Oliver Kortendick: Indische Nederlanders und Tante Lien:
eine Strategie zur Konstruktion ethnischer Identität

copyright 1990 and 1996 all rights reserved

ISBN 0 904 938 65 4

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Abstract

This work deals with a minority in the Netherlands who call themselves Indische Nederlanders  (sometimes referred to as Indonesian Dutchmen or Eurasians of Indonesia in the English literature). I tried to answer questions about how these people ethnically 'survive' in a modern context, how they express their specific ethnicity and how they reproduce this ethnicity through generations.

To answer these questions I analysed 13 TV-episodes produced in the years 1979-1981 and 1988 by prominent members of this group. I applied systematic content analysis to describe the manifest and latent content of these programs.

Indische Nederlanders are the descendents of Dutch and Indonesian parents. They mainly live in the Netherlands (about 350.000 people). They can be found in the United States (California) and Indonesia.

Indische Nederlanders und Tante Lien is divided into three chapters. Chapter 1 forms the theoretical framework for the analysis and leads to the formulation of the working hypotheses. Both primordial and situational approaches to the field of ethnicity are described. In my opinion, these positions are too dichotomous. I prefer a synthesis of both and follow McCay (1982) and Yinger (1986), who see ethnicity as a multivariate phenomenon. I formulated three hypotheses:

1. The ethnic group 'Indische Nederlanders' is the product of an amalgamation. Their cultural properties are an agreement upon the 'common smallest denominator' i.e. a centripetal concentration upon the homogeneous elements. Fundamental values lose their efficacy - moderate ones predominate. Their ethnic identity is constructed from primordial and interest-oriented elements to an extent that is determinated by individual abilities.
2. In this case, the degree of ethnic consciousness and the construction of ethnic borders to the outside  depends on a strategy that has as a basic property emphasis on expressive aspects of cultural symbols. Its realisation in practical terms depends on the choice and access to specific media, and for this purpose especially appropriate media.
3. Within the empty space created by the medium of television, which because of its newness is not the focus of existing ethnic concern, there is a predominant tendency to present the collective, historic and contemporary situation - independent from empirical accounts or individual experiences - in a way that contributes to amplification of inner  ethnic consciousness in the sense of Yinger's variables¹.

Chapter 2 contains a literature review of the Indische Nederlanders covering the years 1605 through the present, from their origins in, what is now Indonesia, to present day Netherlands. I concentrate on the relationship between city and country, man and woman, and between European and indigenous culture. Relations and common space are the decisive elements for the creation of the Indische Nederlanders. The first Dutch settlement, the fortress of Batavia, can be regarded as a public space that forced its inhabitants to develop high group cohesion and intensive communication. Inside the fortress people had to organize themselves in order to survive the hostile environment of the country. When the Dutch succeeded in occupying the rest of Java, this structural opposition was resolved.

The problem of interethnic relationships arose. The Dutch government created a system of apartheid to prevent the creation of a permanent group of settlers; they wanted to avoid problems the British faced in the Americas, where the colonists took power. Nevertheless a strong feeling of distinctness came up amongst the people of mixed ethnic background and the formation of political parties and pressure groups began in the early 20th century. After independence the Dutch and Indische Nederlanders lived in Indonesia until most of them were expelled in 1957. Now the problem were transferred to the Netherlands, and based on government research it was assumed that the Indische Nederlanders minority should disappear in a modern context within a couple of years. This did not happen. The Indische Nederlanders were not regarded as 'problematic' because they never became violent or even formulated political aims that could cause the Dutch government trouble. They are still manifest as a distinct ethnic group.

At the end of chapter 2 I conclude that the reason for that is the specific composition of the group. Ethnic consciousness arose from the fact that these people were the product of an amalgamation: children of parents with different ethnic background, merging cultures and open borders. Being Indisch meant being open to others. It meant that there were no rigid ethnic barriers at all.

Chapter 3 tries to continue that idea by analysing a TV-show. The Late Late Lien Show  was produced in the years 1979-1981 and 1988. It was shown on Dutch television and had a significant public (between one and two million). It was written and produced by a Dutch actress, Wieteke van Dort. Van Dort regards herself as member of the group. During the shows, she adopted an alter ego, Tante Lien. She dressed up in what she regarded as typically ³indisch², and made her appearance look like ³an old Indonesian lady². The show was composed of singing, dancing and informing elements. First I described the structure of the show by counting out the proportion of these elements and by a summary of the contents. Actors, environment and audience are part of that description as well. I reflected public reaction and criticism.

After that a short description of the methodological background of content analysis follows. I developed an a priori  category system (9 categories) following the theoretical literature in Chapter 1. As unit of analysis I defined a sequence. I sampled the material and checked the representativity. A questionnaire for the coders and coding instructions were prepared. I used 5 Dutch coders to code the material. The coding scheme was tested and its reliability was checked (C=87,5% concerning the categorial coding). I also asked the coders to code for age and gender of the actors and the studio-audience. The essence of this chapter is that the latent message of the shows consists of two lines of arguments: On the one hand it addresses the group as such and can be regarded as a mythical reconstruction of a common history. On the other hand it addresses the Dutch public. It basically seeks understanding and tries to show advantages that the group regards as its positive input into Dutch society.

My conclusion of these findings is that there is insufficient evidence to reject the three hypotheses. One possible way to explain the phenomenon of ethnic survival of the group is that by creating a distinct social space for the additional elements that contribute to their ethnicity, they do not interfere or overlap with Dutch social space and the members avoid interest conflicts. If needed, the members simply withdraw into their cultural reservation and celebrate ritually their ethnic identity. They differentiate between their loyalty to the Dutch state, their Dutch citizenship and their own cultural needs. TV as a medium is an important factor in that process. Living together harmoniously requires unoccupied 'empty' space where people can meet and negotiate their points of view. Being able to occupy these spaces is a significant factor of integration.

This work ends with the suggestion that there should be more open TV channels - easily accessable for the public - in order to cope with the increasing number of immigrants in Europe.

Anmerkungen zum 3. Band von "Spiegelbild"

Dieser Band beschäftigt sich mit einer ethnischen Subgruppe, welche im Beginn innerhalb der Kolonie 'Nederlands-Indië' geformt wurde und nach der Unabhängigkeit Indonesiens in die Niederlande kam.

'Indische Nederlanders', wie sie sich heute nennen, tragen eine Kultur, die aus der Fusion europäischer (niederländischer) und indigener (indonesischer) Elemente entstand.

In den 'Late Late Lien Shows' von Wieteke van Dort (Tante Lien) des niederländischen Fernsehens (1979-1988), die neben den Literaturquellen dieser Analyse zugrunde liegen, verdichtet sich in der Gegenwart eine Strategie zur Konstruktion ethnischer Identität bei 'Indischen Nederlanders', die sich in ihrer Gesellschaft anders oder fremd apostrophieren.

Vorwort der ersten Auflage

Der Übersichtlichkeit wegen wird mit dem theoretischen Teil begonnen werden, obwohl er auch nach dem Literaturteil hätte stehen können. Ich meine, indische Nederlanders haben einen interessanten Weg gefunden, sich mit ihrer Umgebung zu arrangieren und werfen einiges neues Licht auf eine schier endlos sich im Kreise zu drehen scheinende Diskussion.

Einiges "technische" vorab: Wird aus der Fersehsendung zitiert (der "Late-Late-Lien-Show), dann wird zunächst die Nummer der Sendung angegeben, danach die Reihenfolge der inhaltlichen "Sequenz", so wie sie vom Autor vermessen wurde, und schließlich die laufende Zeitangabe, in der dieses Ereignis stattfand (Bspl.: LLLS I, Seq 2, 6:35-10:48). Niederländische Zitate wurden ins Deutsche übersetzt, englische im Original belassen. Ein geführtes Interview wurde transkribiert und befindet sich im Anhang. Aus ihm wird unter Angabe der Spalten- und der Zeilennummer zitiert (Bspl: I:234-II:230; lies: Spalte Eins, Zeile 234 bis Spalte II, Zeile 230). Literatur, deren "Wissenschaftlichkeit" in Zweifel gezogen werden kann, ist in der Bibliographie nicht noch einmal aufgeführt, sondern nur in den Anmerkungen zitiert. Gleichwohl lag es in der Beschaffenheit des Themas, daß manchmal auch solche "grauen" Quellen berücksichtigt werden mußten.

Daß die Anfertigung der Arbeit etwas länger dauerte als geplant, hat mehrere Gründe: Zum einen mußte sehr viel Material aus den Niederlanden beschafft werden. Zum zweiten war die Art der Analyse selbst reichlich aufwendig und dauerte eben deswegen an. Daß dies letztlich gelang, ist auch auf die Bemühungen mehrerer Personen zurückzuführen, denen ich zu tiefem Dank verpflichtet bin: T. Dalitz, F. Goertz, T. Zoet stellten technisches Gerät zur Verfügung, E. Huysse, G. Jellinghaus versorgten mich mit Material, meine Schwester Susanne las Korrektur, meine Eltern unterstützten mich finanziell, H.-J. Berger, R. Schefold und Prof. K. Tauchmann gaben vielerlei kritische Anregungen. Besonders sei den "Betroffenen" gedankt, ohne deren enthusiastische Unterstützung nichts zustande gekommen wäre: Wies van Maarseveen und vor allem auch Wieteke van Dort, nahmen sich so oft ich wollte, Zeit für meine Fragen und versorgten mich mit wichtigem Material - so auch Videoaufnahmen aller Late-Late-Lien-Shows der Jahre 1979-1981, die ich nirgendwo anders hätte beschaffen können - ohne irgendeinen Einfluß auf meine Arbeit nehmen zu wollen. Die Familie Smit stellte mir ihr Haus für die Durchführung der Inhaltsanalyse zur Verfügung. Unermüdlich war meine Freundin Tineke, die nicht nur meine monomanische Besetzung über einen langen Zeitraum akzeptierte, sondern mir immer wieder beim Beschaffen von Literatur half, alle Übersetzungen überprüfte und in jeder Hinsicht unersetzlich war.

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Erstellt am 14.02. 1996

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