Southeast Asian Studies, Vol. 28, No.4, March 1991

Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth­ Century Java--Cerita Nyai , the Macabre Story of an Englishman's Concubine*

Kenji TSUCHIYA**

Bandung. Later he moved to Batavia (pres­ Introduction ent-day ) and became involved in editing This paper examines the short novel entitled a Malay magazine. Also, in 1891 he published in Cerita Nyai Dasima written by G. Francis Batavia a biography of Napoleon. Therefore, (1860-1915) and published by Kho Tjeng Bie & we can as least piece together that he was a Co. of Batavia in 1896. Through this work I journalist living and working in a torrid zone shall focus on the world of popular literature under Dutch colonial rule, that he was fluent in during that time within the context of urban Malay, and that he used that language to ex­ society, in order to investigate the relationship press a number of opinions about the conditions between literature and social order in a country of colonial society. under colonial rule. Turning to the novel itself, which is the tragic Francis wrote Cerita Nyai Dasima in every­ story of a Sundanese woman named Dasima, day, colloquial Malay (or Pasar-Malay), which, who becomes an Englishman's nyai, or con­ incidentally, developed into the "language of cubine, we can confidently state that it was a national liberation" along with the growth of the literary work born from definite "hybrid" condi­ nationalist movement in the early twentieth tions, given that 1) it was written in Malay by a century and then became the official language of white foreigner whose native language was not the state of Indonesia. The background of the Malay, 2) it was distributed through a Chinese novel contains interesting and peculiar ele­ publisher, and 3) it circulated in an ethnically ments. First, we know that the author was of mixed, late-nineteenth-century Dutch colonial English descent, but neither his family nor city. career background is very clear. We are not The theme of popular literature has over the even sure that his real name was Francis. years been virtually ignored in the conventional However, we do know that he was on the histories of Indonesian literary movements. It editorial staff of the Malay newspaper Pengadi­ has been treated as a something low class lan, which circulated in the high plains city of genre of suspect and shady origins, to be placed in an altogether different category both from * This paper was originally published in Japanese in the traditional literature and classical literary the journal Bungaku 57 Guly 1989): 48-63. style that characterize the Malay and Javan ** ±~f@7Ei, The Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University court chronicles, and from the modern, "ortho-

-17 - 467 dox" nationalist literature. This lack of research The following is an English translation of the initiative means that there are very few source first forty-three lines (three paragraphs) of the materials today that could help us trace the original text, which, interestingly, contains only origins and development of this popular literary five sentence-ending periods, the remaining genre. The novels making up this enormous clauses and phrases being compounded and set body of literature were all relegated to either off by commas and semicolons. This seems to the miscellaneous reading section or the lending indicate a style reflecting a process of transition comer of the book market and thus became from oral narration into written prose. scattered willy nilly throughout the city and subsequently lost for want of systematized col­ This is a story. It is said that about 1813 lecting or preservation activities. This is indeed an Englishman administered Tanah Curcuk unfortunate, for as researchers the world over in the district of Tanggerang. His name now know, popular literature is an important was Edward W. He was not very old and source of information on previously unknown he had a concubine, a nyai, who was a aspects of literary and social history. Fortu­ Muslim girl from Kampung Kuripan, called nately, however, we do have Cerita Nyai Dasi­ Dasima. The gentleman had kept the nyai ma, a late-nineteenth-century popular literary from the time she was a girl. She was very gem that has continued to be read and talked beautiful. Her skin was fair and her hair about up to the present day. was long. Willingly she had studied all the In the sections that follow, I shall describe things a woman should know-cooking, briefly the story contained in the novel, ex­ sewing and dressmaking-from Mrs. amine its content, and finally consider its after­ Bonnet, who also happened to be living at math in terms of how it was received by the Curcuk. Dasima was a diligent and intelli­ society that read it and how popular ideas about gent person. the story changed over time. In this way I hope Mr. W loved her as though she were his not only to discuss one particular work of popu­ legal wife. He entrusted the care of all his lar literature, but also give the· reader some property to her. Dasima had even given insights into the social and cultural history of him a pretty girl, named Nancy. Mr. W Indonesia. was very fond of Nancy. So he gladly bought the nyai all sorts of things, like cameo brooches, diamond pins, orna­ I Synopsis mented boxes and gold jewelry, each Cerita Nyai Dasima is a short novel of nine worth over 3, ()()() guilder. Besides that, he thousand words, covering thirty-nine pages (in­ gave her a hundred guilder a month to cluding two illustrations) in the first edition. I) spend. She kept the money in a piggy-box, which she stored with the numerous items 1) The novel was first published as Tjerita Njai of clothing she had accumulated, such Dasima. by G. Francis [1896]. The original style of text has been preserved in Pramoedya Ananta things as jackets, sarongs, with gold and Toer [1982: 223-247]. silver thread woven through them, and

468 -18- K. TSUCmYA: Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth-Century Java

various typeS of silk blouses. Her master with more sincerity. Ma Buyung becomes a never minded her having these things in housekeeper for Dasima and works very hard the least. to gain her trust. Then the old woman begins Some eight years later the land was sold to urge Dasima towards the ways of.Islam. Her and became the property of another land­ guides in this endeavor are to be none other lord. Mr. W ceased to manage the estate than Samiun's mother, Saleha, and his wife, and moved to Batavia. He settled at Hayati. Then Samiun is able to approach Dasi­ Gambir, near the bank of the Ciliwung, and ma in order to convey his sentiments toward found a position with an English shop in her, telling her that he has been deeply in love Kota. Each day he went to work early, with her for a long time. Meanwhile, Buyung and returned home after five o'clock. continues to collect strands of Dasima's hair, Within two years, Nyai Dasima's fame and when they have been wound into the size of had spread throughout the nearby Muslim an egg, she gives the bundle to Samiun for 2 settlements. Everyone knew that she was pasmat. Samiun then takes the hair to the both beautiful and rich, the possessor of famed witch doctor, Haji Salihun, in the Pece­ much money and jewelry. A great many nongan area and asks him to produce a "potion" Muslim men wanted to get close to her, so for the price of 10 pasmat. Haji Salihun makes they could gain control of her wealth, and two kinds of potions: one that will make Dasima sent older women to her to plead their hate Edward W and one that will make Mr. W case. Nyai Dasima did not like their pro­ do anything Dasima wishes. posals and always angrily sent the old During this time Mr. W dreams that a long women away. Unfortunately she never black snake attacks his Nyai Dasima and "cuts" told her master of these evil proposals. her throat, despite his desperate efforts to She kept them a secret. No one else at all help. knew about them. Meanwhile, Dasima is repeatedly urged to At that time, a young Muslim man break off with Mr. W if indeed she is to named Samiun lived in Kampung Pejam­ embrace Islam sincerely. She finally decides to bon. He too had heard how rich and cut off all relations with Mr. W and marry beautiful Nyai Dasima was. Although he Samiun, who, she believes, is deeply in love had tried various strategies to win her, with her. One day, Dasima tells Mr. W that she none of them had come to anything. is leaving and taking all of her belongings except Samiun therefore decided on a new for Nancy, whom she has decided to leave with scheme. He ordered an old woman who him. The poor gentleman tries to persuade her lived nearby, namely Ma Buyung, to come not to go, but his efforts are in vain, for she to his house. [Francis 1988: 2-3] says, "Saya tiada harep masuk agama kafir" (I don't want to become a kafir, an infidel). The The story continues as Samiun offers the next day Dasima departs taking with her prop­ smart old woman 50 pasmat (piaster) to per­ erty totaling 6, ()()() florins. suade Dasima to follow the teachings of Islam The story now enters its second phase. One

19 - 469 month after Dasima marries Samiun, he be­ literature. The title of the first printing actually comes the owner of all her property, an event reads something like "The Story of NYai which marks a crucial turning point in her life. Dasima, a Victim of Cajolement. Being a Most She is no longer blinded by all of Samiun's Pleasant Narrative of Events Taking Place Not attention and flattery, but, on the contrary, Long Ago in Batavia, Which May Serve as a begins to feel uneasy and embarrassed due Lesson to All Women Who Put Their Faith in mainly to Hayati's jealousy and manipulation of the Flattery of Men, and an Admonition to her. When Dasima begins to be treated like one Young Girls." It seems from such a title that of Samiun's servants, she finally understands the novel was written with the intention of for the first time .that what is happening to her driving home a moral, but this moralizing tone is stems from a deliberate plan to prampok (rob) only a superficial aspect. Far more important is her of her property. She begs Samiun to return its non-fictional, almost reportive writing style, the property, but is flatly refused. Samiun then since this "objective" way of telling a story, decides to murder her and contracts Puasa, a whether in a moralizing tone or not, is common jago (outlaw) from Kwitang, to do the job for to all the novels of Malay popular literature. 100 pasmat. From this time on, a bird comes to Before going into the nature of this genre in Dasima everyday and sings to her, "Dasima, more detail, let us look at the general conditions run away from here, or else you will die." and features of late-nineteenth-century popular One dark night, Dasima is escorted by fiction in colonial Java. Samiun to a recital of Amir Harnza's POetry, but Puasa is waiting for them at a bridge. As the 1. The Appearance ofthe Malay Newspaper hired killer attacks Dasima, she cries out for The first medium for Malay literary writing in Samiun to help her. His reply is "Ajallu sudah colonial urban areas, beginning with Batavia, sampe, biar pasrahken diri saja!" (Now it is the was the Malay newspaper. These began to be end of your hour, just surrender to your fate). published in the middle of the nineteenth cen­ The murder of Dasima is cruel. Her left eye is tury. While the circumstances surrounding the gouged out, her throat cut, and the body formation of the Malay press were by no means thrown into the river. However, Tuhan (the the same for all newspapers, many were no almighty God) sees all that has transpired and doubt edited and published by either Dutch or causes Dasima's body, untouched by fish or Eurasian groups with participation of Perana­ crocodile, to flow downstream to Mr. W's kans, Chinese born in the colonies, who had house. The story ends with all the parties been almost completely assimilated into the lo­ involved in the murder plot arrested and impris­ cal culture. Native Indonesian participation in oned. the Malay press did not begin until after the tum of the century. The language situation was complicated by II The Novel's Background the fact that nineteenth-century Malay, rather Cerita Nyai Dasima is a work that appeared than belonging exclusively to indigenous Malay very early in the development of Malay popular ethnic groups, was rather the lingua franca of

- 20- K. TSUCHIYA: Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth-Century Java the melange of nationalities and cultural groups of the urban network. Moreover, through the living together in the colonial cities. For this wider network of the foreign Chinese commu­ reason it was the non-native speakers of Malay nity in Southeast Asia they advanced the dis­ - the Dutch, Eurasian and Peranakan urban semination of a "translation culture" throughout residents-who first saw the market potential the whole region. Their most important con­ of Malay as a print medium. tribution lay in the formation of a cultural mar­ The appearance of Malay newspapers natu­ ket network for the publishing business. rally led to the formation and development of a Fourthly, from among the pioneers of the Malay popular literary genre. First, the publica­ Malay newspaper business arose an important tion of these newspapers created a market for group of professional journalists, who built the Malay written in Roman letters. Until then, foundations of a Malay publishing culture, while Malay had been universally written in Arabic also leaving a number of popular literary works script (the so-called jawi orthography). The and materials translated from other languages. appearance of romanized Malay, however, Finally, and most importantly, is the role allowed a much larger and more diversified played by the writing that appeared in the early number of cultural groups to claim the Malay Malay press. According to C. W. Watson, one newspaper as its source of information. of the few scholars who has taken the time to Secondly, the Malay actually used here, and do research in this area, the Malay newspapers even more so in such novels as Cerita Nyai in addition to their advertising copy and press Dasima-a language which has been described releases, also provided literary pieces for their as "market Malay," "Batavian Malay," and "low readers [Watson 1971: 423-424]. For exam­ Malay"- was a colloquial language far removed ple, there were items from Malay classical liter­ from the "high Malay" of the great tradition that ature, the Hikayat court chronicles re-written in formed the rich court culture of the Malacca the colloquial style, as well as selections from kingdom from the fifteenth century. The cir­ Thousand and One Nights' Entertainment, cumstances under which this everyday, collo­ Aesop's Fables and various works of mythology quial language came into print were closely involving the nefarious deeds of demons and the related to the development of a broad-based, heroic exploits of kings. There were also travel mass market for the Malay newspapers, and journals written by Europeans who had been to were instrumental in creating a language such spots within the colonial borders as Kali­ medium and style for the popular novel. mantan. Nevertheless, what Watson finds par­ Thirdly, the involvement of Peranakans in ticularly interesting in these newspapers is the Malay newspapers at an early stage allowed this reporting of the various sensational incidents group to make significant contributions to the that would occur here and there throughout the development of the print media culture in In­ colonies. This reporting would cover the crime donesia. Because members of this social group stories-the murders, rapes, infidelity, fraud, were scattered all over the colonies, they be­ armed robberies, etc. -scandals happening in came the most influential force in the publishing the real world, that would later form the most market that spread along with the development important plots for fictional renditions in the

- 21 471 developing genre of popular literature. real events. In addition, the inclusion of the element of the nyai lends a special kind of 2. The Role o/Translation in the Fomzation 0/ intrigue to the tale. Popular Literature Keeping a nyai was a very widespread prac­ Malay popular literature made its appearance tice in colonial society up until the middle of the contemporaneously with the spread of Malay nineteenth century. It was only from the newspapers. It first came on the scene in the 1870s, after the building of the Suez Canal, that fonn of translations of best sellers from both Dutch colonists began to bring their families East and West, which in Batavia alone included with them and fonn a European bourgeois living Robinson Crusoe in 1875, The Adventures of environment replete with summer homes, ten­ Sinbad in 1876, Thousand and One Nights' nis courts, swimming pools, exclusive residen­ Entertainment in 1886, Around the World in tial areas "enclosed in mimosa and bougainvil­ Eighty Days in 1890, the Sanguozhi (.=:OO~) in lea," parties that included the guests' families, 1893, and Count ofMonte Cristo between 1894 Western schools for the children, hospitals and and 1899. rest homes, aquariums, the theatre, musical Then, under the conditions already discus­ concerts, family vacations, friendly auctions, sed, the genre of original Malay popular novels, etc. Until that time, colonial life was mainly including Cerita Nyai Dasima, appeared on the men's business, which in many instances meant scene and continued to increase in number into keeping a nyai, for single· and married men the twentieth century, as a greater diversity of alike. One consequence to this custom was the literary works circulated through the book mar­ proliferation of Eurasian offspring. Moreover, ket. I will leave a detailed discussion of each of the nyai tended to be more than just a sexual these fictional veins for later papers; however, partner, playing also the role of and demanding in all of them we can recognize a number of the respect afforded to a "housekeeper" dres­ similarities in tenns of both literary fonn and sed in a white unifonn and slippers. content. And the most representative work for From the story, we know that Dasima was showing these similarities is none other than indeed this kind of nyai, a beautiful native-born Nyai Dasima. In the sections that follow I woman with the ability to handle her master's would like discuss what can be called this domestic affairs, thus placing her within the novel's "classic" or "prototype" nature by going ruling white man's world. In this sense, the once again over story's plot. nyai found herself in an ambivalent social posi­ tion, either by virtue of her unclear status vis-a-vis her master or by the fact that she III Characteristics ofNyai Dasima belonged to both worlds: white and brown. 1. The World ofthe Nyai Indeed, we could say the same thing about the As we have seen, Nyai Dasima was written social group fonned by the subjects of colonial in the narrative style of a novel based on a "true society in general and the residents of the story." And so we can read it as any crime or colonial city in particular. For both the Eura­ picaresque literary work that originated from sians and Peranakans, as well as for the Dutch

- 22- K. TSUCHIYA: Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth-Century Java rulers themselves, the colonies represented linked to crime and scandal, but rather suggests only a "place of temporary residence." All of that their existence appealed deeply to the these groups in one way or another were made curiosity of readers. From the 1870s, as the up of "people bereft of a homeland," and the "proper and wholesome" Dutch family lifestyle nyai was their most poignant symbolic figure. took form in the colonial cities, the keeping of The culture that was either created or nyai began to be looked down upon and openly adopted by these "homeless" groups never criticized. Subsequently, the practice waned, really belonged completely to any single one of but never died out completely. Moreover, as them, and for this reason it was a culture that the social outcry heightened, the more scan­ would have to be borne through the participa­ dalous the practice became and, naturally, the tion of all of them. In other words, in late­ more people became attracted to the nyai and nineteenth-century Batavia we can discern a her world [Oshikawa 19800: 72]. Even if we culture with no classical form, its origins being read Nyai Dasima as a novel about the victi­ so vague and unclear, living on only because it mization of women, the descriptions of how this was profitable (i. e., the only vehicle for the beautiful woman was spied upon, tricked, tor­ proliferation of a social marketplace). It was a tured, stripped of her wealth and finally brutally culture that gave rise to the "hybrid" Keron­ murdered still indicate the clearly distorted in­ cong musical form and the musical play per­ terest that the reading public had in the world of formances of the Komedie Stambul. Without the nyai. going into detail, these two artistic forms were Colonial urban society tends to become highly links in a phenomenon which can be called stratified with socially and culturally diverse "mestizo" culture,2) and which forms the same groups, in the same way as a surface blackened set of circumstances in which Malay popular by the build-up of coat upon coat of different literature also grew and flourished. For exam­ paints. In such a situation, contexts like the ple, the diverse cultural conditions which we world of the nyai can usually be placed exactly discussed in relation to the publication of Nyai where the psychological and emotional build-up Dasima shows well the mestizo nature of the within such a hierarchy is thickest. For this work. reason the nyai can be rightfully called the Returning to the predicament of the nyai, the symbol of the late-nineteenth-century colonial newspapers of the time were faithful in report­ city, with its uprootedness, chaos and vulgarity. ing and sensationalizing the incidents involving these kept women, and we can also observe the 2. The Macabre Aspect development of a distinct category of popular One more theme that permeates Nyai novel that can be called "nyai tales." The fact Dasima is a horrid uneasiness verging on the that these women frequently appeared in the macabre. One gets the feeling of a psychologi­ press does not mean that they were forever cal ambivalence running through the work that expresses a terrible loathing and fear for the horror that is happening, but nevertheless con­ 2) I have covered these points in Tsuchiya [1988; 1986]. tinues to draw the reader helplessly into it. - 23- 473 First, the cold, stoic writing style that we meaning 'marvelous', 'wonderous', or 'myste­ saw in the first few paragraphs-lining up fact rious'. Ktulokan are divine mysteries which after fact in long reportive, periodless com­ manifest themselves in the material world, pound sentences-cannot help but lead the where they are recognized as such. According reader into a very tense situation, in which to Day, the mid-nineteenth-century newspaper whatever happens must happen, completely Bramarlani, which was published in Surakarta, beyond the author's control. Then come the the old capital in centralJava, "frequently re­ superficial promises, the trickery, the unrelent­ ported visions, strange deformites, spirit visita­ ing pursuit of the prey, the nightmares and the tions and the like, most of which occurred in bird's foreboding, the bigotry and hatred to­ villages rather than in the city of Surakarta wards the "heathen," the threats and intimida­ itself," under the heading of ktulokan. Day tion, the secret rites and magic potions, the concludes his argument by attempting to relate jealousy, the cajolement, the world of the out­ these tales of the fantastic to the psychological law, the unnecessarily cruel violence, then the conditions of their readers. In other words, murder and disposal of the body, which floats these tales appeared in a newspaper which was aimlessly down the river. edited, read, contributed and subscribed to by In attempting to ferret out the origins of such the Dutch, Eurasian and small, "westernized" a story and setting, one could probably first try segment of the Javanese aristocratic elite living to gather together synchronically the influences in Surakarta, a mid-nineteenth-century ruling exerted by translations of foreign literature, and class culturally situated somewhere between then proceed in tying together the indigenous "the primitive spirit world of Java" and "the elements from the traditional tales of Java. For modernity of nineteenth century Europe. " example, Mr. W's dream and the bird's report These people were drawn into the world of of bad tidings are old standbys in the world of ktulokan manifestations (i. e. the world of the Javan tales and legends, while Puasa the hired macabre) by feelings of "impotence," or "the killer reminds one of the murderous demons racial unease and bad conscience inherent in the that run amuck in the island's Wayang shadow structure of its own unprecedented plurality." plays. But I think it is more important to focus In sum, first a "modernized readership" of our attention on Nyai Dasima as a work created newspapers and books was born from this from the Malay colloquial writing style that was cultural plurality of the colonial city, and secondly, popular in late-nineteenth-century Batavia. this readership was drawn emotionally into a First, with regard to the macabre aspects of literary world of things which could be under­ the novel, A. Day, one of the foremost experts stood by neither the modem intellect nor mod­ on nineteenth-century Javan literature, has emrationalism. 3) Moreover, ifevenin Surakarta, come up with the interesting concept of ktulo­ 3) As a matter of fact, the kaelokan world, symbol­ kan, which may be helpful in explaining this ized by secret potions and spells, appears even work of popular literature as a phenomenon of in the works of Dutch authors who based their urban colonial society [Day 1981: 262-264]. stories on events occurring in the colonies, the classic treatment being Louis Couppers' De Stille Ktulokan derives from elok, an abstract noun Kracht [The Hidden Force]. 474 - 24- K. TSUCHIYA: Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth-Century Java which represented the seat of classical Javan sense") through which the Samiuns of this court culture, we can clearly see kaelokan liter­ world communicate with each other. Without ature rendering the psyche into two worlds of the structural support of this pecuniary coher­ the traditional and the modem, then in other ence, the story would never have gotten past cities without such a conservative, counter­ the first page. balancing force, the degree of psychological But that is not all: money is what ties the fission must have been far more extreme. world of Samiun, Dasima's malefactor, to that of Therefore, we can easily imagine that within Mr. W, her benefactor. In this sense Nyai the socially volatile city of Batavia, the kaelokan Dasima is actually a story relating the process genre and the readers' response to it must both of how the former plots to steal the wealth of have been the most developed of all. Indeed, the latter. Even Dasima's personal beauty be­ the Batavian-published Nyai Dasima is the clas­ comes a mere accessory to the monetary sic kaelokan novel replete with unnerving, hor­ wealth she possesses. We can even go so far rid uneasiness and the macabre. as to say that the scene of penniless Dasima's horribly beaten corpse returning in the end to 3. Trembling Fear and Abhorrence Mr. W is symbolic of the basic function of However, the world of Nyai Dasima is not wealth itself. 4) only unnerving to the reader, but is also con­ And so the seemingly unbridgeable gap that nected with fear, abhorrence and vindictive­ separates the worlds of Samiun and Mr. W ness. The fear arises out of the "unknown, begins to close, as each side approaches the unseen power" lurking in the secret potions and other in a dialogue spoken through the "medium poisons, out of the brute force (robbery and of exchange," or money. This situation is the murder) perpetrated on Dasima, and most fundamental characteristic of all the "plural strongly out of the fear of being surrounded and societies " (Fumivall) that were formed in the hopelessly caught in a throng of thousands of colonies of Southeast Asia. That is to say, completely anonymous people. These three those social groups that lived side by side within states of fear are all very powerful psychological the same geographic space, bereft of any com­ phenomena, and for that reason are directly mon culture or ultimate purpose, characteristi­ connected to feelings of revulsion and hate. cally created channels of communication domi­ What they together demonstrate is a complete nated exclusively by exchanges of goods and and thorough cognitive picture of the world services through the medium of monetary cur­ represented by Samiun, Dasima's seducer. The rency. trickery and criminality are not conceived of as representing disorder and chaos, but are rather 4. The Readership: Inside and Outside "the recognized as lending order to the state of Enclosure" things through the means of money and wealth. The above discussion now leads us to one This cognition is consistent to a fault, right more important point that requires considera- down to the last guilder, for it is the language of 4) The symbolism that is evident here was pointed florins and piasters (modem-day "dollars and out to me by Kashimura Akio.

- 25 475 tion in analyzing Nyai Dasima, namely, the The reader was thus exposed to stories relationship between the world depicted within about the "outside" world from inside his se­ the story and the story's readership. There cure colonial enclosure. And it was at that appears in this a delicate and critical balance exact moment that the reader and characters between the fictional space created by the au­ like Dasima, the concubine, approached one thor in his storytelling and the real environment other and become inextricably superimposed. in which the novel was read. This point is closely related to what I said Those who read and enjoyed popular literary previously about how Nyai Dasima can be read works written in Malay constituted the first as a "novel of victimization or masochism. " wave of a racially mixed group of "modem What I mean here is that we can see a story readers" that populated the colonial city. By forming in which the heroine, who is safely "modem readers" I mean that they were a ensconced in a colonial enclosure, graduallyex­ group able to communicate personally with the periences her world crumbling all around and novels' authors through the print media, which then has it totally collapse beneath her. Here they read quietly in their living rooms and bed­ the interior and exterior of the "enclosure" are rooms. They were the first generation of the tied into a one-sided relationship of "victim" and new "urban bourgeoisie," who from the latter "perpetrator." The typical working out of this half of the nineteenth-century experienced a relationship, which is symbolized in the perils of change in the fonn of their literary enjoyment Dasima, was no doubt quickly recognized and from stories that were read aloud (the world of superimposed upon the actual psychological the storyteller) to stories that were read in conditions of the novel's first readers. silence. One more aspect is that the novel is set in However, looking at the environment of the 1813, eighty years in the past (from the first "modem reader" within the context of colonial printing), and so it becomes a tale of an era far society as a whole, we can observe the exis­ removed from the "rnst en orde" of late­ tence of an enclosed space similar to small nineteenth-century Dutch colonial society­ island in the sea. The waters that surrounded inviting nostalgia as well as a sense of how "we and enclosed this island were a sea ofhumanity have progressed" over the years. On the other made up of thousands of Samiuns. hand, if, by looking at the situation in tenns of Actually, the establishment of a colonial urban spatial relationships, we correct for the histori­ environment rested upon the fonnation of such cal time difference between Dasima and the enclosures; and the "order and peace" ("rust en reader in 1896, we find that the "enclosure" orde") that characterized the colonialized terri­ separating the reader on the inside from Dasima tory depended upon the smooth functioning of a on the outside is a very thin, weak barrier, network that tied together all of these separate verging on collapse. This is the delicate balance enclosures as the system itself expanded and mentioned earlier that is established between diffused. But no matter how smoothly the the space (setting) in which the story was network functioned, the sea of humanity sur­ created and the space in which the story was rounding these enclosures continued to grow. actually read. What is presented, therefore, is

476 - 26- K. TSUCHIYA: Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth-Century lava not a novel whose world has been set in the Batavia in 1926 [Manusarna 1926]. nostalgic past, but rather a story that engulfs 3) An original screenplay for a movie, which the reader in "the here and now" and psycholog­ was written by an Indonesian author and ically reinforces the fact that the "enclosure" is published in Jakarta in 1940 [Palindih capable of breaking down at any time. 1940]. Taking this point a little further, we can say 4) An original piece done after Independence, that Nyai Dasima and similar stories were ex­ which seems to have been intended as a pressions of the emotional discontent that per­ script for the theatre. The author, Ardan, vaded the urban colonial atmosphere and, graduated from a Taman Siswa private moreover, the first signs of the bloodcurdling school and became a member of the horror in which those within the enclosure nationalist movement. It was published in would soon find themselves caught up-a set of Jakarta in 1965 [Ardan 1965]. circumstances that would start the "sea of humanity" churning and finally building into a Needless to say, the fact of one story being tidal wave of nationalist and people's liberation written and published five different times in movements during the twentieth century. various forms and with varied content over more than half a century is indeed a rare occurrence in the literary history of Indonesia, IV The Development of the Story and shows well how deeply the story of Mer its initial publication in 1896, the story Dasima, the fated concubine, permeated popu­ of Dasima the concubine spread even wider lar culture during that period. through Indonesian society in a number of dif­ The story also makes a number of appear­ ferent forms that included not only the print ances in other literary works, like an autobio­ medium, but also the stage, popular music, and graphical piece by Du Perron, which contains a the movies. scene depicting the performance of a popular Within the print medium alone, at least four song about Dasima [Du Perron 1984: 86]. In versions of the story were published in addition Bumi Manusia, a contemporary novel by to the original novel. They are: Pramoedya, the heroine is seen reading Nyai Dasima (probably the original version) at night 1) A work composed by a Chinese poet in alone in the privacy of her bedroom [Pramoedya verse form and put out the following year in 1986: 126-127]. Batavia by a Chinese publisher [Tjiang These examples show how the story of 1897]. Dasima went beyond print media readers and 2) A version written in Dutch by a writer of spread throughout society, or rather how the possible Eurasian descent named Manu­ popularity of the original inspired the creation of sarna, who is also known for his work on a series of newly published spin-offs of the such forms of colonial popular culture as same story. Keroncong music and the Komedie Stambul players. This version was published in

- 27- 477 The story continues with Dasima running V How the Story Evolved away from Samiun and being attacked and mur­ One important factor within the development dered by Puasa. Learning of this, Winata vows of Nyai Dasima is, of course, the revisions that revenge on Samiun and his sleazy cohort. In were made to the story line every time a new the end the villains are arrested, tried and given version was released. We can outline the major life sentences, while Samiun's family become changes that occurred in the content by looking social outcasts forced to go out and beg for a at the 1940 screenplay and the 1965 script by living. Buyung is committed to a mental hospi­ Ardan. tal, where she is given to endless babbling day and night for the rest of her days. 1. The 1940 Screenplay In this, the movie version, which plays out As with most movie adaptations, the setting more like a TV melodrama that the whole family diverges considerably from the original. Here, can watch, the mysterious kaelokan elements of Dasima is the very happy wife of a wealthy magic potions, incantations and forebodings are Indonesian businessman by the name of Winata completely missing, as is the fear and loathing and has a full-blooded Indonesian daughter. of local "native" society in general and the However, Dasima is faced with two problems. Muslim community in particular. One is the enmity that has developed between One more way in which this presentation her father and her husband, the other is the differs with the original novel is Dasima's jealousy shown by her neighbors towards her "awakening" to what has happened to her. The life of luxury. A poison-tongued old woman movie version depicts that moment in a motif appears and proceeds to slander Winata, to the that might have been taken right out of Ibsen's point of causing a domestic rift, which leads A Doll's House, and it becomes the climactic ultimately to divorce. Dasima returns to her point of the story. This awakening is shown as father, and that is when she meets Samiun, a an inner reflection by a "modern individual" of gambler who hangs out with a low-life type the contradictions and conflicts in her life, and named Puasa. Samiun is taken by both Dasi­ thus turns Dasima into a classic melodramatic rna's beauty and fortune, and through the wiles heroine freed by the screenwriter from her of the smart old woman, Buyung, he succeeds original nyai tincture. Furthermore, the cruel in marrying her. What follows is the squander­ punishments dealt out to the villains, who have ing of Dasima's fortune and her victimization by defied public "order and peace," have been Samiun's family. Realizing that she has been cleverly designed to place the story safely cruelly tricked, she reminisces about the life within the context of the "colonial establish- she had with Winata and her daughter and is ment." overcome by enormous feelings of guilt. But at the same time she comes to the conclusion that 2. The 1965 Script her life then, like now, has been nothing more This version was first written as a three-act than that of a lovely doll kept as an ornament in theatre drama, and is faithful to Francis's origi­ a glass enclosed showcase. nal novel in both the setting and the interper-

478 - 28- K. TSUCIllYA: Popular Literature and Colonial Society in Late-Nineteenth-Century Java sonal relationships. What gives this version its This script can be read as a classic case of particular flavor is the completely different roles the kind of scenario that the tale of Dasima given to the characters. might be expected to follow in the context of Samiun is a young, happy-go-lucky horse-cart contemporary Indonesia. Samiun is a well-liked driver, who picks Dasima's daughter, Nancy, up young man and Buyung an even-tempered old from school every day. Buyung is Dasima's housekeeper, while the criminal element arises elderly housekeeper, but she is from the same out of the lust for revenge carried by Dasima's town (Kwitang) as Samiun. Dasima visits Kwi­ master, who not even once appears on stage. tang often with Buyung, and in this way she is Dasima repeats the cliche "my beloved people" removed from the world of Mr. W. In one over and over again in her monologues. There soliloquy Dasima turns to the audience and is no place for black magic potions and spells, says, "I would like to live here in Kwitang. I and we do not see Dasima's realization that "I have made so many friends here in this bustling have been just a helpless doll." The world of town, that it makes me want to live again the tale merely floats along aimlessly, devoid of among my own people. I don't understand the an opportunity for reflection on its consequ­ language of my husband's homeland. He fright­ ences by the characters. ens me so, especially when he becomes angry." This scenario does not make for powerful Dasima decides to leave her husband's house literary expression, as the original "poison in and settle down in Kwitang, where she is soon the pen" of Francis is neutralized with a large wed to Samiun. And even though she is encum­ dose of "moralizing" antidote. In spite of this, bered with the habitual gambling and cruelty of the way in which the motifs are turned upside Hayati, Samiun's first wife, she is much happier down and the unabashed nature in which the living in Kwitang. "I have so many friends here. characters are depicted makes this work par­ They are all my people." Meanwhile, her fear ticularly interesting in trying to understand the of Mr. W builds. "I am frightened of his venge­ evolution of the tale of Dasima. The three fulness. He will never allow things to remain as major versions of the tale that have come out they are now." In other words, the object of since the publication of the original can be read Dasima's fear and hatred is completely reversed as various phases in the gradual process of from the original novel. deciding where, socially, to place the nyai, who In the final scene, Puasa, the hoodlum, is existed within the pluralistic society of colonial hired by Mr. W to kill Dasima in cold blood. times as an ambivalent figure incapable of be­ And when he is arrested for the crime, he longing to anyone group. claims Samiun as his accomplice. But the good First, in the original novel we get an un­ people of Kwitang rise up and insist on Samiun's abashed view of the fear and hatred felt towards innocence, at the same time condemning the the world which surrounded Dasima. Then in malice of Mr. W and expressing their deep the 1940s, which marked the beginning of the sorrow for luckless, poor Dasima. Finally, the end to colonial rule, Dasima appears as "mod­ events cause Hayati to reflect on her wicked ern man," whose body alone belongs to a world ways and go through a change of heart. of universalized value. Finally, in 1965, twenty

- 29- 479 years after National Independence, Dasima is making the genre a fertile source from which rescued and embraced by the good folk of those in the field of area studies can truly Kwitang, and announces in unabashed fashion benefit. that "these are my people." This process is none other than a transformation of Dasima, the References betrayed nyai into Dasima, the angry, defiant nyai-a transformation that involves her rescue Ardan, S. M. 1965. Nyai Dasima. Jakarta: Pustaka Jaya. from the white man's world and her return to Day, Anthony. 1981. Meanings of Change in the the indigenous Indonesian sea of humanity. And Poetry of Nineteenth-Century Java. Ph. D. dis­ this literary transformation marks the actual sertation, Cornell University. Du Perron. 1984. Country of Origin. Translated by historical process of the half century from the F. Bulhof and E. Davennan. University of birth of Indonesian nationalism to the realization Massachusetts Press. of national independence. Francis, G. 1896. Tjerita Njai Dasima. Batavia. ___. 1988. Nyai Dasima. Working Paper No. 46. Translated by Harry Aveling. Clayton, Australia: Monash University. Conclusion Manusarna, A. Th. 1926. Nyai Dasima, Het Slachtof­ fer van bedrog en misleiding, een historiche What I have tried to do in the preceding zedenroman van Batavia. Batavia. pages is to show how one work of popular Oshikawa, Noriaki. 1986a. Profiles of Translators literature, Nyai Dasima, has continued to be a No. 84 (in Japanese). Honyaku no Sekai [The World of Translation] (April 1986). cultural force during the past one hundred years ___. 1986b. Indonesian Pinks and Tan Malaca: of Indonesian history. The story has survived The Popular Novel and Legends of Revolutionary in a highly competitive cultural market in the Heroes (in Japanese). lochi Ajia Gaku [The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies] 4: 121-155. fonn of a novel, a stage play, and a movie, as Palindih, Roestam S. 1940(?). Dasima, kissa lama well as in the world of popular music. This menoeroetkan langgam baroe. Yogyakarta : extraordinarily long run can only be attributed Kabe. , ed. 1982. Tempo Doeloe. to the bewitching power of the story itself, Jakarta: Hasta Mirtra. which has continued to hold generations of ___. 1986. Bumi Manusw. Vol. 1. Translated Indonesian readers and audiences. by Noriaki Oshikawa. Mekong. Tjiang, O. S. 1897. Sair 'Tjerita di tempo tahoen 1813 While Nyai Dasima may be the classic case, lang Belom Brapa Lama Soeda kadjadian di it is by no means the exception, for a great deal Betawi Terpoengoet Dan Boekbe: Njaie Dasima. of the popular literature first written in the Batavia: Ijap Goan Ho. Tsuchiya, Kenji. 1986. Kartini Revisited (in nineteenth century gained an enonnous follow­ Japanese). In The Netherlands and Indonesia, ing and thereby created its own tradition. 5) edited by Japan-Netherlands Institute, pp. 217­ Moreover, what I have tried to show here is 271. Yamakawashuppan. ___. 1988. Social Integration in Indonesia (in that the tradition is not only literary in nature, Japanese). In National Integration in Asia, but also contains important elements present in edited by Kenichiro Hirano, et al., pp. 143-188. the cultural and social history of Indonesia, thus Tokyo: University of Tokyo Press. Watson, C. W. 1971. Some Preliminary Remarks on 5) For further discussion on this point see Oshi­ the Antecedents of Modern Indonesian Litera­ kawa [l986b]. ture. BKI 127(4).

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