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

Target Tilt Gully flows into the River at the Salmon Hole

Gully banks are good places to find various tree species. In the late 1800s, a cooper by the name of Johnny Target spent time in Branch cutting birch wood for use in barrel making. Target built a tilt near this gully and it became known as Target Tilt Gully

The Bank overlooks the Landwash

The Bank is a manmade structure. In the mid-1950s, when the Gut was dredged, sand and gravel were piled at the edge of the Landwash, creating the Bank.Although breakwaters has been constructed to slow the adverse effects of river sand and tidal action, the Gut must be dredged regularly to maintain channel depth. Boats loaded with fish sometimes go aground on the Bar (sandbar) at low tide while trying to get in the Gut

Skiff, dories and longliners moored in the Pond

The Pond has been home to several types of fishing boats over the years, many of them built in Branch. Throughout the years schooners, dories, skiffs and longliners have sat in the Pond.The schooners of Thomas Nashs prime fishing years had a longer range than was needed for early Branch residents to catch cod in the nearby waters. The size of boats decreased from schooners to dories which were rowed to the fishing grounds. Later, dories were replaced by motorized skiffs. Skiffs were replaced by longliners with a range similar to that of the old schooners

Satellite image of the Place

Satellite image of the Place