During the Qing Dynasty (1644–1911), a prosperous merchant named Huang built a stately 16-bedroom house in China’s southeastern Huizhou region, calling his home Yin Yu Tang, meaning “Hall of Plentiful Shelter.” The house was home to the Huang family for more than 200 years until the last descendants moved from the village in 1982.

In the 1990s, as part of a mutually beneficial cultural exchange, the home and its contents were carefully dismantled and transported to Massachusetts for eventual installation on PEM’s campus. Over the course of seven years, a team of museum curators and educators working in concert with preservation architects and traditional Chinese and American craftspeople re-erected the home. In 2003, Yin Yu Tang opened to visitors, telling the complex story of its past and recent history and transforming it from a multigenerational family residence to a historic house in a museum setting at PEM.

The first floor bedrooms have intricately carved lattice windows that look out onto two fish ponds in the central courtyard. The home’s details tell as much about the aspirations, identity and creative expression of the Huang family as they do about the architectural heritage of the region.

The family’s well-documented genealogy and the collection of furnishings – passed down through eight generations – offer the opportunity to understand historical changes in China as they affected individuals in their daily lives and cultures on a global scale.

The name “Yin Yu Tang” has several meanings; one refers to the owner’s wish that this house would shelter their descendants far into the future. That wish was fulfilled – Yin Yu Tang was home to eight generations of the Huang family. At any one time, as many as 30 people, from three different generations, lived here — nearly all women and children. The young men worked as merchants in cities at a distance from the village to support their families. The journey to these cities was often dangerous, and the men lived there for extended periods of time, sometimes for as long as six years. In their absence, the women, children and elders were the primary residents of the house. While caring for the younger and older generations, the women maintained the sixteen-bedroom home, farmed vegetables and raised chickens and pigs.

According to the principles of the Chinese practice of feng shui, Yin Yu Tang was oriented in the village of Huang Cun to ensure a harmonious relationship with the landscape. Typically, Chinese homes face South, letting in sunlight and more yang, or masculine energy. Yin Yu Tang, however, was positioned facing North, toward the direction that the village stream flowed (considered to symbolize prosperity) with the rolling hills behind. These geographical features made the home’s unusual position more auspicious.