Dong's Wind and Rain Bridge in Chengyang Bazhai Village at Liuzhou, China: Public Space and Meaning Change in the Process of Minority Development

Abstract

This study is basic research and uses qualitative research methods. From the phenomenon of 'Dong's Wind and Rain Bridge in Chengyang Bazhai Village at Liuzhou, China', we will study the issues of Public Space and Meaning Change in the context of the development process of China's minorities. The research found that the emergance of the Dong’s Wind and Rain Bridges was influenced by the physics, climate and production mode of Chengyang Baizhai, and contained meaningful relationships between landscape features, including the resources of the surrounding physical area and the social and cultural life of the Dong people in this particular area. Therefore, the Wind and Rain Bridge becomes a public space functioning by the community to support the social space. The Dong people use "ethnic culture technology" to build, use and maintain this public space as a mental space. At the same time, the Wind and Rain Bridge is a special place with its own identity. It has influenced the phenomena of ethnicity, invention and tradition of public space, both in everyday and formal life. Especially in rituals, it is created as an imaginary space for the journey to heaven or the afterlife, weddings and other important events. The Dong people have created meaning for the wind and rain bridge as a public space, and built their ethnicity identity in this process. Later, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the Dong transformed from an ‘ethnic’ into a ‘minority’ in China. In the context of the development of minorities, Wind and Rain Bridge, as a public space, reflects the important aspects of the relationship between ethnic minorities and outsiders, different groups and different levels. And constantly produce new meanings superimposed on the old meanings, the area muti-interaction of social space in a complex current situation. About production in public space, there is a fusion of physical, social and mental production. In particular, the Dong uses power technology to create sacred things to protect the wind and rain bridge, constructing a special mental space. An important finding in the research is that citizenship and racial identity of minorities can coexist, and that citizenship does not necessarily curb racial identity, but rather promotes minority development. All of these are a unique architectural culture linked to the cultural landscape, ethnicity identity and the external world, namely the "wind and rain bridge culture".

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