are carved in stone. Everywhere the trees and bushes flourish. Spring time must be exceptional with blooming flowers.

A typical Diaoluo in my Ancestral Village

This strive for luxury was overwhelming at the time when locals in the nearby villages still lived in the traditional one room brick houses with no running water. The Xie family had lived well, but unfortunately not for long. When the Japanese occupation took place in the north, Kaiping was no longer a safe place. In the early 1940's, Xie Weili left for Chicago with his family, never to return.

We left Liyuan for my ancestral village, which was just minutes away. There I found my first sighting of a a diaoluo or a fortified building. Buildings like this tall structure with small windows were built by immigrants who returned home with money earned abroad as laborers or businessmen. By the end of the 19 century, the political situation was in a chaos and the local government could not control the bandits and other unsavory characters from looting and thieving. The returned immigrants defended themselves in their fortified homes. Notice the small openings under the windows. Rifles were placed in these strategic areas to fend off attackers.

The story is not quite complete without ending it on a personal note. My grandfather Tse Ka Po was a member of the Tse Clan, the same Clan as Xie Weili, whose name is in pinyin romanization. I came to this village specially to see the Ancestral Halls - the two buildings in a row on the right of the last photograph. Their construction was financed by Great grandfather Tse Se Ping and other clansmen who found fame and fortune in Macau and Hong Kong. The Ancestral Halls have always been a place where the younger clan members received their education. During the Cultural Revolution, the two buildings were used as storage. Today they have been restored and once again serve as schools for the village children.

My ancestral village with the two Ancestral Halls on the right next to the Diaoluo
( photo credit to Anthony Tse)

Portals never cease to fascinate - whether they are gateways, doors or cabinet openings. To me they represent invitations to adventures within, enticements to experience and new elements to explore. Every time I walk through a door, there is always an element of surprise, not knowing what awaits me on the other side. The same excitement occurs when I open a cabinet door, a treasure will I find?

In the fall of 2005, I accepted an invitation from my brother to visit the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. We were a lively party of more than twenty and we visited temples and other places of interest. No one came away feeling more inspired than I. The unfamiliar architecture with the bright primary colors captured my attention and my need to be familiar with them led to my discovery of Tibetan cabinets that shine like jewels.

Paro Rinpung Dzong (Temple Fortress)

Raven over Gangtey Palace in Paro

Doorway at Changangkha Lhakhang at Thimphu

Small Building housing the Gangtey Palace Hotel Shop in Paro

Entrance to the Main Building at Gangtey Palace

Window at Changangkha Lhakhang

Altar Room at Private Residence Paro

Dongtse Lhakhang

Courtyard at Gangtey Palace Hotel Paro with thanks to James Lee

Upon my return to the States, I had an opportunity to purchase a collection of beautifully painted Tibetan cabinets. I know very little about them, except for the fact that they once adorned the interiors of temples or wealthy people's abode and they held treasures and religious articles of which they held dear. A selection now surround me in the environment where I work, and they contain within the wonderful memories of Bhutan where the country's goal is the pursuit of gross national happiness.