Leadership Insights | Illustrated Lectures:Traditional Boat-Shaped Houses: Old Craft Embarks onto a New Journey

The craftsmanship of constructing boat-shaped houses is a representative architectural technique of traditional dwellings of the Li people in Hainan Province. It was inscribed on the National Intangible Cultural Heritage List in 2008. This architectural style originated from the ancient stilted buildings and formed its unique “boat-shaped” characteristic after centuries of evolution. The curved and arched roof of such a house resembles an upturned boat, embodying the wisdom of the Li ancestors in adapting to the tropical rainforest climate.

A boat-shaped house is framed with bamboo and wood, bound together using rattan strips without the use of any iron nail. The roof is covered with thatch or straw, while the walls are usually rammed with a mixture of yellow clay and straw. This structure offers three key advantages: moisture resistance, earthquake resistance, and good ventilation. The inside retains the traditional “three rooms and one door” layout, with a central hall featuring three stone stoves that embody ancestor worship. The construction process adheres to unique folk rituals, with important stages such as site selection and column erection presided over by a village elder.

As a material carrier of the Li people’s hemu (collective land ownership and communal production) social system, boat-shaped houses encapsulate their beliefs in animism, family ethics, and ecological concepts. The craftsmanship is passed down through word of mouth and hands-on practices from generation to generation. The best-preserved group of boat-shaped houses in Chubao Village has been listed as a protected cultural and historical site. Currently, efforts are made for their living protection through the establishment of technique inheritance bases, the cultivation of craftsmen, and the integration of culture and tourism. These houses provide a precious sample for studying early human architectural forms and the ecological culture of ethnic minorities.

The time-honored craftsmanship of the boat-shaped house carries the wisdom and culture of the Li people. Today, it has become an iconic symbol of Li culture, attracting numerous tourists to visit and experience it.

Ethnic minority cultures are an indispensable part of Chinese culture. It is essential not only to protect tangible heritage such as villages, dwellings, and distinctive architectural styles, but also to inherit intangible cultural heritage and simultaneously promote their creative transformation and innovative development. This approach ensures that ethnic minority cultures become more vibrant through utilization and continuously radiate new brilliance.

監製:蔚力

策劃:丁素雲

文案:楊俊康