4 0
N E W S A N D V I E W S F R O M T H E W O R L D O F A S I A N S T U D I E S
I I A S N E W S L E T T E R # 4 7 S p r i n g 0 0 8
N E T W O R K A S I A
Niels Mulder
A
s if my life in 2007 had not been
exciting enough, happenings in far-
away Holland cast their shadow over my
newly revitalised existence when the pub-
lic prosecutor in The Hague ordered the
remand of Joma Sison, founding father
of the reconstituted communist party of
the Philippines and, more pertinently, its
armed arm, the National People’s Army
(NPA). The government in Manila holds
him to be the NPA’s perennial supremo,
and so he has to take the blame for many
things that happen in its name.
Of course, whatever his friends say to the
contrary, people who profess with Mao
that power flows from the barrel of a gun,
are not precisely peaceable, and so the
widows of two former ranking comrades
in arms, who had fallen out with the policy
of violence and were consequently killed by
NPA death squads, thought to have a case
against Sison who, ever since 1987, basks
in the open-mindedness of the Dutch.
Whereas this may mean that he is not held
to direct a rebellion against a friendly gov-
ernment half a world away, the prosecutor,
backed up by the claim to evidence of the
Philippine authorities, thought to be able
to make his case, and so, on the 28th of
August, Joma landed in the Scheveningen
High Security Penitentiary.
Niels Mulder reflects on his retirement in the Philippines,
home to the longest running Mao-inspired insurgency in Asia
Among Neighbours
Hullabaloo among the youthful left from
Amsterdam and Sydney to San Francisco;
demonstrations; articles about Dutch fas-
cism and the sorry state of human rights
in the Netherlands; in brief, the usual rig-
marole of those who still believe in Maoist
solutions and who have mercifully been
spared the experience of life under people’s
democracy. On the other side the hurrahs
of the Philippine government which cur-
rently has a rather unenviable reputation
as far as justice and human rights go.
Then, at the height of a pandemonium of
hopes and indignation and just a few days
after the arrest, I was visited by local rep-
resentatives of the NPA. It was a Saturday,
and so Girl was there. They introduced
themselves politely as neighbours, Ka
Kokoy and Ka Lewis, who came to make
the acquaintance of new people in the,
or their, area, and as we sat down, I was
impressed by the depth of brainwashing in
Mao’s and Sison’s violent gospel they had
undergone.
My conversation partner had graduated
as an engineer and spoke English well. He
came with lots of Maoist propaganda and
defended the Movement by insisting that
it was an insult that it had meanwhile been
blacklisted as a terrorist organisation.
He was a revolutionary and I cautiously
observed that he had a cause, without,
Blussé (Leiden University) sketched the global context of the development of trade in
Canton and Nagasaki at the end of the 18th century, and Professor Haneda Masashi (Uni-
versity of Tokyo) compared the institutional organisation of both cities with harbour cities
in the Middle East at that time, thereby setting the framework for the meeting.
Four central themes had been chosen to compare the port cities with each other. Most
speakers were able to make direct comparisons themselves, others complemented each
other.
The first theme was Control and administration of the (local) government. Papers includ-
ed a view on both cities from the Imperial Palace in Beijing (Prof. Iwai Shigeki of the Uni-
versity of Kyoto); the import of Chinese and Dutch books into Japan (Prof. Wim J. Boot of
Leiden University), and immigration aspects for Chinese travelling to Japan (Dr. Watanabe
Miki of the University of Tokyo).
Tuesday morning started with the second theme: Acceptance and refusal of foreign
thoughts and foreign influences on the arts. Six speakers gave a comprehensive overview
of foreign influences on painting and porcelain, the transport of these articles to and from
both cities, and the collections of these pieces of art abroad. Ms. Ito Shiori (Chiba City
Museum of Art) and Dr. Jiang Yinghe (Sun Yat-sen University) described the develop-
ment of specific themes in paintings destined for the foreign market; Ms Zeng Lingling
(Guangzhou Museum) en Dr. Liu Zhaohui (Fudan University, Shanghai) talked about the
influence of foreign trade on porcelain production, pointing out interesting similarities
between Chinese Jingdezhen porcelain and Japanese Imari porcelain. Dr. Daniel Finamore
of the Maritime Art and History Department of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem,
Massachusetts, highlighted the role American ships played in the Dutch trade between
Batavia and Canton and Nagasaki during the Napoleonic War, and Dr. Jan van Campen
of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam commented on the extensive Chinese collections of
late-18th century Dutch collectors.
Tuesday afternoon was spent visiting local historic sites. Professor Zhang Wenqin (Sun
Yat-sen University), armed with books full of illustrations, showed us pictures of the
Huangpu anchorage and contrasted them with the present situation. Although the har-
bour scene has changed dramatically over the years, he was still able to give us a good
impression of what it must have looked like. The foreign cemetery nowadays consists of
just 28 tombstones placed together. There must have been hundreds of them in the past.
The cemetery was reconstructed in 2001 on the basis of a painting in the collection of the
Peabody Essex Museum. Finally, we visited the Huangpu Military Academy, where Profes-
sor John E. Wills Jr. (University of Southern California) gave a short introduction on the
early Republican period.
Before setting sail for Macao where the second part of the conference was hosted, we
spent Wednesday morning visiting the Guangzhou Museum and Shamian Island, where
foreign factories were established from 1858 onward, after big fires had destroyed the
original buildings in Shisanhang (or ‘Thirteen Factory Street’). En route to Macao, we vis-
ited the old Humen Fort along the narrows of the Bocca Tigris, where ships used to pass
on their way to Huangpu Anchorage.
In Macao the second part of the conference kicked off with the third theme: Acceptance
and refusal of foreign thoughts: influence on people’s daily lives. Eight speakers presented
their research on different aspects of ordinary life, trade life, dangers etc.
The differences in the daily life of the people representing the European Companies in
Guangzhou and on Deshima (Nagasaki) became clear with the presentation of Cynthia
Viallé (Leiden University) on the Dutch diaries. In Guangzhou, various foreign countries
had representatives stationed in their respective factories, whereas on Deshima the VOC
was the only Western company allowed to keep an establishment. Dr. Liu Yong (Xiamen
University) spoke of the business culture in both cities, and Dr. Yao Keisuke (University
of Kitakyushu) focused on the fundamentally different roles that linguists played in both
harbours. One of the interpreters who provided simultaneous translations of the pres-
entations during the conference mentioned afterwards that he had learned a lot that day
about his predecessors. Dr. Paul van Dyke (University of Macao) entertained us with a
richly illustrated PowerPoint presentation on fire fighting in Guangzhou in the past. This
lecture drew much interest from the Japanese participants who pointed out the very dif-
ferent organisation of fire brigades in early modern Japan.
In the final session Professor Murao Susumu (Tenri University) discussed the role of
Christianity in Guangzhou and Macao; Dr. Cheng Cunjie of the Guangzhou Museum
described the role of Hong Merchants in Guangzhou with regard to the financing of the
Lianfeng Temple in Macao; Professor Matsukata Fuyuko (University of Tokyo) discussed
Dutch reports in Japan on the Opium War and Patrizia Carioti (University of Napoli) con-
cluded with a comparison of the founding histories of Macao and Hirado.
On Friday, the role of Macao was placed within a somewhat broader time frame. Professor
John E. Wills Jr. opened the day with a survey of the main events in the South China Sea
during the 18th century. He was followed by Dr. Oka Mihoko (University of Tokyo), who
discussed Macao as a financial centre in 17th century maritime Asia. Professor Zhang
Wenqin discussed the development of Pidgin Portuguese in Canton, and Professor Qi
Yinping (Zhejiang University) presented his views on the trade between Japan and Macao,
and the role played by the Jesuits. Ms. Rosalien Van der Poel (Museum of Ethnology, Lei-
den) was the final speaker. She made a plea to preserve and restore Chinese export paint-
ings of the late 18th century in the holdings of the Leiden Museum and the Guangzhou
Museum.
The transactions of the conference will be published in the course of 2008. The second
conference in Japan is scheduled to be held in 2009, when the foundation of the first
Dutch trading factory at Hirado 400 years ago will be celebrated. Without doubt that
conference will be as great a success as the present one which brought together a choice
of scholars from China, Japan and the West.
however, observing that violence had not
furthered it in the 38 years that the armed
branch of the CPP has been active or that
those who deserted and tried to achieve
their aims peacefully are shot as a matter
of course.
Somehow, I couldn’t dislike the fellow, all
the more so since he confessed to his iso-
lation among his semi-literate brothers in
arms. Whenever one of them had business
down the slope—buying food or cigarettes,
hardware or other supplies—he asked
that he buy a newspaper in order to be
informed about what perspired in Manila.
He was the only one so inclined and had
no partner to exchange views. He visibly
enjoyed talking with me, and when I gave
him a few articles I recently published in
the local university journal, he was deeply
satisfied and promised to react to them,
most probably in writing. At the same time
he romanticised his peripatetic existence,
never staying long in any one place while
pinning his hammock in isolated farms,
lonely barns and sheds, or just between
the trees. He had even married a fellow
revolutionary, a woman with clear ideas
about the socialist paradise; yet, he had
nobody to talk to.
You should know that I live in relative isola-
tion seven kilometres up from town on the
slope of Mount Banahaw where members
of the NPA freely roam. The locals know
Anna Yeadell, Editor of
IIAS Newsletter
and Manon Osseweijer, Coordinator
of Academic Affairs at IIAS interview
Henk Schulte Nordholt, on his
appointment in January 2008 as Chair
of the IIAS Board.
AY: I think readers will be interested to
know a little of your background Henk, you
are currently Director of Research for the
Royal Netherlands Institute for Southeast
Asian and Caribbean studies (KITLV); you
started there as a project leader?
HSN: Yes, before that I studied history
at the Free University of Amsterdam.
I became involved with anthropology
because I did my PhD project and field
work on the island of Bali. Bali proved to
be a wonderful laboratory in exploring all
kinds of disciplines. Then I worked in the
Department of Anthropology at the Uni-
versity of Amsterdam, where there was a
happy mixture of history, sociology and
anthropology and I felt very comfortable
in that kind of environment. In 2002 there
was an opportunity to co-ordinate a big new
research project at KITLV on modern Indo-
nesia and I was very happy to jump into
that. It introduced me to a lot of new top-
ics, and it was important for putting KITLV
on the map in terms of doing research on
modern Indonesia. It had an of image of
being a bit old fashioned, being oriental. I
had to pull it, a little bit, into the present.
We decided to do research on the present
state of the state. There is, worldwide, an
enormous decentralisation going on. You
might say that after the cold war the strong
state lost its relevance, whereas new liber-
alism urged for more open markets, less
states. Sometimes with the legitimising
slogan ‘less state, more democracy’, well
that remains to be seen. But it forced us
to reconsider. After decentralisation we
found ourselves back in the regions where
we hadn’t been for a long time. It forced
us to formulate new questions about the
nature of the local state. And that doesn’t
only apply to Indonesia, this is a much
wider phenomenon, I think.
MO: other than the topic of decentraliza-
tion and the state of the state, what are
your current research interests?
‘Even in Inner Mongolia they know about IIAS!’
HSN: Following on from the ‘embedded-
ness’ of the state in society, that leads
you to the kind of every day practice of
the state. How do people experience
the state? The past in many post-colo-
nial societies is totally dominated by the
nationalist project. The nationalists won
and they monopolised history. Gradu-
ally it becomes clear that in many colonial
societies the option for the nationalist
trajectory was very risky. And it was a very
unlikely outcome. If we try to imagine how
life was in, say, 1935 in most places, hardly
anybody could predict that 10 years or 15
years later there would be de-colonisation
all over the place. So I think we should
not underestimate other ambitions, other
options people had. For instance, maybe
modernity was much more attractive than
nationalism.
AY: in January of this year you became
chair of the board of IIAS, I wonder what it
was about the role that attracted you, and
what you see as the challenges for you in
this position?
HSN: I think IIAS comes, for me at least,
at exactly the right time. After many years
of conducting research on Indonesia, I
very much need a broader comparative
field. At the same time, looking at IIAS
over the years, the first phase of IIAS
expansion and the amazing achievement
of Wim Stokhof with his team then, he
really put IIAS irreversibly on the map.
It’s there and everybody knows it. Even
c o n t i n u e d f r o m p a g e 3 9
>
Henk Schulte Nordholt