Pecinaan Pesisir - Chinatowns of the North Java Coast - Part One

The old cities of the North Java Coast have a long history of contact with China, India and Arabia that date from the first millenium, but it was the economic expansion under Dutch rule that brought large numbers of Chinese immigrants, both traders and artisans. In 1959, President Soekarno ordered Chinese in rural areas to relocate to larger cities. The anti- communist and anti-Chinese pogrom of 1965 further reduced the Cninese presence outside major cities in Java. On a trip along the North Java Coast in December 2007, we found nearly deserted Chinese quarters that once housed properous communities. Great warehouses, family compounds and temples remain, but many have been converted into aviaries for swifts, whose nests, as they have for the the last two millenia, find a ready market in China. Driving down the main street in Lasem, a small town known for its dark red batik.we saw ewer many charming dutch-era structures on the main street, but this building next to a Dutch stule school, was the only evidence of Chinesese occupation we could seesaw We will have to go back - today's(Sep 13, 2008) has a feature on the front page illustrated with a picture of an old temple in Lasem. A heartening sign of growing interest in Java's' past. We stayed thenight in Rembang, center of the regency of the same name.

Arriving at night, we saw the usual set up - long streets lined with new shop houses, advertising banners and billboards everywhere, and the obligatory massive government complex. Since the move towards decentralization, these country towns have gotten quite lively, but the commercial activity means that the kind of architecture we are looking for is being torn down in a fury of economic expansion.

On the plus side, while accommodation in these places not long ago was limited to roach infested rooming houses, where one sweated the night away molested by insects and worse, most regency centers now have a decent commercial hotel. After a good night's rest, we went for a turn around the town before moving on. We knew we were on to something wen we saw a large building with the characteristic Chinese roof curving to a double peak. We were dumbstruck. The building was the largest in a quarter Chinese quarter thatappeared empty. Rather than Chinese, the inhabitants were walet (swifts), kept for their nests. We heard their chattering and saw the plastic pipe sticking out of the walls to vent methane. Where once merchants clacked abacuses, surrounded by workers and family, the huge interior spaces were filling with guano.
We parked and walked, silent as we imagined the empty street thronged with Chinese in mandarin robes, caps and queues. Decorative touches on the exteriors gave some echo of the magnificence that must have been within.