The Project of “Saving Traditional Rural Communities”
Home The Project of “Saving Traditional Rural Communities”

Background and Purposes

Ongoing urbanization has made traditional rural communities seem unable to support modern life. Confronted with economic underdevelopment, population outflow, infrastructure shortage, worsening living environment, and lack of educational and medical resources, local residents have had to migrate elsewhere for a better life. In the meantime, local cultures are being encroached by foreign ones, leaving traditional rural communities undervalued, and traditional rural communities and their residents gradually disappearing. Against this backdrop, traditional rural communities are becoming a thing of the past.

This project is designed to better sustain the cultural legacy in traditional rural communities, promote rural economic development, and solve the problem of “hollow” villages, based on which to protecttraditional rural communities and help them thrivein different ways. Through theoretical analysis and practical efforts, we will explore the ways of protecting, and reinvigorating traditional rural communities in the new era. The project features a participatory and experiential model that is designed to provide young scholars with a better understanding of rural communities and thus encourage them through competition to explore new development models .

General Outline

The 2018 “Saving Traditional Rural Communities” project is sponsored by Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and organized by its International Research Center for Architectural Heritage Conservation.

This project, based on SJTU strong academic disciplines, is aimed at solving real-life problems through field trips, teamwork, tuition, and case competition. The project will bring together young people from Hong Kong, Macao, and the mainland and encourage them to brainstorm and present practicable plans for rescuing traditional rural communities.

  • Understanding and cherishing traditional rural communities
  • Injecting new vitality in  traditional rural communities
  • Helping traditional rural communities out of extinction
  • The competition, to be held in Shanghai, welcomes junior and senior students from Hong Kong and Macao universities, SJTU and other members of the C9 League that provide programs in such national key disciplines as architecture, urban and rural planning, sociology, anthropology, and rural economic management.

Management Guidelines

The project leader is supposed to ensure production of research report, chart progress, deploy personnel, and manage funds and materials. The other members shall work with each other to perform tasks as required.