Abstract
Abstract This article traces one narrative of anti-colonial violence on the Sumatra plantation through various Sinophone iterations and establishes the historical events on which it was based. The European anxiety about the defiance of the condemned Chinese men shows how this particular event turned into oral legend, religious observance, touring socialist theatre, leftist fiction, and a PRC Third World internationalist travelogue. In one moment of bravura, Chinese plantation workers rejected their status as colonial subjects. That gesture made them an emblem of the proletarian bona fides of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia, and of the traumatic origins of Medan and other North Sumatra Chinese communities in plantation labour. By connecting the foreboding in the colonial archive with the eulogy in the Sinophone literary record, we can triangulate a fuller vision of resistance on the Deli plantations than is available from either one.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
More From: Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.