Performing Power Cultural Hegemony, Identity, and Resistance in Colonial Indonesia • Arnout van der Meer Mahinder Kingra Chiara Formichi (ex officio) Tamara Loos Thak Chaloemtiarana Andrew Willford Copyright © by Cornell University e text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-NoDerivatives . International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/./. To use this book, or parts of this book, in any way not covered by the license, please contact Cornell University Press, Sage House, East State Street, Ithaca, New York . Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu. First published by Cornell University Press Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Meer, Arnout van der, – author. Title: Performing power: cultural hegemony, identity, and resistance in colonial Indonesia / Arnout van der Meer. Description: Ithaca, [New York]: Southeast Asia Program Publications, an imprint of Cornell University Press, . | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identi­ers: LCCN (print) | LCCN (ebook) | ISBN (hardcover) | ISBN (paperback) | ISBN (epub) | ISBN (pdf) Subjects: LCSH: Politics and culture—Indonesia—Java—History— th century. | Politics and culture—Indonesia—Java—History—th century. | Group identity—Indonesia—Java—History— th century. | Group identity—Indonesia—Java—History—th century. | Indonesia—Politics and government— – . | Java (Indonesia)—Social life and customs— th century. | Java (Indonesia)—Social life and customs—th century. Classi­cation: LCC DS.M (print) | LCC DS (ebook) | DDC ./—dc LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/ Cover image: Resident P. Sijtho of Semarang with his servant holding his gilded payung, . 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For Amelie and So­e • Figures xi Acknowledgments xiii A Note on Spelling and Terms xvii e Performance of Power Setting the Stage: e Javanization of Colonial Authority in the Nineteenth Century “Sweet was the Dream, Bitter the Awakening”: e Contested Implementation of the Ethical Policy, – Disrupting the Colonial Performance: e Hormat Circular of and the National Awakening Contesting Sartorial Hierarchies: From Ethnic Stereotypes to National Dress East Is East, and West Is West: Forging Modern Identities Staging Colonial Modernity: Hegemony, Fairs, and the Indonesian Middle Classes Pawnshops as Stages of the Colonial Performance of Power Notes Bibliography . Map of Java . Meeting of the Native Court in Pati, Central Java, ca. . Founding meeting of the Sarekat Islam in Blitar, . Advertisement for a Sundanese language course . Opinion ballot on “sembah djongkok” . “e past and the present!” . “Don’t forget where you come from!” . “e Modernized Javanese” . Camel cigarettes at the Pasar Gambir, . “e Pawnshop Strike” xi e process of writing a ­rst book is like a play. It consists of distinct acts, beginning with formulating a research topic and question in graduate school, conducting research in libraries and archives, working through challenges, and honing the narrative and arguments until it ­nally all comes together in published form. Unlike a play, however, the reader only sees the result of this laborious journey. I am therefore excited for the opportunity to recognize and thank the many people who have o ered me instruction, support, friendship, and insightful feedback along the way. Without their help, this book simply could not have been written. is book began at Rutgers University, where I was lucky to work with some of the most amazing scholars and teachers I know. I am especially grateful for the enduring guidance and friendship of Michael Adas, whose questions about photographs depicting Dutch colonial ocials surrounded by Javanese status symbols prompted my interest in the interplay between culture and power many years ago. I treasure our conversations over co ee on cultural hegemony, agency, and material culture just as much as those on contemporary politics, baseball, and life. Bonnie Smith is among the most inspiring people I have ever met. She taught me numerous invaluable skills, but her most important lesson is one that I consistently convey to my own students: when writing, make sure it is inter- esting. I also pro­ted tremendously from my conversations with Matt Matsuda about culture and power and am forever inspired by his exemplary energy in the classroom. To this day, I feel privileged to have had Eric Tagliacozzo as my outside reader, as he encouraged me to expand the scope of my project and always provided me with invaluable advice. roughout researching and writing the manuscript, I received vital support from friends I made in graduate school, especially Kris Alexanderson, Stephen Allen, Alejandro Gomez-del Moral, Annie Kinkel-De Vries, Kathryn Mahaney, Elizabeth Churchich, and Adam Zalma. During my research trips and confer- ences, I met many inspiring people who each in their own way helped me to de- velop my project, including Tom van den Berge, Marieke Bloembergen, Kees van Dijk, Liesbeth Ouwehand, Remco Raben, Pauline K. M. van Roosmalen, and xiii xiv Acknowledgments Abdul Wahid. I bene­ted from the help and friendship of Hazel Hahn, whose invitation to participate in a project on cultural exchange between Southeast Asia and Europe and her insightful commentary on my writing positively shaped my project. Similarly, Henk Schulte Nordholt’s challenge to develop a collabo- rative study with Tom Hoogervorst and Dafna Ruppin signi­cantly impacted my own understanding of my research. No less inspiring was my teamwork with Bart Luttikhuis, whose sharp mind and pen were a great help in articulating social change in colonial Indonesia. And ­nally, I’d like to thank my colleagues at Colby College, who made me feel right at home and were always supportive of my research agenda. I especially appreciate the support and feedback provided by Sarah Du , Noa Gutow-Ellis, Elizabeth LaCouture, Mary Beth Mills, and John Turner. roughout my years of work on this project, I have received generous ­- nancial support that enabled research trips in Europe and Indonesia, language instruction, editing services, and much-needed time for writing. I am especially grateful for my Fulbright Fellowship from the Netherlands America Commis- sion for Educational Exchange; the substantial support of the Department of History, School of Graduate Studies, and the Rutgers Center for Historical Analysis at Rutgers University; various fellowships and grants from the An- drew W. Mellon Foundation; an Aliated Fellowship at the Royal Institute for Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV); and my Colby College Start-Up Funds as well as several Colby College Social Science Division Grants. Without a doubt, the help and guidance of librarians and archivists enhanced my research tremendously, especially at the former library and collections of the KITLV, Leiden University Library’s Special Collections, and the National Ar- chives in e Hague. My editor, Sarah Elizabeth Mary Grossman, has been supportive of—and pa- tient with—my book project since I ­rst pitched it at the Association for Asian Studies’ annual meeting in Toronto in . I thank her for her encouragement and persistence in seeing this project come together. I am also very much obliged to the two anonymous readers whose thoughtful suggestions have undoubtedly improved this book. And I owe special thanks to Alix Genter, my fellow Rut- gers graduate, whose assistance in editing my manuscript was essential in hon- ing my writing and clarifying my thoughts. Finally, I am truly grateful for the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Sustainable History Monograph Pilot program, which greatly expands the reach of my scholarship. My own understanding of this project developed as I sharpened my thoughts and approach through research fellowships, talks, conference presentations, and Acknowledgments xv of course publications. All of these experiences come together in this book. Parts of chapters and originally appeared in “Rituals and Power: Cross-Cultural Exchange and the Contestation of Colonial Hegemony in Indonesia,” in Cross-Cultural Exchange and the Colonial Imaginary: