Acculturation in the Architecture of Lasem City

Abstract

Lasem city, located on the northern coast of Java, is particularly well-known for its buildings with Chinese architecture, thus the nickname “Little Chinese (or China) in Java”. Despite the deeply ingrained Chinese ethnicity in Lasem, history recorded the tight bond of solidarity between the Chinese and the Javanese. Religious, racial, and ethnic conflicts between the two ethnic groups hardly existed.           By using the phenomenological approach, this research focuses on the process of acculturation in Lasem. It specifically attempts to document the acculturation process manifested through building structures and settlement patterns as a model of the daily life of the Indonesian society. The findings of the study suggested that acculturation process has greatly influenced the structure of the buildings in Lasem. Many buildings in Lasem mix the Chinese and Javanese architectures in their space layout and details. The outcome of this research is a model of acculturation process reflected in architecture. This model can be implemented in other cities in Indonesia.Â