Gankeng Hakka Townlet

This guide to Gankeng Hakka Townlet in Shenzhen follows a craft under threat: the liangmao, a wide bamboo-and-silk hat Hakka women wove here for two centuries to beat the harvest sun, once exported as far as Britain and France. It traces the Hakka settlers who arrived from Meizhou more than three hundred and fifty years ago, built the watchtower still standing in the village, and kept the tradition going even as orders dried up when synthetic materials took over the markets. Among the threads it follows is Zhang Guanxian, who learned the craft in 1972 and never put it down.