Chengyang’s Drum Tower village is the center of community life for the Dong people, serving as a gathering place for meetings, ceremonies, and daily exchange. This photograph was made in 1987, when the villages remained largely unchanged by modern development.

The wooden architecture, built without nails, reflects generations of craftsmanship and communal labor. Surrounding rice terraces tie the village directly to the land that sustains it.

At the time, this village was little known outside the region, and daily life followed patterns that had endured for centuries.