Nanhai Village, the fishing village memory frozen on the coral reef

Nanhai Village, a coastal village in Wencheng Town, Wenchang, resists the erosion of modernity with its unique attitude. This ancient fishing village surrounded by the sea on three sides still retains the largest existing group of ancient coral stone dwellings in Hainan. The blue-gray walls are built of coral stones, and hundreds of years of sea salt have accumulated in the rough pores. When you brush your fingers across the wall, you can touch the solidified edges of the waves. The veins of the fishing village are hidden in the architectural texture. Coral stone houses extend radially toward the coast, and narrow alleys connect life like capillaries: fishing nets are hung on the east roof, tung oil cans for repairing ship hulls are piled on the west wall, and dried fish drying in the backyard sway in salty and fishy arcs in the wind. These houses, made with local materials, have their own temperature control function, and the indoor temperature is cooler than that of air-conditioned rooms in midsummer. Fishermen say this is the "living heritage" left by the coral reef to future generations. Modern technology is gradually changing the fishing tradition of Nanhai Village. In the harbor, wooden boats and steel fishing boats are moored side by side, and Beidou navigation screens are flashing in the cabins, replacing the hand-drawn nautical charts of our ancestors. The electronic screen at the tide monitoring station displays wave data in real time, but veteran fishermen are still accustomed to observing the phases of the moon to decide when to go out to sea. Next to the sea-circling highway at the entrance of the village, cacti with goose yellow flowers bloomed from the cracks in the abandoned coral stone walls. Traces of the interweaving of old and new can be seen everywhere in the village. At high tide, waves surge over the coral stone base of the Ming Dynasty breakwater; at low tide, the beach is littered with plastic parts of modern fishing gear. Satellite TV antennas cling to the coral stone walls, while traditional wooden shuttles used to mend fishing nets are stacked in the corners. As dusk falls, the past and present, contradictions and integration of the fishing village become increasingly clear: smartphones illuminate the dried squid being sold through live broadcasts, the evil-repelling stone talisman on the roof still guards the old house, and the halos of fishing fires and street lamps interweave in the salty and humid sea breeze. This village built with coral stones is groping for its own survival rules in the collision between tradition and modernity!