The Replanting and Localizing of Chineseness in Whampoa’s Garden of Singapore

Abstract

Private Chinese gardens in 19th-century Singapore were rarely designed in the same way as their contemporary counterparts in China, though there were a few authentic Chinese mansions in the city. In response to this phenomenon, this paper attempts to use Whampoa’s Garden, the finest and earliest private Chinese garden on the island, as an example, to explain how and why garden owners selectively adopted certain Chinese features while designing the rest of their gardens in a way deviating from Chinese traditions. The study of Whampoa’s Garden begins with a sketchy introduction to the career and cultural background of the garden’s owner, Cantonese businessman Hoo Ah Kay, addressing his social connections, personal hobbies, and cultural identities. As the garden no longer exists, a study of available pictorial and written records from Chinese and Western sources is conducted in order to reveal the spatial layout and other designed features of the garden, some of which may have facilitated the display of Chineseness. Contemporaneous gardens from Hoo’s hometown will be compared to unveil hidden linkages between Whampoa’s Garden and Chinese garden ideas. Furthermore, the relationship between the selection of Chinese symbols and the identities of their audience is examined as an approach to studying what affected how Chineseness was presented and how the landscape of south China was transplanted to this equatorial colony.