Tower House / Diaolou, Zhongshan
Date Published
: villages, Districts of Origin / Qiaoxiang / Pearl River Delta / 珠江三角洲, Building (existing)
: Pearl River Delta 珠江三角洲
: Zhongshan
: c.1920
Tower built alongside the family home of Cliff Lee whose father ran a Fruit & Vegetable store in Kogarah, Sydney.
Tower House
It became common in the early 20th century for Overseas Chinese families to build defensive towers known as diao lou (碉樓) or guntowers as protection from bandit attacks. Those in Zhongshan County were usually simpler than those of Taishan or Kaiping. The Lee family were once attacked by bandits in their Liang Du village when Clifford Lee was a young boy.
"Towers, or diao lou (碉樓), were designed to provide a family with refuge in case of bandit attack."
Michael Williams, Returning home with glory: Chinese villagers around the Pacific, 1849 to 1949 (榮歸故里：太平洋地區的中國僑鄉 1849–1949), Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 2018, p.79.
