The North American Black Historical Museum and Cultural Centre

https://digitalcommons.buffalostate.edu/ur-research/1012/thumbnail.jp

The Turtle Garden: Tan Kah Kee’s last spiritual world

This paper explores the role of diasporic subjects in China’s heritage-making through a case study of the Turtle Garden built by Tan Kah Kee in Xiamen, China. Tan is the first person with Overseas Chinese background who built museums in the P.R. China and has been regarded as a symbol of Overseas Chinese patriotism. This paper argues that the Turtle Garden, conceptualised as a postcolonial ‘carnivalesque’ space, is more than a civic museum for public education. It reflects the owner’s highly complex and sometimes conflicting museum outlook embedded in his life experience as a migrant, his encounter with (British) colonialism in Malaya, and integrated with his desire and despair about the Chinese Communist Party’s nation-building project in the 1950s. Rather than a sign of devotion to the socialist motherland as simplistically depicted in China’s discourse, the garden symbolises Tan’s last ‘spiritual world’ where he simultaneously engaged with soul-searching as a returned Overseas Chinese and alternative diasporic imagining of Chinese identities and nation. It brings to light the value of heritage-making outside centralised heritage discourses, and offers an invaluable analytical lens to disentangle the contested and ever shifting relationship between diasporic subjects, cultural heritage and nation-(re)building in the Chinese context and beyond

Inland view of the Flats

The Flats provide a considerable tract of agricultural land in Branch. Suitable for growing vegetables and a source of hay, the Flats also provide livestock pasturage.In his book Sport, Travel and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies, Captain Kennedy wrote of his visit to Branch in the late-1800s, The village was picturesquely situated in a valley, and presented a very pleasing and well-to-do appearance, quite in contrast to the generality of Newfoundland settlements; this was due to the fact that the valley afforded pasturage to herds of cattle and sheep, and a considerable part of it was devoted to agriculture... I never saw finer potatoes, or better cream, bread, butter, or fatter poultry or stock, in any place than at Branch River, showing what can be done by perseverance. The hay crops were magnificent, and the whole place bore the aspect of a well-to-do farm in the Lowlands of Scotland. It is certainly the most flourishing little place in Newfoundland. -- Sport, Travel and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies, 1885, Captain W. R. Kenned

Englishs Gulch flows past meadows on the way to the River

Two Gulches adjacent to the Flats on the east side of the River provide valuable farming land as well as great places for the nature lover to explore. Englishs Gulch, the gulch closer to the ocean, was one of the tracts of land cleared in Branch in the 1800s as the population grew and new families required land for vegetable gardens and livestock pasturage.Prior to the Englishs arrival in Branch, this gulch was known as Cottlers Gulch. Cottler was the captain of a schooner from Placentia forced to over-winter in Branch before the community was settled. Poor weather prevented the boat from getting out the Gut, forcing the crew to stay until the ice broke up in the spring. While details about their stay are scanty, it is said they used provisions from the boat to get through the winter and they may have built a log cabin

The Ground sits fallow across the River

In the 1930s and 1940s, during the tumultuous years of the Depression and World War II, considerable agricultural land was cleared in Branch. The Ground, just up the River from Roches Gulch, was cleared by and for war veterans returning home to Branch. This large parcel of land sits fallow today, its name an indication of the close relationship between people and land.The insert shows the Ground in the 1980s - two swaths of land separated by a row of trees

Young people gather for a time on the Bridge

Branch is known for its large number of singers, musicians and other artists, many carrying on the oral tradition of their Irish ancestors. In the 1950s and early-1960s, before the Shamrock Lounge was opened, people often gathered for a time in the parish hall or on the Bridge crossing the River

Ocean, Land, Home : A Stroll through Time and Place in Branch, St. Marys Bay

This series of photos provides a virtual tour around the named places in Branch. The place names, some static, some changing provide a glimpse at the close relationship between people, land and ocean, and point toward a rich knowledge-base on how to lead self-sufficient, self-sustainable, environmentally friendly lives. (Most of the places pictured in the collection are identified on three satellite images at the end of this series.)The accompanying text contains words and phrases that many be unfamiliar to many. You are encouraged to discover the meaning of these words in the Dictionary of Newfoundland English, available online. A Google search of Dictionary of Newfoundland English will bring you to it. -- Branch is located in St. Marys Bay on the southwest tip of the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland Canadas most eastern province. Branch was first settled in the 1790s by Irish immigrants lured to this part of the New World by teeming fish in the waters around the Grand Banks and Cape St. Marys

Headstones in the Old Graveyard mark lives of the early settlers

The Old Graveyard is located at the Gut, close to the location of the first church. The remaining headstones mark the lives of those who lived in Branch before 1910.The current graveyard is located above the church on the Knap - the highest point on the western hills overlooking the Place

Stakes piled on the Big Hill

The tree-covered hills around Branch provide firewood and timber. Over the years, this local supply has been used to build houses and boats, horse slides and box carts, wharves and flakes, furniture and barrels. The Big Hill is known as a good place to cut rails and stakes for fencing. Close by, Birchy Hill is known for its growth of birch trees. Birch is good wood for barrels, cart wheels, snowshoes, furniture, slide knees and staircase rails.Alderly Hill is known for its growth of alders. In the past, alders were used for firewood and to make brooms and lobster pots. Other wood cutting places include Simons Nap, the Knap Where Peter Cut the Wood, and Where Tom Cut Stuff for the House. (Thomas Nash(mid- 1800s) not the first Thomas Nash cut wood here to build his house in the Lane. Tommy in the Bog, as he was known, is said to have been 7 feet tall and had the strength of 5 to 7 men.

Jerry OKeefe on O'Keefes Path

As the trees closer to the Place were cut, paths were required to haul out timber and firewood from further away. Along the first paths, wood was carried out on a horse and slide in the winter. Paths were blazed by individuals but used by all. OKeefes (Keefes) Path is a recent slide path cut by Jerry OKeefe.Other slide paths include Joe Nashs Slide Path, Franks Path and Paddys Path