The Chen Clan Academy, locally known as the Chen Ancestral Hall, was built on donation from the Chen lineages in Guangdong province in the 20th year of Guangxu Reign of the Qing dynasty (1894). It is a typical ancestral hall building in Lingnan area, covering a total area of 15,000 square meters, 6,400 square meters to the main structure.
The Chen Clan Academy gathers comprehensive features of the decorative arts of the folk architecture in Guangdong province. All the buildings are decorated with wood carving, brick carving, stone carving, lime sculpture, ceramic sculpture, iron casting and colored drawing, etc. These artistic decorations own wide range of subjects and are lively model in rich color. Mr. Guo Moruo composed one verse after his visiting: Nature's engineering can be replaced by human creations. Manpower is better than natural creations. The human world is created in a way like this. A visiting here surpasses learning from books for ten years.
The Chen Clan Academy was listed as an important historical site under state protection in 1988, and selected one of the Famous Eight Interests Places of Guangzhou in the New Century with the name of Ancient Ancestral Hall Leaves Good Reputation in 2002, it was chosen Cultural Card of Guangzhou City through public appraisal in 2006, and became one of the tourism interests places owning characteristics of cultural arts in Lingnan area. |