This tradition was carried south over a millennium ago, with the great migrations of Han Chinese scholar-official families from the north. As these displaced elites resettled in the rugged south, they clung to cultural pillars like the bian'e to maintain clan identity and social order in an unfamiliar landscape.

The southern Jiangxi area was one of their first major settlements.

Here, the plaque custom took root and uniquely evolved. Settling into tight-knit clans for mutual support, Hakka communities constructed ancestral halls, adorned with plaques declaring lineage and honoring virtue and longevity.

Thus, each plaque symbolizes the collective duty to strengthen kinship ties, honor filial piety, and inspire future generations, Huang says.

This system played a crucial, stabilizing role in maintaining family, clan, and local social order, he adds.

Beyond their social function, these plaques are treasured vessels of artistic heritage, preserving exceptional calligraphy and frequently embedded with intricate carvings, achieving a rare synthesis of high art and popular custom, thus providing scholars with invaluable material for studying social history, genealogical patterns, and regional art.

Words into wood

If Huang is the interpreter of this language, then Xiao Tianchang is its scribe.

In his 70s, Xiao is a provincial-level inheritor of the Gannan (southern Jiangxi) Hakka bian'e-making, which was listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2014.

In his workshop, the air smelled of camphor wood and tung oil. Dressed in a traditional Tang (618-907)-style suit, his black-rimmed glasses perched low, Xiao was busy making new plaques for the Spring Festival holiday.

"This is the time when families reunite, when clans complete their ancestral hall renovations, and we honor achievements," Xiao says, adding that winter, especially right before Spring Festival, is the season for ceremonies.