Stories from Deli

The Chinese through Dutch Eyes: Justus van Maurik’s perception of the Chinese in the Dutch East Indies, 1897. Ruben Leo Maria Peeters

In 1870, the Culture System was abandoned, and the economy liberalized while the abolition of slavery increased demand for cheap labor. Koelies (Coolies) immigrated in great numbers to meet the labor shortages and worked in mines and plantations. Accordingly, the immigration pattern shifted from a merchant to a coolie pattern. At the same time, the Chinese were made an easily identifiable group by the Dutch colonial government.

In 1872 legislation was passed making traditional Chinese clothing including the Manchu queue mandatory for all Chinese. The Dutch government treated the Chinese as a homogenous community, taxed them more heavily, limited their mobility and living areas but also enforced a form of Chinese self-government. This created a situation similar to Apartheid; the Chinese citizens went along with this.

Van Maurik used an ethnical framework, distinguishing Inlanders, Chinese and Europeans. But he did not perceive the Chinese as a homogenous group. Instead he implicitly divided the Chinese into three economic subgroups: merchants, coolies and ‘civilized Chinese’. The perception of all three groups differs.

Merchants are portrayed in accordance with the ruling stereotypes of the time. Van Maurik describes the Chinese in general as smart and shrewd businessmen who try to sell at the highest rate possible.22 They were great merchants who are always looking for profit but tended to make money in dishonest ways. Van Maurik even quoted “a small profit, is a sweet profit” as a Batavian merchant’s motto.23 He also ascribed several traits to the Chinese character. According to van Maurik:

The Chinese shows in all respects a rare perseverance, when it comes to earning money. He is moderate, industrious and not pretentious, and is more successful than most others, who are more intelligent, more developed and better educated. […] The Chinese grabs everything he can get, whether it his profession or not. At least he tries. In one word he is everything and everywhere.

These traits are slightly positive when seen from a Dutch Calvinist perspective, but also show the perceived economic dominance of the Chinese. Van Mauriks observations were generally positive. Even when what he writes was derogatory, his choice of words was very subtle and a general feeling of exoticism hangs over the book.

As a Totok, van Maurik was still astonished by the otherness of Chinese and Indonesians. Throughout the book he gives the impression that he saw them as less ‘complicated’ people whose ‘flaws’ he could forgive. As a special kind of merchant, van Maurik mentions the Klontongs (travelling salesmen). They are always friendly, but overprice everything. Van Maurik did not see this as an extremely bad thing. Klontongs play an important role in local society, bringing goods to places without stores. The overpricing is a small vice and one should know how to haggle. Van Maurik describes an anecdote where a Klontong repeatedly overcharged a Dutch priest, but in the end it is the priests fault because he did not haggle well enough. The priest however, gave a long sermon to the Klontong and called Chinese the “plague bumps” of Indonesian society that would spoil the kind Indonesians.

The descriptions of Chinese businessmen and traders are the most negative but also the most numerous in the book. The observations van Maurik makes about the merchants are not a standalone case in European literature. Friedrich Gerstäcker wrote the same about the Chinese in “Javaanse Schetsen” , and countless other examples can be seen in Dutch literature of that time.

Both van Maurik and Gerstäcker draw an interesting comparison between the Chinese and European Jews, namely that the Chinese, like Jews, are good with money, the only difference being that Chinese also are skilled artisans and manual laborers. (A comparison no doubt understood by the European readers).

The Chinese artisans and laborers were generally perceived positively. This is palpable in van Maurik’s admiring and pitiable descriptions of Chinese Coolies. While being far less numerous than the descriptions of merchants, they are exclusively positive. Van Maurik was impressed with their strength and hard work. He also described Coolies suffering from Beriberi and used his ability to arouse pity from his readers. He ascribed no bad traits to them; only compassion for them and their hardships.

The last group van Maurik distinguishes is that of the ‘civilized Chinese’. This group consisted of highly educated well-off merchants and local authority figures. Van Maurik meets two Chinese free masons during his trip and he described these encounters with great detail. Majoor-Chinees van Padang Lie-Saay, a high-ranking local official, invited him first. Lie-Saay offered van Maurik a tour around Padang in his private coach, because both of them were free masons and it was his honor and duty to welcome van Maurik in this way. Lie-Saay was highly respected and even van Maurik’s non-masonic companions saw it as an honor to be invited by him. The second free mason, Ko-mo-an, was less important than Lie-Saay but was still affluent and spoke ‘civilized’ Dutch. Although van Maurik and Ko-mo-an did not know each other, Ko-mo-an helped van Maurik when he was in need because of their shared masonic background. A Dutch woman was surprised that the Chinese could be free masons, but van Maurik told her that everyone, “even blacks”, could be a free mason if they were “sufficiently developed”. Because of the free mason-link, the ethnical hierarchy was replaced by position in the masonic system. Apparently this man was a rarity as a German ethnographer even found him “an object worthy of study”. Pictures of Ko-mo-an and Lie-Saay in modern dress are shown in the book. These anecdotes indicate that once wealthy, educated and important, ethnicity mattered less. The same perception can be found with important Indonesians.

Van Maurik, Justus. Indrukken van Een “Tòtòk”. Indische Typen En Schetsen.
Amsterdam: Holkema & Warendorf, 1897