Struggling for justice: Chinese commerce and Dutch law in the Netherlands Indies, 1800-1942

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Over the past decades, a number of scholars have rightfully questioned the static 'European' perspective which continues to pervade the scientific debate within Indonesian historiography. The recipient of this book has consistently drawn attention to the dynamics of Chinese commercial constellations and interactions alongside Western colonialism in Southeast Asia. In Sutherland's eyes, the conventional colonial outlook on the Asian world and past needs to be replaced by more complex and flexible relationships and interactions shaped by joint and interweaving forces of ethnic categories, economic activities, and political power. This chapter shows how colonial society was anything but static and clear-cut, by focusing on the shifting legal status of the Chinese within the Netherlands Indies during the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. The institutional mobilization of the deep dissatisfaction among the Chinese in the Netherlands Indies can be dated from the closing years of the nineteenth century. Keywords: Chinese commerce; Netherlands Indies; Sutherland