Peranakan Historical Timeline

Peranakan Historical Timeline

9^th Century   A Chinese ship (Junk) relief was carved on the Borobudur wall. This indicates a long historical connection between Chinese merchants and Javanese Kingdoms years before Zheng He.

15^th Century-Admiral Zheng He visited Nusantara on seven voyages. He left many surviving legacies in various places in Indonesia.

1740-1743 The Chinese War in Java. The Chinese bitterly opposed the Dutch Company rule in an armed uprising. The Peranakan and the Totok alike join their effort and gained a strong support from Amangkurat II of Surakarta.

1777 Foundation of Lang Fang Kongsi the first Independent democratic Chinese administration in the interior of West Kalimantan.

1819 & 1822 Kongsi War in West Kalimantan-The Chinese Kongsi fought bitterly against Dutch East Indies attempt to subjugate them.

1870 The Dutch government issued the Land Policy which prohibited the native (pribumi) to sell their land to foreigners. Chinese descendants along with Europeans were defined as foreigners. This consequently created social exclusions as peranakan (many of whom never have even been abroad) are legally segregated and discriminated from  “Indonesian natives”.

1870-1900 The large diasporic migration of Hokkien, Teochew and Cantonese Chinese into Southeast Asia due to the political upheavals in Southern China. These would form the widely dispersed merchant class around the shallow seas of the Dutch Indies.

1870-1960 Sastra Melayu Tionghoa or Sino-Malay literature was acknowledged to be the most productive period in Indonesia ’s literature. Consisting of 3.005 volumes of poems, translation, plays, short stories and novels.

1899 Chinese Tin Miners Revolt against the Dutch in Bangka Island.

1904 Tiong Hoa Hwee Koan the first modern Chinese and Peranakan organization in Nusantara was founded.

1945-1949 The Republic of Indonesia ’s revolt and struggle for Independence . During this period, many Chinese Peranakan were entrusted with special assignments to smuggle out raw commodities and opium to Singapore and Malaya to purchase in return surplus weapons from Singapore-Malaya and South East Asia to replenish weapon shortages plaguing Indonesia’s Republican Forces.

1946-1949 Rear Admiral John Lie (Daniel Jahja Dharma) then Mayor John Lie as commander of “The Outlaw” staged smuggling operations from Republican territories to procure surplus WWII arms from neighboring countries such as Thailand, Singapore and British Malaya. John Lie had breached Dutch naval blockade on many occasions.

1966-1998 The New Order’s iron grip. Chinese descendants and Peranakan were alienated from social and political realities. They were merely allocated roles in the economic sectors. The valor and virtue of thousands Peranakan officers in Indonesian national military service had been concealed. The number of Peranakan in national service dropped drastically.

1998 May 12-13 Riots -The darkest hours in Indonesia’s modern history after 1966. However, the course of events turned out as a golden opportunity for Peranakan to be actively involved in social and political life in post-reformation Indonesia.