IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jlands/v10y2021i5p490-d549190.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Transformation in the ‘Spirit of Place’ by Considering the Changed and Unchanged Defensive Spaces of Settlements: A Case Study of the Wugoushui Hakka Settlement

Author

Listed:
  • Yanfeng He

    (Ph. D. Program in Design, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan City 32023, Taiwan
    Current address: Department of Landscape, Fujian Fanya Vision Environmental Design Engineering Company, Fuzhou 350028, China.)

  • Chie-Peng Chen

    (Department of Interior Design, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan 32023, Taiwan)

  • Rung-Jiun Chou

    (Department of Landscape Architecture, Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan 32023, Taiwan)

  • Haifeng Luo

    (School of Cultural Resources, Taipei National University of the Arts, Taipei 11201, Taiwan)

  • Jing-Shoung Hou

    (School of Architecture, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300384, China)

Abstract

Over generations, economic development has accelerated traditional settlements in Taiwan while losing traditional culture. In Hakka villages, this is manifested in the changes in defensive spaces, the ‘spirit of place,’ and land use. Although some progress has been made through research into related issues, a correlated view has been missing. To explore the connection between the ‘spirit of place’ and defensive spaces in Wugoushui, a traditional representative settlement in Taiwan, this paper probes three questions: What are the changes in defensive spaces? What are the changes in the spirit of place? What are the connections between them? Taking the sixteen criteria of secure defensive space as the theoretical foundation, through more than a year of structured observations and in-depth interviews with ten representative residents, and based on context analysis and site analysis of the information collected, this paper has concluded that, although the actual functionality of Wugoushui settlement’s spiritual, behavioural, and physical defences have disappeared, cultural characteristics related to the settlement traditions, including religious beliefs, trust, sense of belonging, street network, nodes, institutions, territory, and social networks, constitute a concrete manifestation of the defensive space and the spirit of place as of today. This research contributes to developing a theory of the relevance of the spirit of place to the defensive space of settlements from a sustainability perspective and improving the cultural preservation and land management of traditional settlements.

Suggested Citation

  • Yanfeng He & Chie-Peng Chen & Rung-Jiun Chou & Haifeng Luo & Jing-Shoung Hou, 2021. "Exploring the Transformation in the ‘Spirit of Place’ by Considering the Changed and Unchanged Defensive Spaces of Settlements: A Case Study of the Wugoushui Hakka Settlement," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-23, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:5:p:490-:d:549190
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/5/490/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/10/5/490/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Chun-Chang Lee & Yi-Xin Chen & Yun-Ling Wu & Wen-Chih Yeh & Chih-Min Liang, 2020. "Multilevel Analysis of the Pressure of Agricultural Land Conversion, Degree of Urbanization and Agricultural Land Prices in Taiwan," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-21, November.
    2. Yan-Feng He & Chie-Peng Chen & Rung-Jiun Chou, 2019. "The Key Factors Influencing Safety Analysis for Traditional Settlement Landscape," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-23, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Guanhong Xie & Yuchen Zhou & Chunqing Liu, 2022. "Spatial Distribution Characteristics and Influencing Factors of Hakka Traditional Villages in Fujian, Guangdong, and Jiangxi, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-22, September.
    2. Tamara Lukić & Ivana Blešić & Tatjana Pivac & Milka Bubalo Živković & Bojan Đerčan & Sanja Kovačić & Marija Cimbaljević & Dajana Bjelajac, 2022. "Urban Image at the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Case Study Novi Sad (Serbia)," Societies, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-18, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhang, Zhihui & Ghazali, Samane & Miceikienė, Astrida & Zejak, Dejan & Choobchian, Shahla & Pietrzykowski, Marcin & Azadi, Hossein, 2023. "Socio-economic impacts of agricultural land conversion: A meta-analysis," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    2. Song-Chia Hsu & Kai-Ying Chen & Chih-Ping Lin & Wei-Hao Su, 2022. "Knowledge Development Trajectories of Crime Prevention Domain: An Academic Study Based on Citation and Main Path Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(17), pages 1-20, August.
    3. Czarnecki, Adam & Milczarek-Andrzejewska, Dominika & Widła-Domaradzki, Łukasz & Jórasz-Żak, Anna, 2023. "Conflict dynamics over farmland use in the multifunctional countryside," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    4. Johnson, Kelsey K. & Parton, Lee & Nolte, Christoph & Williamson, Matt & Nogeire-McRae, Theresa & Paudel, Jayash & Brandt, Jodi, 2023. "Moving to the country: Understanding the effects of Covid-19 on property values and farmland development risk," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Anastasia Vythoulka & Ekaterini T. Delegou & Costas Caradimas & Antonia Moropoulou, 2021. "Protection and Revealing of Traditional Settlements and Cultural Assets, as a Tool for Sustainable Development: The Case of Kythera Island in Greece," Land, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-30, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jlands:v:10:y:2021:i:5:p:490-:d:549190. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.