Original Village II

Name: Original Village II
ISBN: 9787548964445

黄德权Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House Co., Ltd. · ChinaJun 2026

3.4

Word count: 95K words
Chapters: 56
ISBN: 9787548964445

Report an error Find this book

Summary

Following the original *Yuanzhai*, *Yuanzhai II* is a new book by the renowned writer and photographer Huang Dequan, published by Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House. The author's research took him across the borderlands of Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, and Hubei, visiting fifty-one Tujia and Miao villages. Through essays and photographs, he walks into villages and among everyday life, documenting the architecture, people and customs, folk culture, and street life of Tujia and Miao villages in the Wuling Mountains. The book explores the past and present of these ancient villages, salvaging rural memories on the verge of disappearance and preserving the distinct local cultural character of the Chongqing-Guizhou-Hunan-Hubei border region. The author recorded his journey throughout, taking extensive photographs of rural life, which he assembled into a 450,000-word travelogue. Richly illustrated and sincerely felt, the book holds great value for both collection and reading.

Editor's review

As the sequel to Yuanzhai, this book continues the author's documentary route of entering villages and homes, extending his travels to fifty-one Tujia and Miao villages across the borderlands of Chongqing, Guizhou, Hunan, and Hubei. Combining essays with on-location photographs, it documents the architectural features, local characters, folk culture, and street-level vitality of ancient villages in the Wuling Mountains; the 450,000-word travelogue is richly illustrated and emotionally sincere. Its value lies not in the rigor of academic scholarship but in salvaging vanishing rural memories through the eyes of a participant-observer, preserving a warm record of regional cultural character for the Chongqing–Guizhou–Hunan–Hubei border area. The prose is highly readable, and the photographs provide a visual reference beyond the text, making the book suited to slow, attentive reading. For readers interested in rural culture, ethnic regional landscapes, or documentary photography, it serves as both reading material and visual record; travelers planning to explore the Wuling Mountains may also use it as preparatory cultural background. One caveat: the book is substantial in length and organized as a series of essays, so it is best read in sections by region or village rather than in one sitting.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in Tujia and Miao villages and the culture of the Wuling Mountains
Lovers of illustrated books combining essays with documentary photography
Cultural workers concerned with the preservation of ancient villages and rural memory
Travelers planning to visit the Chongqing–Guizhou–Hunan–Hubei borderlands who need cultural background reading

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting systematic ethnographic research or rigorous academic argumentation
Readers who prefer fast-paced narrative plots and lack patience for essay-style documentary writing
Purely practical travelers needing extensive maps, routes, and hands-on guides

Reading tips

Read in sections by the four-province border region or by village, a few villages at a time, savoring the photographs to avoid fatigue from reading straight through.
While reading, refer to the on-location photographs and note architectural details and people's expressions; the interplay of text and image yields a richer experience.
Before a trip, read the chapters related to your destination as background on local folk culture, then verify on site.
After reading, note the villages and people that left the deepest impression and compare them with Yuanzhai to appreciate how the sequel continues the route and perspective.

About the publisher

Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House Co., Ltd. China · Founded in 1989

Founded in 1989, Yunnan Fine Arts Publishing House follows the publishing philosophy of "broad vision, broad fine arts, and broad culture." Its list covers fine arts, local humanities and history, ethnic cultures, children's picture books, and popular science. Among the 64 titles in the library are art works such as Watercolor Palace Museum, the science fiction series Leviathan, foreign literature and comic adaptations including Tales from Shakespeare and The Little Prince (comic), and Yakov Perelman's Physics for Entertainment and its advanced volume. Its author resources include foreign writers Charles and Mary Lamb, Scott Westerfeld, and Keith Thompson, as well as translators Yang Xi, Yiran, and Wang Xiaoliang, reflecting a character that combines fine arts publishing with classic literature and popular science. Due to limited public information, its overall publishing scale and complete catalogue are not elaborated here.

版权信息
作者简介
序
龚滩
楠木湾
大蒿坝
何家院子
老油坊
金家堡
榄树湾
南腰界
长田
丰收岭
麻池
凉灯
张家坡
鞍子
桃子坝
戴家岩
赶礼盖
大堡
向家坝
百龙洞
群贤居
麻田坝
菩提山
五板船
桐麻台
桃子村
秀水
飞水岩
神童溪
牯牛盖
洋河坝
荞木坨
七分村
大江村
板桥枫叶
笔山坝
柏香
天池盖
堰堤
宜居沟
提督寨
渣水坝
南溪
后溪
小溪
鱼虾坡
下拉寨
郭家岍
长远
墙院
老柏沟
为乡村著史，给乡愁作证——《原寨Ⅱ》艺术世界管窥
后记

FAQ

Can I read this sequel without having read The Original Villages?

Yes. The book uses essays and sketches to link together observations from various villages; the chapters are relatively independent and do not depend on the plot threads of the previous book. Reading the sequel directly will not create comprehension problems, and if you become interested in the author's overall route, you can go back and read The Original Villages.

Were the images in the book taken by the author?

According to the introduction, the author documented the journey and took all the photographs along the way, and the images in the book are incorporated into this 450,000-word travelogue. Pictures and text together record the architecture, people, and everyday life of the Tujia and Miao villages; the mutual corroboration of image and text is an important feature of the book.

Is this book suitable for use as a travel guide?

Not entirely. The book focuses on humanistic documentation and emotional writing; it is not a guidebook offering transportation, accommodation, and route planning. Travelers can use it as background reading to understand local folk customs and cultural context before a trip, but specific itinerary arrangements still require a separate practical guide.

Will a 450,000-word book be hard to get through?

The volume is indeed substantial, but the genre is essays and sketches, and individual pieces are not long, making it suitable for reading in segments. It is suggested to group them by region or village and read a few at a time, reading slowly alongside the images; this lightens the reading pressure and allows you to better appreciate the details and warmth of the documentary writing.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

黄德权 Author

Huang Dequan: publicly available information about this author is limited, and details such as nationality, dates of birth and death, educational background, and professional experience have not been clearly recorded. According to the existing catalog data, two of the author's works are held in the collection, namely Yuanzhai II and Cousin Duidui, commonly classified under folk literature and classic works. It can therefore be roughly inferred that the author's writing is closely related to folk narrative traditions, with themes drawn largely from rural society and grassroots life, focusing on oral stories, local customs, and ordinary human relationships, while the language tends to be plain and natural with a certain regional flavor. Because verifiable biographical material is scarce, a full assessment of the author's oeuvre remains difficult, but the placement of these two works under folk literature suggests a degree of representativeness in collecting and presenting folk themes, and they may serve readers interested in rural writing and folk narrative.