Performing Colonial Modernity

Arnout H.C Van Der Meer

doi:10.1163/22134379-17304015

Abstract

Late-colonial Indonesia witnessed the proliferation of annual fairs and exhibitions that attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from all ethnic backgrounds and walks of life. This article argues that the Dutch colonizers organized these fairs as part of a larger hegemonic attempt to legitimize colonial authority. At the fairgrounds special exhibits demonstrated the benevolence of colonial governance, while modernity was displayed to emphasize the alleged cultural, technological, and scientific superiority of the West. Moreover, visitors were enticed to consume Western products and the lifestyles and world views associated with them. These fairs were mainly aimed at, and were constitutive of, the nascent Indonesian middle classes that became increasingly central to the maintenance of colonial rule. It is demonstrated that fairs were sites of interaction and discursive spaces where the middle classes not only bought into colonial discourse, but negotiated and challenged Western modernity to create a distinct, Indonesian middle-class lifestyle and culture.

Highlights

Unbeknownst to the European journalist of 1907, by the 1930s his ‘modernized Javanese’ would be omnipresent at the fairgrounds, which proliferated in twentieth-century colonial Indonesia to the point where every major city or town hosted its own fair, exhibition, or pasar malam (Indonesian night fair)
This article argues that the Dutch colonial regime used the organization of fairs to stage modernity and legitimize its authority (Coté 2006), the primarily indigenous visitors negotiated this attempt by shaping a distinct, middle-class lifestyle and identity in response
The emergence of annual fairs coincided with the implementation of the Ethical Policy (1901), the Dutch equivalent of the French mission civilisatrice and the British ‘white man’s burden’ that claimed to promote the development of the land and people of colonial Indonesia

Summary

Fairs as Civilizing Instruments

The emergence of annual fairs coincided with the implementation of the Ethical Policy (1901), the Dutch equivalent of the French mission civilisatrice and the British ‘white man’s burden’ that claimed to promote the development of the land and people of colonial Indonesia. In the colonial capital the initiative was taken by the association Oost en West (East and West), of which Abendanon himself was a founding member This private association, known for its ethical propensities, combined its experience in organizing exhibits of indigenous arts and crafts (most recently in 1902) with the annual festivities on the Dutch Queen’s birthday (31 August) and the Javanese tradition of night fairs (pasar malam), which were often held around special occasions (Bloembergen 2006:246–55; Cohen 2016:84–6; Van de Wall 1924). By boycotting these products at the annual fairs the organizers sought to protect and stimulate the artisinal industries, for instance by encouraging the sale of payung (locally produced parasol) instead of European umbrellas, as well as to reduce conspicuous consumption Taken together this would increase the prosperity of the indigenous population (Abendanon 1904, vol i:14, 23; Onderzoek 1911:53–8). The First World War prevented any fairs from being organized for several years (Kelling 1925:210–2; Van Dijk 2007)

Hegemony through Education and Entertainment

Findings

Fairs and the Creation of Desire