Chinese Cemetery Research Articles

Chinese cemeteries in Indonesian colonial and post-colonial urban areas: Resistance, urban expansion, nationalistic aspiration, and post-colonial governmentality

Chinese quarters played a significant role in numerous Southeast Asian port cities, with Chinese trading communities thriving for hundreds of years. The proof of the importance of these communities is evident in the presence of Chinatowns and Chinese cemeteries, serving as places for both living and death, in several coastal cities in Southeast Asia. This study investigates Chinese cemeteries in Semarang’s spatial city structure during the colonial period and the gradual transformation of these cemeteries in post-colonial Indonesia amidst turbulent urban development and political conditions. In post-colonial Southeast Asia, city development serves as a platform for nationalistic aspirations. This article explores the roles of Chinese cemeteries as an act of subversion against colonial laws and their gradual disappearance due to city expansion in post-colonial Indonesia. The exploration through the colonial policies concerning land and the placement of the Chinese community, followed by post-colonial policies and urban governmentality on city development and real urban growth practices, provides an opportunity to discuss the roles of Chinese cemeteries for the Indonesian Chinese community in Semarang and their fate in post-colonial urban areas of Indonesia.

RITUAL CHENG BENG DALAM MASYARAKAT KHONGHUCU DAN KETERLIBATAN MASYARAKAT ISLAM DI KELURAHAN TEBING TINGGI

This study discusses the Cheng Beng Ritual in the Confucian Society and the invention of the Islamic Society in Tebing Tinggi Village. Ritual is a habit of religious ceremonial procedures that are owned by various religions and have differences in each religion or tribe, in this discussion we take the Cheng Beng Ritual which uses the Theory of Religious Rituals from Emile Durkheim. In this study the authors used qualitative research methods by observing, documenting, and interviewing the research locations directly. Durkheim said in his book The Elementary from on the Agamauos life, which reviews social phenomena in depth, including the practice of religious rituals which Durkheim divides into two parts: 1. Negative ritual practices, which aim to form prohibitions in a religious ritual. 2. Positive ritual practices, aiming to manifest oneself with solemn faith. Durkeim also said that the rituals also make the relationship between families close again. Likewise with the cheng ben ritual which makes families gather to visit their ancestors. Meanwhile the Cheng Beng that occurred in the city of Tebing Tinggi did not only show harmonious relations in the Confucian society, but this Cheng Beng also became harmonious because the Islamic community of Tebing Tinggi Village participated in this Cheng beng event, there were several forms of harmony and involvement of the Islamic community in Cheng Beng, among others, assisting Cheng Beng ceremonies such as cleaning meals, giving circles to burn offering papers, selling around the tomb, joining the Cheng Beng YASOBAS Committee. With the aim of gaining profit and increasing the economic income of the Islamic community around the Chinese Cemetery and also for everyday life and making inter-religious relations harmonious.

Dark tourism in the Philippine context: Indicators, motivations, and spectrum

Dark tourism or thanatourism is an emerging area of study in the Philippines. Accordingly, it involves visiting places associated with death and suffering. This study explored the dark tourism indicators and tourist motivations which were used as basis for the creation of the Philippine dark tourism spectrum. The different perspectives of dark tourism or thanatourism were examined to provide a better and deeper understanding of its nature as a form of tourism. In addition, attractions considered as dark in selected cities in Metro Manila were evaluated and identified to have a clear representation of the attributes of dark tourism attached in a particular site or destination. Using an exploratory-qualitative design, structured interviews, FGDs, observations, literature review, and photo elicitation have been conducted to gather pertinent data. Participants in the KII include historians, Department of Tourism (DOT) Officers, church leaders, and tourists; while in the FGDs were DOT accredited guides and tourism faculty members from different colleges and universities in Metro Manila. Content analysis was used in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that history, authenticity, storytelling, and experience are the indicators of dark tourism sites. Moreover, the identified dark sites are Chinese Cemetery, Intramuros, Libingan ng mga Bayani, Luneta Park, and Paco Park and Cemetery. These attractions are visited for educational purposes, remembrance, sightseeing, recreation, family bonding, curiosity, and event venue. The study contributed to the existing knowledge of thanatourism and dark tourism in the Philippines by identifying the indicators and tourist motivations that are very useful in destination planning and management, as well as marketing and promotion. Likewise, the created Philippine dark tourism spectrum provided a deeper perspective and understanding of the nature of dark tourism, which can be utilized by the tourism stakeholders and the academe in evaluating and classifying dark tourism sites in the country.

The Development and Changes of Singapore Chinese Society in 19–20th Century—An Analysis from the Perspective of Dialect Group Cemetery Hills

The development of Chinese cemetery hills in Singapore reflects the changing dominance of the dialect groups between the 19th and 20th centuries. Heng San Ting 恒山亭 is the earliest cemetery hill of the Hokkien dialect group, and newly excavated burials indicate that early Singaporean Hokkien came not only from Zhangzhou 漳州 and Quanzhou 泉州 in southern Fujian 福建, but also from places such as Yongchun 永春 from the interior of Fujian. Apart from the Hokkien dialect group, the Cantonese 广东, Hakka 客家, Teochew 潮州 and Hainan 海南 communities also established their cemetery hills. In the early 19th century, the Chinese communities were divided into different dialect groups to form their representative cemetery hills, but the smaller communities within the dialect groups started to form and develop their own cemeteries due to increasing economic power from the mid to late 19th century. Scholars generally believe that the other four dialect groups, led by the Cantonese and Hakka dialect groups, formed a “United Front 联合阵线” to confront the Hokkien dialect group. However, this paper looks at the smaller communities under the five dialect groups and discovers that these communities developed and maintained their own cemetery hills and communicated with the smaller communities from different dialect groups. It was not a direct confrontation. In the 20th century, although the government introduced a series of policies to restrict the development of Chinese burial mounds, the different communities retained their autonomy under the government’s policies. From the development and changes of the Chinese dialect group cemeteries in Singapore, we see that the Chinese community still retains its own autonomy despite the rapid changes of society and the change of times.

Bulldozing the dead: Chinese, citizenry, and cemetery in post-colonial South Korea

AbstractThis article looks at lawsuits surrounding two Chinese cemeteries in the mid-twentieth century South Korean cities of Incheon and Seoul as crucial sites to examine the post-colonial legal construction of national citizenry based on property rights. While different legal rationales were employed in each case, the two Chinese cemeteries were relocated to the periphery of each city as a consequence of the litigation. In Incheon, it was argued that the cemetery was owned by Chinese nationals whose land rights were ambiguous and hence open to question, both during the colonial and post-colonial period. On the other hand, in Seoul, rights to the cemetery were at stake due to its association with Japanese nationals, whose holdings were regarded as ‘enemy properties’ in the post-colonial years. Not only were the lawsuits symbolic events that foreshadowed the displacement of Chinese residents from what was considered to be Korea's national land, they also revealed an operative ambiguity in the post-colonial legal system, readily exploited as a tool for discrimination. Drawing upon an analysis of these cases, I argue that the Chinese cemeteries served as a reminder that uncertainty and ambiguity were on tap in the legal workings of post-colonial society, manifested in blunt efforts to define its legitimate members and dictate who is entitled to be buried within a nation's borders.

Digitizing death: commodification of joss paper on Chinese online cemetery

ABSTRACT This article explores the digitalization of traditional funeral joss paper into digital commodities through the case study of the Chinese online cemetery 00tang.com. Joss paper are paper replicas of everyday items such as money and objects that are ritually burned as a form of symbolic offering to the deceased in accordance with traditional Chinese practices of ancestor worship. Using both ethnographic interviews and discursive interface analysis, I look at how the remediation of spiritual joss paper into digital objects complicates perceived dichotomy between the gift and commodity that requires new ways of thinking about the acts of social reciprocity, indebtedness, and obligation. Drawing on established literature relating to gift and digital economies, I argue 00tang’s digitization of joss paper on internet cemeteries is reflexive of the biopolitical means by which the state and market forces work to subsume traditional ancestor worship into controllable and commodifiable labor of mourning. Here, the subversive wastefulness of the gift is replaced by its accumulation and preservation online. Digitization in this regard highlights the process by which objects take on different materiality, values, aesthetics, and productive labor practices, all of which fundamentally alters the symbolic regimes of death and the ritual gift economy in China.

Souw Beng Kong’s Tomb: Transformation of a Green Chinese Cemetery Area to a Present Dense Area

In 1644, Souw Beng Kong lay on his final rest, in a burial site on the middle of a coconut plantation site in Mangga Dua. A portrait of a green cemetery area in the heart of Batavia, which cannot be found anymore. Despite the preservation act, Souw Beng Kong’s tomb is now located in a very narrow space amid the overcrowded area. This paper seeks to explore the Souw Beng Kong’s Tomb historical value, which categorized as one of Jakarta’s urban heritage, in an aim to generate more understanding of a place, mainly the green cemetery site on the past and to trace the change of place, with a main question on how was the transformation of place occurred on the site of Souw Beng Kong’s Tomb? How the site was treated on each era (colonial and post-colonial)? What was the socio-political occurrence that triggers the contrasting change of the place? In processing data, beside using the content analysis method, the interpretation will be processed using Fumihiko Maki (2018) approach on reading the urban morphological changes that includes observation on morphological and microtopography, community culture, and site-specific basic principles.

A chinese cemetery in Somme: remembrance practices, place of co-presence and diasporic dynamics

L’article met en lumière le processus de « sinisation » d’un lieu qui demeure longtemps, à bien des égards, plus « britannique » que « chinois », à travers le développement de pratiques mémorielles au sein de la diaspora chinoise en France. Ce processus s’articule cependant à d’autres dynamiques d’appropriation, qui se déploient à différentes échelles, traduisant la pluralité des modalités de territorialisation des pratiques mémorielles et patrimoniales. Le cimetière se construit ainsi comme un lieu de co-présence et une ressource différemment mobilisée par une grande pluralité d’acteurs.

PERAN PEMERINTAH DALAM PENGELOLAAN PEMAKAMAN PADA MASYARAKAT ETNIS TIONGHOA DI KOTA PADANG

This research is motivated by problems regarding the management of cemeteries in ethnic Chinese communities in the city of Padang. The amount of funeral levy fees and cremation problems that are not approved by Minang residents. The research aims to determine: (1) The role of the government in the management of cemeteries in the Chinese community in the city of Padang. (2) Government efforts in overcoming the problems that occur due to the management of Chinese community cemeteries in the city of Padang. (3) Obstacles or obstacles in the management of cemeteries in the Tinghoa community in the city of Padang. This type of qualitative research using descriptive methods ,. The selection of informants is carried out using purposive sampling technique. The type of data is primary data and secondary data obtained from interviews with informants and documents related to research. Data obtained through interviews, observation, and study documentation. The research data were analyzed with source triangulation techniques. The findings in the field show that: (1) The role of the government in funeral management in the Chinese community in the city of Padang, namely as a regulator, is a policy maker in improving or optimizing funeral management. As a dynamicator that is able to get the community to participate in overcoming and efficiency and service improvement. As a facilitator, as a provider of burial grounds and facilitating burial grounds. (2) Obstacles or obstacles in the management of cemeteries in the Chinese community in the city of Padang include the lack of available land. The role of the government is still not maximized in managing Chinese ethics public cemeteries. The lack of socialization to the public about the administration and levies of funeral services and the many forms of graves that are not in accordance with applicable regulations. (3) Government efforts in overcoming the problems that occur as a result of the management of Chinese community cemeteries in the city of Padang, among others, determine policies in the field of funeral services in the form of Regional Regulations. Planning spatial planning, development policy is directed at the realization of a synergistic, harmonious and sustainable city spatial plan supported by realistic and implementative spatial planning documents, strict law enforcement, and the availability of responsible implementing agencies. Expansion of land for the tomb area. Openness of data and information presentation by the Funeral UPTD. Matching the size of the meal with the culture of the people of Padang City who have been accommodated in the Regional Regulation become a standard size.

Acceptable use of Chinese cemeteries in Kuala Lumpur as perceived by the city’s residents

While cemeteries represent a part of any society’s cultural heritage, their continued existence in urban areas has raised concerns, mainly due to the scarcity of urban land. Referring specifically to the Chinese cemeteries of Kuala Lumpur, this paper explored the perceptions among the local Chinese residents of the possible multi-dimensional uses of cemeteries for recreational purposes. This issue involves questions of city planning and future land use, urban green purposing and the potential contribution of such land to urban fabric enhancement. Specifically, the authors intended to identify the influence of demographic profile on perceptions in consideration of future planning of cemeteries for recreational purposes. A total of 403 questionnaire samples were collected for analysis. The analysis findings indicated that the possible use of cemeteries for educational purposes was favoured among the respondents in general, with a higher acceptance rate of multiple uses of cemeteries for recreational purposes among younger respondents. Physical design enhancing landscaping, avoiding conflicts overuse, appropriate safety measures and awareness campaigns are all vital if cemeteries are to be promoted for recreational purposes.

Chinese Cemetery as Heterotopia: A Case of Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery (KTCC)

With the emergence of new typologies of memorial parks and commercialisation of industries for the dead in Malaysia, what is the image and fate of older cemetery sites within the urban realm? This paper aims to re-define the perception of urban Chinese cemetery as a heterotopic space through the case study of Kwong Tong Chinese Cemetery (KTCC). Using the Foucauldian notion of heterotopia as a framework for analysis, this paper studies the transitions of KTCC through time, and how it stands in relation to the society that produced it. The paper argues that the cemetery is a highly heterotopic site; it is a space of representation and a space of difference, which celebrates the disruption of space and time in relation to society. The implication of society towards the ever changing role of a cemetery, and for now, the changing progression is at the stage where the contemporary Chinese cemetery in Malaysia displays its multi-functional spatial qualities within a single site, as a space of ‘otherness’.

Riverside sustainability – Overcome problems and reliable approaches

The growth of population is a feature behind the urbanization. The city’s facilities are an attraction for migrants to work and live. It has led to the emergence of urban problems in terms of providing employment, legal settlements, and livable formal housing. The inability of the low-income community economically will lead it to live in area on riverside, railroads, and Chinese cemetery. Then, it will be turned into a slum area. Kampong Aur is part of a slum area of Medan, also have the same problem. Therefore, it is the importance of research. The data collected by an observations, previous studies, journals, planning documents, and aerial photographs. The data obtained were analyzed and elaborated using qualitative descriptive method. The results show that Kampong Aur can be observed from the land tenure, physical environment, livelihood, public facilities, and socio-cultural conditions. It is a unique type of settlement with consists of formal and informal housing built side-by-side. Informal settlements are usually located along the river borderline. And it is categorized into slum settlements. Originally, slums need to be managed integratedly and well organized, improvement or relocation, with a humane and sustainable approach through the participation of all parties. In this way, participatory and cooperative designs are the reliable approaches that can be applied to the settlement conditions in Kampong Aur.

Discontinuities and the Maintenance of Chinese Cemeteries in Kolkata (India) (印度加尔各答华人墓地的间断与维持)

In India, where migrations from mainland China are not constantly renewed, the Chinese cemeteries constitute the perennial elements of cultural transmission. As they build cemeteries for their community, these overseas-Chinese people inscribe the concrete references that they hold sacred in India, and no longer look to mainland China. We shall see that there are multiple reasons that explain the Chinese cemeteries’ location on the margins of the city. However, the places for the dead are the result of a long process, cultural and spatial, specific to how they were established in Kolkata and its suburbs. The cemetery constitutes in itself a space of adaptation and a space of practice; it reflects the anchoring of the Chinese in India. 在印度，来自中国大陆的移民浪潮经历了长久的间断，而华人墓地却不因中国移民的间断而逐渐消亡，反而成为华族文化传承的不间断载体。当海外华人为自己的社区建立墓地时，意味着他们决定扎根于印度而不再遥望中国作为落叶归根的想象家乡。华人将墓地设在城市边缘的原因众多。但是，地点的选择是一个冗长的、文化与空间局限交织作用的过程，尤其是如何将墓地设于加尔各答及其郊区内。墓地本身便是一个包含不断适应和实践的空间，它反映了华人在印度扎根繁衍的历史现象。 This article is in English.

Residential Mobility di Pinggiran Kota Semarang Jawa Tengah (Studi Kasus Kaum Miskin Kota di Kota Semarang)

This research was aimed in analyzing and examining the development of slum residential in Semarang, including its center of the city urban, urban-fringe and sub-urban area. Within the development of the slum residential due to mobility of the urban poor, the phenomenon in the term of residential mobility occurred. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research was applying distant-interpretation data in examining slum residential phenomenon and terrestrial data in analyzing both social and cultural issues related to development of slum residential. This research resulting a residential mobility model throughout areas of research, especially sub-urban including the Chinese cemetery area; the new migrant was the urbanist namely the bridge headers group, consists of tramp and hobos whom should be concerned more. Though they just have settled in short-period within the area, their income was categorized financially settled. They owned their own home not as the renter and even, built housing for their subordinates amounted 7-15 families in a complex of residential. Stability of the income was also supported by resident-owning whereas selecting its location based on the land-availability which initially settled the location illegally among the graves. This location was selected since its less-maintained condition by neither their descendant nor cemetery officer which then densely covered by bushes. Availability of the sufficient land leads them to build their residential which also used as the scrap collection space. During the times, their number was increased referred to their raising income. Legalizing their residential was the next step for their existence and sustainability by purchasing or renting the land. Eventually this bridge header was earning a stable income, owning their own home, and locating their residential in the sub-urban area furthermore but unfortunately less-supported by a highly established life style but an early category one . These were indicated by several factors, either employer or subordinate tramps which cooking foods altogether, unfashionably worn, and behavior of their youngster of asking consideration and advice to the consolidator and status seeker.

Chinese in East Timor : Identity, society and economy

Om den kinesiska migrationen till Timor och hur denna har förändrats över tiden.

The Manila Chinese Cemetery: A Repository of Tsinoy Culture and Identity

The funerary architecture of the vast 19th-century Chinese Cemetery in Manila differs markedly from other Chinese cemeteries in Southeast Asia.This paper describes the development of this architecture and its many styles rooted in Western and Chinese artistic tradition, their symbolic meanings and significance. It also illustrates how much the Chinese Cemetery today is a reflection of contemporary urban development of the metropolis surrounding it, presenting new challenges and opportunities, and how the cemetery has adapted to these developments. Sweeping social transformations in 19th-century Philippine society and economy, and the introduction of new modern funeral practices rooted in 19th-century Europe fostered the development of new forms of mourning and commemoration at the turn of the 20th century. This found expression in the gradual emergence of small and grand mausoleums for the new middle and upper class of Mestizo and Chinese businessmen and women, professionals, politicians, and ilustrados. This elaborate funerary architecture and its symbolic ornamentation and statuary turned the Manila Chinese Cemetery over the course of 130 years into a rich repository of the nation’s built heritage. Moreover, the parallel existence and gradual blending of Spanish-Catholic and Chinese Taoist and Buddhist religious and cultural influences sometimes led to surprising and creative artistic and architectural solutions which espouse the identity of the Tsinoy, the Filipino-Chinese community.

Early Chinese Presence in Malaysia as Reflected by three Cemeteries (17th-19th c.)

Chinese cemeteries, found in various locations in Malaysia, are like historical landmarks. The oldest graves when traced may be used to gauge the association between the Chinese with a particular locality. Such a consideration is important as the community was constantly required to justify and defend its long-standing presence in the country especially in the face of challenges from certain quarters of indigenous political groups which questioned the long term position of the Chinese in the country. Given its importance, this paper sets out to examine the three earliest cemeteries, namely, Bukit China in Malacca, the Chinese cemeteries in Terengganu and Mount Erskine in Penang; with the aim of tracing the earlier graves and to raise questions pertaining to their existence.

The Chinese Cemeteries in the Philippines: Immobile Spaces?

The second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries were characterized by high-speed urban development that resulted in the encircling of the old Chinese cemeteries by new settlements. In many cities, especially in Manila, Jakarta and Surabaya, incoming migrants squatted on cemetery land. Some municipal authorities issued new regulations intended to close old Chinese burial sites and eventually to demolish them. It is in the context of this grave burial crisis that the private sector came in. The first private-led initiative into the memorial park business appeared in 1964 when the multinational Castle and Cooke taking advantage of American models, founded Manila Memorial Park which opened the era of a new concept of deathscape in Insular Southeast Asia. This new concept of memorial park located at the periphery of cities was introduced in Malaysia in 1990-1991, and in Indonesia in 2002-2003. In both cases, the initiative came from local entrepreneurs. In this article we look at pioneers in the memorialization industry, development of memorial parks as gardens of dreams, new cemeteries as mirrors of cultural identities, legal frameworks, the memorialization industry, and finally marketing strategies.

State Policy, Community Identity, and Management of Chinese Cemeteries in Colonial Malaya

This article discusses how Chinese cemeteries were managed within the broader social and political framework in colonial Malaya and Singapore. This is done through studying the discussions of the Singapore Municipal Council and by looking at a Hokkien cemetery in Penang and in Kuala Lumpur. The article touches on how the colonial state increasingly came to regulate Chinese cemeteries, suggesting that procedures of burials and cemeteries not only enabled the state to monitor health and mortality trends but also to involve itself further in the affairs of the Chinese community at a time of expanding colonial political and economic control. The article further discusses the extent to which cemeteries were a marker of identity of the Chinese community. It was a marker not only of the wider Chinese community but also of dialect divisions

From Cemeteries to Luxurious Memorial Parks

The second half of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st centuries were characterized by high-speed urban development that resulted in the encircling of the old Chinese cemeteries by new settlements. In many cities, especially in Manila, Jakarta and Surabaya, incoming migrants squatted on cemetery land. Some municipal authorities issued new regulations intended to close old Chinese burial sites and eventually to demolish them. It is in the context of this grave burial crisis that the private sector came in. The first private-led initiative into the memorial park business appeared in 1964 when the multinational Castle and Cooke taking advantage of American models, founded Manila Memorial Park which opened the era of a new concept of deathscape in Insular Southeast Asia. This new concept of memorial park located at the periphery of cities was introduced in Malaysia in 1990-1991, and in Indonesia in 2002-2003. In both cases, the initiative came from local entrepreneurs. In this article we look at pioneers in the memorialization industry, development of memorial parks as gardens of dreams, new cemeteries as mirrors of cultural identities, legal frameworks, the memorialization industry, and finally marketing strategies.