AN EYE ON HISTORY
A new book records the life of Chinese under Dutch colonial rule in Java in the 17th and 18th centuries
Over 40 years ago when Professor Leonard Blussé of Leiden University was a young student he was introduced to a Chinese book chronicling the lives of the Chinese people in Batavia (today’s Jakarta) in the 17th and 18th centuries. He found it fascinating and made it his goal to translate it into English. But due to the complexity of the language and the dialects involved, he had to shelve the project.
Then 10 years ago, he met Professor Nie Dening from Xiamen University in Fujian province, and they decided to do the work together. Their book, The Chinese Annals of Batavia, the Kai Ba Lidai Shiji and
Other Stories, was recently published by Brill, a long-standing Dutch publishing house. It edits, annotates and translates the original book entitled Kai Ba Lidai Shiji.
Professor George Bryan Souza of the University of Texas at San Antonio, a historian on global maritime economic history, is full of praise for the book, saying “Blussé and Nie have produced an exemplary volume.”
He says aside from its scholarly importance, it will appeal to anyone interested in Southeast Asian history, Chinese history, and intercultural history.
It is a timely reminder of the maritime trading routes that were the precursor of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road that countries are building today.
Zhuang Guotu, former dean of the Research School for Southeast Asia Studies at Xiamen University, says that Kai Ba Lidai Shiji is an important work for reconstructing Southeast Asian history. “That the two professors spent 10 years to compile the English annotated version is a reflection of their academic quality and dedication, and blazes a new path for Sinology research in the world.”
The original book
A manuscript of Kai Ba Lidai Shiji by an anonymous author, circulated at the end of the 18th century. The two annotators speculate that the author might have been the secretary of the Kong Koan of Batavia, a semi-autonomous organization, in which the local elite of Jakarta’s Chinese community supervised and coordinated its social and religious matters — as they believe that only a secretary would be in possession of in-house information, and that it might have taken its present form in 1793,
Historical accounts compiled by the Chinese in Southeast Asia are very rare, because most of them headed south for business, focusing more on commercial benefits rather than literary cultivation. The Kai Ba
Lidai Shiji is all the more precious as it chronicles the lives and work of Chinese people between 1610 and 1795 and their troubled relationship with the Dutch colonists.
“The text is a mix of languages: Fujian dialect, Malay, and Dutch, and full of ancient, variant, colloquial, (then) simplified and coined words of Chinese … it took great efforts to turn them all into English. The two annotators have unlocked a wealth of historical accounts for us and the book makes for smooth and riveting reading” said Zhuang at the launch of the book.
Not straightforward annals
Kai Ba Lidai Shiji is a chronological narration based on major events, such as the appointments and successions of governors and captains. But the author of Kai Ba
Lidai Shiji heeds the words of Confucius, who said that historical accounts should adopt the techniques of Chun Qiu (the technique of portraying the character), showing the author’s tastes and attitudes in the natural flow of events. The author of Kai Ba Lidai Shiji describes characters and emotions in a brief and vivid manner. Portraits are not rigid and stylized, and the characters are richer and more vivid than can be found in most historical records of the times. Some figures here, like Su Minggang, Guo Jun, wife of Yan Erguan, a coffin bearer, are very memorable.
And the author did not, or made little effort to conceal his true impressions. He gives a straightforward account of people and events without much reservation. For example, a jiada (leader of the Chinese) who was unable to write is treated with contempt by the author, a cultured man. Another
jiada, who came into office in a ceremony with much fanfare, but died after a year, is mocked by the author who says it as the working of karma. A boedelmeester (or curator of wills, the title for a Chinese in charge of an orphanage) is even cursed by the author who calls for him to be “sonless” for not showing the generosity expected of his position. This “local gazetteer” thus has an unfamiliar and charming sincerity.
Filling a gap in history
What is worth mentioning that the account in the Kai Ba Lidai Shiji of the Batavia massacre is much more detailed than any other Chinese accounts.
The author traces the roots of the massacre all the way back to 1619, when the Dutch occupied Jakarta, and changed its name to Batavia. In the early days of Dutch Batavia, residents were scarce and the city needed a large number of workers, shop assistants, bakers and undertakers and Chinese took these jobs.
The Chinese and Dutch colonists lived in the city peacefully for a century, but the Dutch colonial powers required the Chinese to carry registration papers, deporting those who did not comply. The massacre was triggered by a rumor claiming deportees were not being taken to Ceylon to work in the sugar plantations as claimed but were instead being thrown overboard once the ships carrying them were out of sight of Java. The Chinese, who had long fermented grievances against the Dutch began to gather around Batavia. In October 1740, the colonists, fearing a response from inside the city, started slaughtering Chinese, killing more than 8,000. Blussé pays a great deal of attention to the description as he says that the details accord closely to those he saw in files in the Dutch archives.
“I have been writing a monograph on the massacre. I have read a variety of materials. The description of Kai Ba Lidai Shiji is clearly close to the matter. It shows us the conflict from many angles. The analysis of the cause of the matter is also convincing, especially regarding the internal contradictions of the Dutch administration. The relevant materials preserved by the Dutch East India Company corroborate the account,” says Blussé.
Plain details show the early Chinese’s life
Dutch records and realist paintings in the 17th and 18th centuries were much appreciated in Europe, and they are considered relatively reliable records. The book contains 20 illustrations, including works by Dutch painters, that try to reveal the life of the Chinese in Batavia.
The author is a researcher at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies on Chinese Literature, Xiamen University.