Text and photos by An Min-huei, adviser of Taiwan Macroview TV
圖文/宏觀電視顧問 安敏慧
Kinmen is well known as a home for ethnic Chinese who migrated to Southeast Asia. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, many people from Kinmen moved to Southeast Asia to do business. After they had become wealthy, they donated money to build schools and western-style houses as a way of paying back their hometowns.
金門是南洋華人著名的僑鄉，十九世紀末、二十世紀初，不少金門人遠赴南洋經商、累積財富後，就捐錢興學、興建洋樓，以回饋故鄉。
The present Taiwan Macroview TV series “The Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission invites you to look at Taiwan” chooses to use a completely new angle to view the revitalized Kinmen. During the shooting trip, we visited Kinmen County Magistrate Li Wo-shi. “When overseas compatriots move out and make money, the first thing they think of is helping their relatives build a house, so many western-style homes we see in Kinmen were built by overseas compatriots who returned. The second thing they think of is donating money to build schools. In Malaysia, there is a leading overseas compatriot, Mr. Yang Chung-li, who donated NT$20 million to the National Kinmen Institute of Technology to build a student dormitory. The Ministry of Education also approved the upgrading of the school to a university from August 1,” Li said.
在這次宏觀電視＜僑委會邀您看台灣＞系列選擇以全新的角度詮釋重生的金門。在拍攝旅程中，我們特地拜訪金門李沃士縣長，他提到:「華僑到外地，賺了錢，第一個想到的就是幫自己的家人蓋房子，所以我們在金門看到很多的洋樓就是華僑回來興建的。第二個就是捐資興學，在馬來西亞有一位僑領楊忠禮先生，特別捐贈兩千萬元台幣於金門技術學院建造一座學生宿舍，教育部並也核准八月一日升格為大學。」
When overseas compatriots return home to build western-style houses, they will often bring back the cultural styles of their new home regions, and even sculpt images of their foreign servants and maids into the western-style houses of Kinmen to express their pride and their love for their hometowns.
華僑返鄉蓋洋樓，常常會把僑居地的文化風情，甚至外籍家丁、家僕，刻畫在金門的洋樓上，表達他們的驕傲與思鄉之情。
The Beauty of Kinmen’s Settlement Culture
金門聚落文化之美
Shanhou is a Kinmen cultural village, and this settlement is also the home of the Wang clan. All 18 traditional Southern Fujian buildings in the village took 25 years to complete. What we see now has been conserved from the era of Qing Dynasty Emperor Guangxu until now, it’s an extraordinarily well-maintained architectural complex.
山后是金門民俗文化村，而這村落也是王氏宗族，整個村落由十八棟傳統閩南聚落建築歷時25年才完成，而我們現在所看到的都是自清朝光緒年間一直保留到現在，是非常的完整建築群。
Kinmen’s traditional homes have two types of roof ridges, the horseback and the swallowtail. The horseback refers to the homes of the common citizens, while the swallowtails were typical for the homes of officials. But local residents believed the emperor would not be able to supervise them, so all 18 homes use swallowtails.
金門的傳統古厝，屋脊有所謂的「馬背」與「燕尾」兩種形式，「馬背」是指平民百姓的房子，「燕尾」則是做官的人家的房子，但當地居民認為皇帝管不到他們，因此這十八棟房子都是採燕尾建築形式。
There is a famous saying in Kinmen, “the red palace, the black house.” The meaning is that it’s enough to paint the outside of a building yellow to give the impression it’s a temple, paint it black and it represents an ancestral shrine. If on the top of the roof there is an inlaid object which looks like a coffee-colored dragon, it is called a “longyin.” It represents the ancestral shrine and is the second major characteristic used to discern such a shrine.
金門有一句名言：「紅宮黑祖厝」，意即只要在建築物外表漆黃色的就代表是廟宇，漆成黑色的就代表是宗祠，另外就是屋脊上面如果鑲有咖啡色像龍的東西，就稱為「龍隱」，代表是宗祠，這也是辨別宗祠的兩大特徵。
Staying at Kinmen Bed and Breakfasts to Experience the Southern Fujian Life
金門民宿體驗閩南生活
Even though most buildings in Kinmen are erected in the Southern Fujian style, if overseas compatriots funded the construction, there will be cultural elements present from their second home country, giving Kinmen architecture even more of background rooted in their era.
金門的建築雖多以閩南建築為主，但若是華僑出資興建的就會加入當時華僑在外地奮鬥的第二故鄉的文化元素，讓金門的建築更具時代背景。
These years, in order to develop tourism, the Kinmen National Park funded the restoration of overseas compatriot western-style homes or Southern Fujian architecture. Members of the public have been allowed to operate bed and breakfasts, giving a new life to the old buildings, so people no longer look at the outside, but also live inside and enjoy them.
而這些年，為拓展觀光，金門國家公園出資整修僑匯洋樓或閩南古建築，委由民間經營民宿，老建築賦予它新生命，讓我們不只是在外面看，還能夠住進去享受它。
Even though you won’t find any five-star hotels when you travel to Kinmen, everywhere you will encounter different styles of bed and breakfasts for a rich experience. This is one of the aspects of Kinmen that enchants visitors.
旅遊金門，雖然沒有五星級的飯店，但是，處處有不同風情的民宿可以深入體驗，這就是金門迷人之處。
