The Influence of Peranakan Chinese Visual Culture in Pekalongan

Erica Rachel Budianto

and Yan Yan Sunarya

Faculty of Art and Design, Bandung Institute of Technology, Ganesha Street, Bandung, Indonesia

Keywords: Pekalongan, Peranakan Chinese, Visual Culture

Abstract: Pekalongan was the first city in Indonesia which joined UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2014. It was

located in the northern coast of Central Java, which made its geographical location quite strategic. Many

foreign immigrants came there in the past and among them was the immigrants from China, who later settled

in Indonesia. The acculturation of original Chinese culture and local culture created the new Peranakan

Chinese culture, which had distinctive characteristics. This research analyzed the influence of Peranakan

Chinese culture in the development of visual culture in Indonesia, especially in Pekalongan. The result of the

acculturation can be seen in Pekalongan visual culture until now, such as batik tulis and architecture. The

most legendary Peranakan Chinese batik tulis in Pekalongan is Oey Soe Tjoen batik, which has existed for

three generations. Meanwhile, the building which has Peranakan Chinese architecture is The Sidji Hotel. The

aim of this research was to encouraged society to appreciate more about diversity and the role of acculturation

in the development of Indonesia’s visual culture.

1 INTRODUCTION

Pekalongan was the first city in Indonesia which

joined UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2014. It

is well-known as ‘Batik City’ in Indonesia because

plenty of batik manufacturers had been there since the

19th century. This city was located in the northern

coast of Central Java, which made its geographical

location quite strategic. Thus, many foreign

immigrants came there in the past and one of them

was the immigrants from China, who later settled in

Indonesia.

Since the beginning of Common Era (1 CE/AD 1),

the Chinese had been visiting Indonesia to learn about

Buddhism and came to Buddhist sites. One of the

most notable visitors was I-Tsing, who came to

Sriwijaya at the end of the 7th century and spent ten

years there for translating religious texts into Chinese

language (Achjadi and Damais, 2006). Reciprocally,

the rulers of Indonesia also came to China to pay their

respects, or sending their embassies there to maintain

good relationship. This had an impact in

strengthening power of their kingdoms and also

improving trading activities, which were beneficial

for the economy. At the sixth century, the Chinese

immigrants began building their own settlements at

the northern coast of Java (Roojen, 2001). They

mainly came from the southern region of China, such

as Fujian and Guangdong provinces. These provinces

were the hometown of Meixian (Hakka), Guangzhou

(Cantonese), Chaozhou (Teochew), Hokchia,

Hokchiu, Hokkien and Hainanese ethnics (Knapp,

2012). The arrival of foreign traders, trading

interaction in daily life and interethnic marriage

created the new communities in coastal areas, which

was called the Peranakans.

According to Tan Chee-Beng, in Malay language,

the word peranakan has several meanings that derive

from the word anak or child, means those who are the

offspring and descendants of intermarriage between a

local person and foreigner. The term peranakan is

also used to describe people who locally born to

distinguish them from immigrants born elsewhere.

Tan Chee-Beng describes Peranakan as ‘different

kind of Chinese, a sub-ethnic category of Chinese’,

while Peter Lee describe Peranakan as ‘a category of

Chinese who has a non-Chinese ancestress

somewhere in the family tree’. The Peranakan

Budianto, E. and Sunarya, Y.

The Inﬂuence of Peranakan Chinese Visual Culture in Pekalongan.

DOI: 10.5220/0008545700700077

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 70-77

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

Chinese community was not only found in Indonesia,

but also in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and

Myanmar. There was a legend that the Peranakans

were the descendants of a Chinese Princess named

Hang Li Poh and her entourage of 500 young women

and several hundred young men, who were

dispatched by the Ming emperor to marry Sultan

Mansur Shah of Malacca in the mid-fifteenth century.

However, there were no living Peranakan Chinese

who have records that link them to such a royal

ancestors. Thus, it can be assumed that the Peranakan

Chinese are the descendants of traders and labourers

from China who came and married local Malay

women in the seventeenth century (Knapp, 2012).

According to Peter Lee, the Peranakans were

ostensibly Chinese ethnic, but did not possess the

supposedly correct characteristics of the Chinese. By

the early nineteenth century, the Peranakan Chinese

began to develop a new sense of identity, they

differentiated themselves from the immigrants of

China who were beginning to arrive in large numbers.

These new immigrants were called the Sinkheks in

Malaysia and Totok in Indonesia, which referred to

full-blooded new guest from China (Lee, 2014).

Thomas Stamford Raffles in History of Java (1817)

also mentioned term Pernákans, which he described

as a numerous mixed race which is often scarcely

distinguishable from the native Chinese (the Shinkeks

or Totoks).

The acculturation of original Chinese culture and

local culture created the new Peranakan Chinese

culture. It was the mixture of the Chinese culture

brought from China and the local culture in the

Southeast Asian countries where the Chinese people

settled, in addition to the influence of cultures from

the European countries during colonization

(Muneenam, et al, 2017). It was visually unique and

had distinctive characteristics since it combined

multiple cultures into one new aesthetics. The

Peranakan culture also had influence on Pekalongan

visual culture until now, such as batik and buildings

which have Peranakan Chinese style. Batik is a cloth

made by resist-dyeing technique (Lee, 2007). Batik is

also seen as the cultural heritage and life philosophy

of Indonesian (Anas, et al, 1997). The most legendary

Peranakan Chinese batik tulis in Pekalongan is Oey

Soe Tjoen batik, which has existed for three

generations since 1925. Meanwhile, the building

which has Peranakan Chinese architecture in

Pekalongan is The Sidji Hotel, which was built in

1918.

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

This research analysed the influence of Peranakan

Chinese visual culture in the development of visual

culture in Indonesia, especially in Pekalongan. In this

research, qualitative methodology was used by

conducting interview and direct observation to the

location. This main idea of this research is the

influence of Peranakan Chinese visual culture in

Pekalongan, which can be seen in Peranakan Chinese

batik Oey Soe Tjoen and a hotel named The Sidji. The

information about peranakan batik Oey Soe Tjoen

was given by Widianti Widjaja (Oey Kiem Lian), the

grand-daughter of Oey Soe Tjoen through a formal

interview, along with the direct observation to the

workshop of Oey Soe Tjoen Batik in Kedungwuni

village, Pekalongan. Museum Batik Pekalongan and

The Sidji Hotel Pekalongan were also visited for

more thorough observation. The staffs in Museum

Batik Pekalongan and The Sidji Hotel Pekalongan

also gave many information through informal

interview.

3 RESULTS

In order to describe the results more systematically,

this section was divided into three sub-sections: the

explanation about visual culture, Oey Soe Tjoen batik

and The Sidji Hotel.

3.1 Visual Culture

Culture is the customary beliefs, social forms, and

material traits of a racial, religious, or social group. It

also can be defined as the systems of knowledge

shared by a relatively large group of people.

Moreover, visual culture is a field of study within

cultural studies focusing on aspects of culture that

rely on visual representations. It is a tangible form of

conceptual and material culture. It can be seen by

eyes and can be understood by human mind to

increase the quality of life (Damayanti and Mukmin,

2018). Visual culture has a very vast range. In

general, it can be categorized into four main areas.

First, it can be found in fine arts such as painting,

sculpture, drawing, installations, photo, video,

architecture and performance art. Second, in crafts or

design such as urban design, retail design, corporate

design, logos and symbols, illustration, graphic

design, product design, shoes, costume and fashion,

The Inﬂuence of Peranakan Chinese Visual Culture in Pekalongan

textile design, hairstyle, tattoos, landscape. Third, in

performing arts such as theatre, acting, gesture, body

language, dance, ballet, fashion shows, fireworks,

concerts, panorama, ceremonies, beauty pageants and

carnivals. Fourth, in mass and electronic media such

as cinema, film, animation, television, newspapers,

internet, multimedia, virtual reality, postcards,

advertising, propaganda satellite, and computer

imagery (Walker and Chaplin, 1997). The visual

culture in Pekalongan is deeply influenced by foreign

cultures, one of them was the Peranakan Chinese

culture. It can be seen from batik and buildings which

are the result of acculturation. Acculturation is the

mixture of two culture or more, resulting in a new

culture without completely changing the identity of

the original culture. Powel see acculturation as

culture borrowing, while Herskovits see it as cultural

transmission process (Sachari and Sunarya, 2001).

3.2 Oey Soe Tjoen

Oey Soe Tjoen was a Peranakan Chinese batik

entrepreneur who lived in Kedungwuni, a village

located six miles from Pekalongan, a city at the

northern coast of Java. During the 19th century, many

Peranakan Chinese batik artisans lived there, but one

that was considered the best was Oey Soe Tjoen

(Elliott, 2004). He first opened his business with his

wife, Kwee Nettie, in 1925. The signature of Oey Soe

Tjoen’s batik was high quality craftsmanship and full

attention to detail. Moreover, Oey Soe Tjoen also

cared about the personal taste of his clientele. Oey

Soe Tjoen’s early clientele were mostly local

Peranakan Chinese, but later their fame spread into

wealthy Indo-Dutch society and upscale Peranakan

society overseas. Oey Soe Tjoen also numbered many

of his patterns to make the ordering process easier for

the customers. At its zenith, The Oeys even employed

one hundred and fifty workers in their factory. Due to

its popularity, many people try to imitate and sell fake

batik by using Oey Soe Tjoen’s name.

However, there are eleven characteristics of

authentic Oey Soe Tjoen’s batik to distinguish

between the fake ones (Liong, 2014). First, Oey Soe

Tjoen’s batik is always be made by using ‘tulis’

technique, it is always fully hand-waxed, never

stamp-waxed (cap technique) or even undergo

printing technique. Second, it always uses the finest

quality of primissima cotton. During the colonialism

era, the ‘Cent’ stamped (Tjap Sen) primissima cotton

from Twente was used since it was considered the

best. Now, the Oeys use ‘Kereta Kencana’ primissima

cotton made by Federation of Indonesia Batik

Cooperatives (GKBI) from Medari in Yogyakarta,

which also has fine quality.

Third, the primissima cotton is always be

prepared first before batikking, by being soaked into

peanut oil and other substances within three days (di-

kethel), so that the colour will be more brilliant and

long lasting. Fourth, the cloth is always batikked on

each surfaces with similar motifs and fillers (isen),

just like the way classical batik is done in Indonesia.

Fifth, there are only four principal designs in Oey Soe

Tjoen batik, such as Buketan, Cuwiri, Merak Ati, and

Urang Ayu.

Sixth, edging motif for the kain panjang cloth was

divided into Untu Walang (cricket teeth) motif on the

left and right ends, and Setrip (strip) along top and

bottom edges. Seventh, Oey Soe Tjoen batik has its

own particular style of isen-isen (filler motif). The

isen-isen consists of tiny dots and has a significant

role in Oey Soe Tjoen batik. There are three main

functions of isen-isen, to fill the tanahan

(backgrounds), to fill the flower petals and to fill the

Figure 1: The batik tulis making process in Oey Soe

Tjoen’s workshop (Budianto, 2018).

Figure 2: Oey Soe Tjoen’s Buketan batik (Liong, 2014).

ICONARTIES 2019 - 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities

leaves. Each of them has various kinds of patterns.

The tanahan consists of polosan (without isen), isen

pentul, isen semanggen, isen pasiran, isen pacar, isen

angkup, isen beras wutah, kawung beton and

kembang tebu. The isen-isen for flower petals usually

made by using the smallest canting (waxing pen).

Filler motifs for flower petals consist of combination

of isen tutulan (dots) which has nguku (arch) shape,

alisan (eyebrow) shape or kuncungan (tuft) shape.

There are also cocohan and gradil shape for filler

motif. To fill the leaves motifs, the Oeys usually use

sawut (striations). Eighth, to ensure the authenticity

of Oey Soe Tjoen batik, he usually signed all his

pieces and included the name of Kedungwuni village.

Nineth, the Oeys only produce kain panjang

(long rectangular cloth), kain pagi sore (a combined

colors of long rectangular cloth), and kain sarung

(sarongs). Tenth, the colors of Oey Soe Tjoen batik

represent a balanced combination of softness and

clarity. And the last, all colours are vat-dyed, since

direct dyeing with brush is never used on Oey Soe

Tjoen batik, even for the smallest pattern.

After Oey Soe Tjoen and Kwee Nettie as the first

generation passed away, the Oey Soe Tjoen’s batik

workshop was managed by the second generation,

Muljadi Widjaja (Oey Kam Long) and his wife,

Istijanti Setiono (Lie Tjien Nio) from 1976 until

Muljadi’s death in 2002. Afterward, the business was

run by Istijanti Setiono while preparing their

daughter, Widianti Widjaja (Oey Kim Lian). Since

2006, Widianti Widjaja had been running the Oey Soe

Tjoen batik business. She preserves the batik

principal values (pakem batik) from her parents and

grandparents, while also developing new designs to

enrich the variations of Oey Soe Tjoen batik.

3.3 The Sidji Hotel

The Sidji Hotel in Pekalongan was originally a

house owned by Hoo Tong Koey and his wife, Tan

Seng Nio. It was built in 1918 and the architecture

design was done based on Tan Seng Nio’s idea. The

couple was very well-known in Pekalongan society,

since they owned successful batik dyes enterprise and

batik workshops at the back of their house. Hoo Kong

Toey was born in Pekalongan in 1885 as the fourth

generation of his family. His ancestors were

originally from Amoy (now called Xiamen), a city in

Fujian, a province on the southeast coast of China. By

the late of 1700s, his ancestors came to Pekalongan

and soon became the part of Peranakan Chinese

community. Back then, Hoo Tong Koey was deeply

interested in traditional music, so he formed a group

of gamelan troupe which often perform for the

upscale Peranakan society. Due to his initiative, he

was awarded the title ‘Lieutenant de Chinese’ by the

Peranakan community in Pekalongan. The title was

the third highest rank for Peranakan in the colonial

hierarchy.

The Sidji was first opened for business in March

2015. The main building of The Sidji Hotel can be

considered as heritage building since it has Peranakan

Chinese style in its exterior and interior. The design

of The Sidji Hotel today was the combination of

modern and Peranakan Chinese style. Today, the

Peranakan building is functioned as lobby and

meeting room, while the new modern building is

utilized for visitor accommodation and ballroom. The

Figure 3: Oey Soe Tjoen’s signature

(Budianto, 2019).

Figure 4: Widianti Widjaja, the grand-daughter of

Oey Soe Tjoen (Budianto, 2018).

The Inﬂuence of Peranakan Chinese Visual Culture in Pekalongan

Peranakan Chinese style can be examined through the

shape and colours of the doors, windows, and façade.

4 DISCUSSION

In Indonesia, the status of the Peranakans as

‘Chinese’ has always been somewhat ambiguous.

They are neither considered as real Indonesian here,

nor as true Chinese if they went to China. The

Peranakans had settled as traders and craftsmen in

Southeast Asia long before the Europeans did, so they

tended to have lost many of the Chinese cultural

features, including everyday practices related to food,

clothing and language (Ang, 1993). Sometimes the

Totoks, who uphold the Chinese traditions more

tightly, regard the Peranakan Chinese as ‘unpatriotic’

and behave like ‘non-Chinese’. It is reasonable since

the Peranakan seemed to develop their own new

identity. In visual culture terms, the Peranakans had

developed their own aesthetics, which was neither

fully follow nor neglect the real aesthetical values of

their origins. Their aesthetics was the partial

combination of China culture and local culture where

they reside. In this case, those were the Javanese

culture and Dutch culture during the colonization era

in Pekalongan. This mixed aesthetics can be seen

from the motif in Peranakan Chinese batik and

Peranakan Chinese architecture.

Batik makers in North Coast or Pesisir Java were

open to many foreign influences and they integrated

them into Javanese aesthetics. At the 19

century,

Indo-Dutch women began hiring batik artisans and

creating Batik Belanda (Indo-Dutch Batik) business.

Seeing the promising business opportunity, the

Peranakan Chinese followed and started their own

batik workshops. They learned the skills of batik

making and began their batik industries on the North

Coast of Java, particularly in Cirebon, Lasem,

Semarang, Pekalongan and Kedungwuni. The batiks

produced by the Peranakans had their own unique

motifs and rich in colours. It was the result of

acculturation process between Chinese, Javanese and

European cultures. Many designs were borrowed

from Chinese textiles, embroideries and even

porcelain wares. Genevieve Duggan (2001) describes

that the symbolism of Chinese motifs are usually

found on Peranakan batiks, such as swastika (wan zi),

lozenge, coin, mythical animals (such as dragon and

phoenix), birds, centipedes, fish, butterflies, flowers

(such as peony and chrysanthemum) and plants.

Apart from the Chinese-inspired motifs, the

Peranakan also adopted many ornamental motifs

from Central Java court, such as kawung and parang,

into their batik designs. The adaptation was usually in

a less significant way, sometimes only as background

designs (Lee, 2016). In addition, the Batik Belanda

also had a great influence on Peranakan batiks,

particularly the buketan or floral bouquet designs.

This visual culture influences can be seen in four

principals designs in Oey Soe Tjoen batik, such as

Figure 5: The Peranakan style façade of The Sidji

Hotel (Budianto, 2018).

Figure 6: The Peranakan style lobby of The Sidji

Hotel (Budianto, 2018).

ICONARTIES 2019 - 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinary Arts and Humanities

Buketan, Cuwiri, Merak Ati, and Urang Ayu, along

with the various design of its tanahan (background).

In accordance with the batik, the Peranakan

Chinese architecture also has its own distinctive

characteristics, resulted from the acculturation of

Chinese, Javanese and European cultures. According

to Bahaudin et al (2010), Peranakan architecture is

famous for its design of shophouses and colonial

bungalows. Bungalow was first introduced by the

colonialist from Europe, and later adopted by the non-

Europeans (Knapp, 2012). According to Ahmad

(1994), the architectural style of Peranakan homes in

those maritime town localities was fused with a

combination of European, Chinese and Malay

influences, known as ‘Chinese Baroque’ architecture

as the buildings were predominantly influenced by

the design of Chinese and European building styles

(Soon and Bahauddin, 2017). Lee Kip Lin also

mentioned that the Peranakan building began to shed

the Chinese elements and decoration, by adopting

‘Western’ appearance. Patricia Bjaaland Welch also

described that the Peranakan’s array of motif and

design are so broad in scope and rich in colours. Some

ornaments from classical Chinese motifs may be

missed and some may have idiosyncratic themes

borrowed from beyond Asia (Knapp, 2012).

The Sidji Hotel can be classifed as bungalow type,

its structure is closer to colonial bungalow than to

shophouse. The architecture was also influenced by

Dutch colonial architecture, which can be seen from

the building design and the Art Nouveau stained glass

windows. Now, the windows becomes the signature

of The Sidji Hotel lobby. Another features that are

prominent are the turquoise Peranakan-style doors,

Javanese multi-coloured tiles (usually called tegel

kunci) on the veranda, and the lion golden stucco at

the top of the façade. Another things that enhance the

Peranakan nuance in this hotel is the combination of

Figure 7: Oey Soe Tjoen’s famous Buketan motif

(Budianto, 2018).

Figure 8: Dragon motif on Oey Soe Tjoen’s batik

(Liong, 2014).

Figure 9: The pattern of Art Nouveau stained glass

windows (Budianto, 2018).

Figure 10: Golden lion stucco at the top of the

façade (Budianto, 2018).

Figure 11: Javanese multi-coloured tiles or tegel

kunci (Budianto, 2018).

The Inﬂuence of Peranakan Chinese Visual Culture in Pekalongan

the interior elements, such as Peranakan Chinese

antique bed, various Peranakan porcelain wares on

the walls, European-style chandelier and traditional

Javanese wooden chairs and furniture.

5 CONCLUSION

The influence of Peranakan Chinese visual culture in

Pekalongan is truly existed. It can be examined from

Oey Soe Tjoen batik tulis pattern and The Sidji Hotel

architecture. The unique combination of Peranakan

Chinese visual culture, along with local Javanese and

Dutch colonialist visual culture do contribute to the

cultural transformation in Pekalongan. This cultural

transformation also enriches the cultural diversity in

Indonesia, which also has important role in Indonesia

cultural heritage. However, this kind of cultural

heritage is endangered to perish if it is not well-

preserved. In the case of Oey Soe Tjoen batik,

however, there is a hesitation from the owner whether

the batik tulis business can be continued until the

fourth generation, since the regeneration of skilful

batik artisan is hard to accomplish. The younger

generations in Pekalongan do not see batik artisan as

a promising occupation, they prefer to work in office

or retail stores instead. On the other hand, the heritage

buildings in Pekalongan are quite rare to find. The

Sidji is only one of a few old Peranakan buildings in

Pekalongan which still survives and had good

condition. However, it could be a good example for

cultural heritage conservation and revitalization,

which can promote the tourism of the city.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This research had been supported by Indonesia

Endowment Fund of Education (LPDP Kementerian

Keuangan Republik Indonesia). Also, I am grateful to

Mrs. Widianti Widjaja, the grand-daughter of Mr.

Oey Soe Tjoen, for sharing the true story behind Oey

Soe Tjoen Batik. Moreover, I also appreciate the

staffs in The Sidji Hotel, Museum Batik Pekalongan,

KESBANGPOL Pekalongan and BAPPEDA

Pekalongan, who were very helpful during my

research in Pekalongan. Last but not least, the

completion of this research would not have been

possible without the support of my family and

lecturers in Bandung Institute of Technology.

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The Inﬂuence of Peranakan Chinese Visual Culture in Pekalongan