It was a small victory hardly mentioned by the mainstream media, but in the opinion of Penghu residents, a giant step toward saving an important piece of history.

On Dec. 23 last year, the Council for Cultural Affairs agreed to list a cluster of old coral-built houses in Chungshe Village (中社) on Penghu’s Wang’an Islet (望安島) as an “important settlement,” after several decades of efforts by local residents to obtain government protection of the centuries-old homes.

The quiet Chungshe Village, which locals call by its ancient name Hua Zhai (花宅), or “Flower Village,” is believed to have existed as a settlement since Han immigrants from China began settling there many centuries ago.

The new designation for Hua Zhai may finally bring about much-needed government support for the challenging work of preserving the houses in the village, which is considered the largest and most well-preserved early Han settlement in Taiwan.

“Chungshe residents have waited for more than 20 years for this moment,” said Tzeng Ching-hsin (曾敬信), secretary-general of the Taiwan Hua Zhai Settlement Preservation Association — a civic group founded by local residents and homeowners in 2005.

The central government’s move comes as the nation tries to attract more tourists to boost its lagging economy and as local governments are increasingly recognizing that what tourists want to see is not tall new buildings, but traditional houses that teach them something about local culture and history.

Over the past two decades, residents have made repeated requests to government offices seeking government restrictions against destroying the homes and funding to preserve them — but to no avail.

While waiting for government protection over the years, Hua Zhai has paid the price, Tzeng said, as more than half of the village’s approximately 150 old houses were either inadvertently damaged or intentionally destroyed by residents who preferred to build new homes with modern conveniences. Although some 50 structures remain intact, the landscape has partly been marred by the new buildings.

Harsh weather has also taken a toll. In the summer of last year alone, three powerful typhoons badly damaged the village, as many of the dwellings’ holed roofs provided little protection against rainfall.

Yet the settlement is fertile ground for renovation because most of the houses, which date back 75 to 150 years, have not been modified and reflect designs handed down from early Han settlers.

In a 2006 survey of the village, the Foundation of Historic City Conservation and Regeneration found that of the village’s 158 buildings, 73 percent had not been changed in any way.

Ironically, the village’s remote location and an exodus of people looking for work in more populated areas have been critical to preserving its unique identity.

“A serious population outflow is the reason why Chungshe has been able to keep its original appearance,” association chairman Yen Hsin-hsiung (顏信雄) said.

Even today, some of the 100 remaining villagers — mostly senior citizens and children — live the same way their ancestors did, fishing, collecting seaweed and ­growing their own food.

“They take what nature offers,” foundation director-general Chang Yu-huang (張玉璜) said. “It is the old wisdom of living in harmony with nature that is valuable and deserves to be preserved, protected and passed on.”

Despite the settlement’s long history, the houses’ unique architectural features and historical significance were not appreciated until Lin Huei-cheng (林會承), now a professor in Taipei National University of the Arts’ Graduate School of Architecture and Historic Preservation, stumbled upon them in the late 1970s.

“I was amazed by their architectural structure and their abundant cultural significance when I first caught sight of the settlement 30 years ago,” Lin said, adding that he immediately began what was to become a lifetime study of the houses.

Lin measured every house, recorded details of their decoration and analyzed the skillful way the coral stones were stacked and held together by a lime and mud mortar.

Coral was the main building material used in the old days because of the lack of trees or other natural resources on the islet and residents not being able to afford imported wood. Even then, villagers only had access to coral that washed up on beaches after storms.

The houses typically consist of a main building with two wings adorned with elegant, bell-shaped roofs. Skillful architectural techniques ensured that the houses were built to withstand the notoriously strong howling winds in Penghu. Small windows blocked by cement bars and attachable wooden panels kept the wind out. The structures were also environmentally friendly — warm in the winter and cool in the summer.

Preservationists tried for years to get formal recognition for these architectural marvels before succeeding in having the settlement put on the 2004 World Monuments Watch List of the 100 most-endangered sites by the New York-based World Monuments Funds, a private nonprofit organization dedicated to saving the world’s most treasured places.

Yet even the newly won designation may be an empty victory.

Under the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (文化資產保護法), the relevant authorities are only obliged to subsidize 60 percent of the cost of preserving and restoring the old houses, with the rest to be footed by local residents. In other words, the residents still have to take the initiative to maintain the settlement, and if through negligence it loses its unique character, it might be stripped of the designation, a Penghu County official said.

“Our biggest hope now is for the government to set regulations on how to preserve and restore the old houses and prevent tourists from disturbing the lives of the people who still live there,” Tzeng said.