The Most Beautiful “Culture Card” of Guangzhou

Chen Clan Academy is also called Ancestral Temple of the Chen Family, and it was a place both for offering up sacrifices to ancestors and for study. Now it serves as Guangdong Museum of Folk Arts and Crafts to show the most characteristic Guangdong architecture. Located at Zhongshan 7th Road, the Chen Clan Academy is a symmetric complex which consists of 19 buildings with nine halls and six courtyards. It was added in the list of “Cultural Relics of National Importance under the Protection of the State” in 1988.


Facing south, the complex forms around a north-south axis. A large collection of southern China art pieces, for example, wood carvings and pottery, can be found in the structure. The Chen Clan Academy complex exemplifies traditional Chinese architecture and decoration style, and has influenced cultural and architectural developments worldwide. The buildings in the Chen Clan Academy are fully decorated with wood carving, stone carving, brick carving, pottery, plaster and iron engraving. The content of these decoration are mostly flowers, birds, Cantonese fruits and scenes in traditional dramas.


dazzling pottery colorful on the top of the building




towering, ornate, decorative and complex ridge




There are two big stone drums on each side of the gate, 2.55 meters high, and 1.4 meters in diameter, the symbol of fame of Chen family.


Walking into the gate, you can see four hollow carved screens, each 4.5 meters high, 1.3 meters wide.


Gathering Hall: the place to hold a meeting or worship for tribe, open and transparent.


Turn around the screens, there are two galleries decorated with unique Guangdong plaster decorations.




The stone carving in Chen Clan Academy is mainly granite stone, used on pillars, beams, doors, railings, wall, column bases, stairs and other places.


The iron engravings in the Chen Clan Academy are mainly used on the platform railings. These engravings have symmetric patterns and four different themes, which are "The Qilin and the Phoenix", "Dragons and orbs", "The three goats" and "Goldfish in a pond". The iron engravings railings are dim in color and delicate in structure. They are rarely seen in traditional Cantonese architecture.










The stone lions on the railings are in unique shape, especially the ears.






The Chen clan academy has a large collection of wood carvings, which can be seen everywhere in the halls at the corners of the beams, walls, and doors.


Among the buildings and components of Gathering Hall, the most commendable one is its 20 carved doors.


The tribe worship hall: 27 meters wide, roll tent type gallery.


At the back of the hall, there is a 7 meters high wooden Niche cover.








A plate with characteristics of the 1960s


white monkey inkstone in exhibit


The arch in front of Chen Clan Academy