The 300-year old monument in Futian District has been demolished due to a combination of official disregard for spiritual traditions and land speculation.
by Qi Junzao
In an unprecedented public protest, some 4,000 villagers confronted the police on April 24 in the Shuiwei and Huanggang villages in Futian District, part of metropolitan Shenzhen, protesting the destruction of an ancestral hall. Some came with chairs and blocked the entrance of the C2 Shenzhen subway station, which is near where the ancestral hall once stood. They hold signs such as “Resolutely oppose the demolition of the ancestral hall, defend the authentic ancestral hall, and never give up. The forced demolition of the ancestral hall goes against the Zhuang family and is not tolerated by Heaven.”
This is a complicated story, local villagers told “Bitter Winter.” “The old ancestral shrine did not disturb anybody and stayed there for 300 years,” one woman said: “Although the incident shows disrespect for our sacred traditions, the story is mostly about money. There is a project of new construction in the area, one of the largest real estate developments in the district. The authorities couldn’t care less about the destruction of the most historical buildings in the area, if they believe they can all profit from the development.”
Another story behind the incident is the relationship between Huanggang and Shuiwei. Close to what was once the border with Hong Kong, they were once one and the same village. They then became two autonomous villages, with different administrations, but inhabitants of both Huanggang and Shuiwei mostly have the last name Huang and believe they descend from the same ancestor honored in the ancestral hall. Villagers in Shuiwei accuse the CCP leaders in Huanggang of having been corrupted by the speculators and having surrendered the rights to the old ancestral hall (a new one has also been built in the area)—which however, in their opinion, also belong to Shuiwei and not to Huanggang only. Most protesters were from Shuiwei and they bravely confronted the police, refusing to go home.
“Of course,” a man told “Bitter Winter,” “the authorities are just happy to suppress a symbol of our beliefs. They regard the veneration of the ancestors as just superstition. Although I agree that money is the first motivation.”
Ancestral halls are particularly popular in the area of Shenzhen, where lineage and having a common ancestor and surname still create strong connections, which often extend to relatives living abroad. It is believed that the spirits of the ancestors live in these shrines and extend their blessings to those visiting them. Funerals and weddings are also often celebrated in the ancestral shrines, under the benevolent eyes of the ancestors.
In the Shenzhen area, villagers clashed with the Red Guards who destroyed or repurposed thousands of ancestral halls during the Cultural Revolution as a symbol of “feudal superstition.” Today, they have to fight again to preserve their cultural and spiritual symbols against the twin evils of the CCP’s disregard for spirituality and land speculation.
