The Vicissitude Of Public Space And Cultural Inheritance In Ancient Villages And Towns Of Xiangfen County,Shanxi Province

The public space has a wide range of participants.The construct and the chang of the public space in the ancient villages is affacted by natural environment,the country's policies,historical backgrounds and the modernization process.It is also reflecting the cultural choice and inheritance of the folks.Xiangfeng County of Shanxi has a long-standing foundation of agricultural civilization and has the necessary geographical conditions,climate,hydrology,soil and other favorable conditions for the formation of villages.Among them,Ding Village of Xincheng Town,Taosi Village of Taosi Town,Xizhonghuang Village of Fencheng Town,Beili Village of Jingmao Town is traditional villages with hundreds of years history.It has been listed in the protection of national traditional ancient village lists.The selection of a national ancient village protection directory not only symbolizes the rich local architecture and folk cultural heritage,but also shows that Ancient villages urgently need protection.How to maintain the diversity of ancient towns and villages with more effective measures,it is urgent to think about and explore the contemporary values and reuse of public space.The vicissitudes of the villages and towns of Xiangfen County is universality in the ancient villages and towns throughout the country.It also has its unique historical background,geographical location and other aspects.In recent years,Xiangfen County pays more attention to the holistic protection of ancient villages and towns.Old buildings such as temples and houses are repaired as old,at the same time,paying attention to the living environment of residents,continuing to improve in health,water,network,culture and so on.Especially in cultural construction,Xiangfen County not only hold the literary and artistic evening performance in every summer,also collect and publish the book which names “Traditional village in Xiangfen”,including 30 villages and towns with different geographical environment,different historical origins and different humanistic architectural landscapes,such as Ding Village,Taosi Village,Xizhonghuang Village,Beili Village,Xiangling Village,Sangong Village and so on,having important data value and certain representativeness.The towns of Xiangfen County is also ctively holding literary and artistic activities with local characteristics,entertaining the masses and inheriting excellent culture.For example,“Dragon-Head-Raising Festival”in Taosi Village,“filial piety-hall”in Nanjia Towm and so on.Through the investigation of public activities and the public space of Xiangfen County,accoeding to the strength of ritual,this paper divides public space into two categories:daily public space and non daily public space.The production life,leisure and commercial public space where the ritual is relatively weak,ancient villages have a rhythm of life adapted to agricultural production.It forms a seasonal production ritual about farming and leisure,and the collective memory of people.With the development of urbanization and the migration of people,children,women and elderly people are the main bodies in the village now.The daily activities of the village are monotonous,basic activities mainly include material purchase,school education,chat and farming activities.Some of the larger villages,have the collective activities such as playing CARDS,chess,square dance and so on.The progress of science and technology,the migration of personnel,and the decrease of collective activity of village people have reduced the utilization value and the use frequency of some public Spaces.Therefore,the trend of public space atrophy is unavoidable.In the non-day-to-day where the public space with relatively strong sense of ritual,as new media gets involved,the public shows lower demand of the contents which is based on the original ecological cultural activities such as festivals and home theater performances and participation.More people tend to watch TV in the private space like home,use computers,mobile phones,etc.The collective cultural activities of the villages showed a decreasing trend.Only the public space with temple fair,social fire and life ceremony,new tourism festival as the main activity is still alive.This provides directional guidance for the revitalization of ancient villages and towns.Through the record of People's collective memory,the once active public space in the village was written in a textual record,which providing reference for the reconstruction of the village space.At the same time,enhancing thepeople's sense of identity and cultural consciousness to the village,promoting the construction of village culture,ensuring the smooth order of the village.Among them,the iconic public space of ancient villages because of historical reasons or unique geographical location,cultural connotation and the combination of most of the villagers collective cultural activities,reflects the way of inheritance,the inheritance of folk culture and heritage status,these are representative in the study of public space.