Traditional Environmental Knowledge in Hakka Weilongwu: from the View of Anthropology of Landscape

This paper focuses on the relationship between Hakka vernacular architecture and its traditional environment knowledge. Generally speaking, many scholars and mass-media consider that Hakka vernacular architectures include codes of Central Plain’s culture such as ying-yang, tianrenheyi, fengshui affluently, because the Hakka ancestors are the Han nationality from Central Plain. However, according to the author’s fieldwork in Meizhou, one famous hometown of the Hakka, local inhabitants can also recognize their vernacular architecture, Weilongwu, with another environmental knowledge that derives from their ancestors’, but not from the view point of the Central Plain’s culture. In this paper, the author will introduce the traditional environment knowledge in Weilongwu and suggest using this new approach to analyze Hakka vernacular architectures from the view of anthropology of landscape.