Yin Yu Tang House (蔭餘堂) is a late 18th-century

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

house from

Anhui Anhui is an inland Provinces of China, province located in East China. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze and Huai rivers, bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the east, Jiang ...

province that had been removed from its original village and re-erected in

Salem Salem may refer to: Places Canada * Salem, Ontario, various places Germany * Salem, Baden-Württemberg, a municipality in the Bodensee district ** Salem Abbey (Reichskloster Salem), a monastery * Salem, Schleswig-Holstein Israel * Salem (B ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. In North America it is the only example of historic Chinese vernacular architecture. As such it provides an example of the type of dwelling an average family in China would have lived in. The Yin Yu Tang (Hall of Plentiful Shelter) was built in the late eighteenth century during the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(1644–1911). A prosperous merchant surnamed Huang built a stately sixteen-bedroom house in China's southeastern

Huizhou region Huizhou () is a historical region in Anhui Province which roughly corresponds to Huangshan City today – the southernmost region of the province. In Ming and Qing dynasties, Huizhou was a prefecture corresponding to Huangshan city and Jixi Count ...

, calling his home Yin Yu Tang House. This Chinese merchant commissioned the construction of the house in the province of his birth, Anhui, China. The five-bay, two-story residence was typical of its region, built of timber-frame construction, with a tile roof and exterior masonry walls of sandstone and brick. The house is about 47 feet 6 inches by 52 feet inches not including the kitchens. In addition to sixteen bedrooms there are also two reception areas, a storage room, and a courtyard in the center. There are also large intricately carved wooden panels that cover the inner windows on the first floor. The house survived economic and political upheavals, and was home to eight generations of the Huang family. By the mid-1980s the house stood empty. Local and national authorities, with the endorsement of the original owner's descendants, gave permission for the house (and its contents) to be relocated to the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and th ...

(PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts. The house opened in June 2003 as a permanent exhibit at the PEM. Yin Yu Tang is available for timed, self-guided audio tours. A children's book titled ''Piece by Piece'' was written by Susan Tan and illustrated by Justine Wong. It follows a young girl's adventure through the museum and Yin Yu Tang House as she searches for a lost blanket. It was published by PEM and Six Foot Press in 2019.

References

External links

Yin Yu Tang House @ Peabody Essex Museum website
{{coord, 42, 31, 16.3, N, 70, 53, 31.8, W, display=title Historic house museums in Massachusetts Houses in Salem, Massachusetts Peabody Essex Museum Chinese-American culture

See also

References

External links