The Declining Hakka Totem

Scattered across the hills in the western part of China’s Fujian Province, the colossal Hakka earth buildings (Kejia tulou) are a monumental totem of an indigenous but slowly disappearing way of life.

The appearance of these earth buildings look as grandiose as the ancient Roman Coliseum. For of its unique design magnificent structure and its anti-humidity and anti-earthquake nature, Hakka Earth Building is branded as the legendary residential building on earth.

Today, the earth buildings are succumbing to a gradual hollowing out from within, as the Hakka once again move on. Like many villages across China, only aged people, children and a few women can be found living in the earth buildings, while less sign of the labouring men, who have left to earn money in the cities and towns, leaving many earth buildings depopulated.