A Performance in Contrasts: Fairs, Commodities, and the Production of Difference

• In Event: 356. Middle Classes in Late-Colonial Java: Revisiting the Ancestors of a Future Nation

Abstract

Late colonial Java witnessed the proliferation of fairs, exhibitions, and pasar malams that drew hundreds of thousands of visitors from diverse ethnic backgrounds and all walks of life. At these fairs the colonized were the main participants and observers, which raises intriguing questions about the character of these fairs and their place in colonial society. In this paper it will be argued that these fairs played a crucial role as sites of interaction where colonialism was legitimized through a performance in contrasts. For instance, the juxtaposition between, on the one hand, Western merchandise, ranging from gas stoves, bicycles, the latest fashion, and cigarettes, and on the other hand traditional Javanese batiks, wayang puppets, and gamelan instruments, was intentionally produced. Crucially, these fairs did not merely reflect the broader shift in colonial discourse, known as the Ethical Policy, but were particularly aimed at and constitutive of a nascent Indonesian middle class that became increasingly central to the maintenance of colonial rule. In this context, it will be explored how these performances in contrast reshaped colonial hierarchies of race, class, and gender in twentieth century colonial Java.

Author

• Arnout H.C. van der Meer, Colby College