| December 15, 2002 |
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Yin Yu Tang: A Chinese Home
The  tale behind this lavish home begins two centuries ago in a tiny village tucked away in China's Yellow Mountains, roughly 250 miles southwest of Shanghai. A wealthy merchant named Huang dreamed of an elegant home for his family and generations of Huangs to come. With grit, determination, and a boatload of yen, his Huizhou masterpiece was born. Complete with fish ponds, an open-air courtyard, an interior shrine, and even a reception hall, the grand compound lacked no amenities for his pampered progeny. Utilizing the concepts of feng shui, Huang plied the home with lavish treasures like good luck coins, calligraphic walls, carved brick phoenixes, and ancestral scrolls to ensure that happiness and fortunes remained intact. Eight generations later, the family moved and their beautiful home was dismantled. In an act of historic preservation, Huang's legacy found new life in America. In June 2003, visitors of Massachusetts' Peabody Essex Museum can walk through its reconstructed corridors and get a feel for the many lives who called this dignified domicile home. (in Architecture) |
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