Cultural preservation

In November 2012, the Hakka Enclosed Houses of Southern Jiangxi province were listed in China's World Cultural Heritage Tentative List, and prepared themselves to embrace the same sort of worldwide fame as enjoyed by tulou.

Before that, Lai the senior enclosed house expert had a number of concerns: Only two enclosed houses are state-level protected historic sites, five are provincial-level, and less than 10 are county-level. The rest are exposed to threats of being modified or even demolished.

Lai hopes the nomination process of World Cultural Heritage will bring legal protection to every enclosed house.

"The enclosed houses carry the spirit and culture of Hakka people, which I believe will shine on the world stage in the near future," Lai says.