Recent Dutch-Language Publications

Bijdragen tot de taal- land- en volkenkunde / Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia, vol. 179, pp. 311–316

Abstract

Leonard Blussé (1946) is a retired professor of Leiden University and a specialist in the colonial history of East and Southeast Asia.As a sinologist, he has been able to consult and evaluate Chinese sources, which complements the results of his research on the voc.This combination has enabled him to sketch new or revised vistas on Asia's fascinating history in many publications, ranging from highly scholarly to plain and direct texts aimed at a broad audience.When forced into quarantine by covid, he wrote De Chinezenmoord, directed at a general audience as well as his fellow historians, who will be pleased with more than forty pages of notes, bibliography, and index.Blussé remarks that the history of this ominous massacre is studied and written anew in every century.Thus, he rightfully becomes-even a bit early in the twenty-first century-the third scholarly analyst of this historical event, after W.R. van Hoëvell ('Batavia in 1740'; 1840) and J.Th.Vermeulen (1938).Blussé divides his story into five parts, titled "Stage", "Intrigue", "Climax", "Catastrophe", and, to conclude, "Peripetia and Catharsis".The 'Stage' was set by the voc, which entered in a symbiotic relationship with the Chinese.Both parties profited.The voc was aiming at extracting maximal profit from the Chinese-at first by trading with Chinese-owned ships and later by permitting settlers to live in Batavia and its surrounding country.Chinese middlemen controlled the food trade and were dominant in the sugar and coffee production.There was not much room for other actors.The position of the indigenous Javanese became weaker as they lost the wars fought out with the voc and its allies.Yet in time, the quality of voc officials deteriorated, their policies became more and more contradictory, and the Batavian authorities were more busy with infighting than devising appropriate meas-Downloaded from Brill.

Authors 1

1. Harry A. Poeze corresponding Aachen KITLV/Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies The Netherlands Leiden

   Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies

   Affiliation as printed

   KITLV�Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies The Netherlands Leiden