Cap Go Meh 2025: The Grompols gathering for 2025 Cap Go Meh at Griya Andhini in Citraland, Surabaya for group photo. Photo Credit: Yohannes Somawiharja
Janet Teowarang find vibrant heritage in her country that slips between indigenous and colonial cultures.
My first impression and knowledge of Peranakan culture was during my study as a fashion design student in Singapore from 1995 to 1998. At that time, I recalled a few visits to the Asian Civilisation Museum in Armenian Street, where I studied the Southeast Asia Peranakan culture from their community history. In April 2016, I returned to the museum, which this time, after renovations, was finally named Peranakan Museum. The museum resumed further renovations in 2023 since the collections were expanded with more batik cloths, kebayas, accessories, pieces of jewellery, and porcelain wares. I was amazed at the vintage batik cloths, and vintage colourful beads on their decorative textiles, especially when I found one of the Indonesian Peranakan Chinese couturier’s kebaya and skirt by Didi Budiardjo was displayed among other kebaya collections.
I was born and raised in Jakarta, but I moved to Surabaya in 2005 to further my career as a college and university lecturer. Later in Surabaya, I met Peranakan Chinese individuals who were coming from the city or other cities in Java.
I am fortunate to have known Pak Yohannes Somawiharja for 14 years, as I followed his journey as a vintage and modern batik collector. He is familiarly called Pak Yosoma and currently holds the position of the Rector at Universitas Ciputra Surabaya. After many years, I became acquainted with his background story as a Chinese Peranakan descendant and his love for Indonesian batik and culture.
Pak Yosoma comes from a small town called Parakan in Temanggung Regency, Central Java, located about 76 km or 2 hours 21 minutes by car from the central city of Yogyakarta. The town is on the foot of Sindoro, about a thousand meters above sea level and a tobacco-producing area with plenty of Chinese and Chinese Peranakan descendants. Pak Yosoma explains that there were tobacco kings in Parakan before he was born, even before Indonesian Independence Day, which the Sie family dominated at that time as the wealthiest family.
Their houses were like temples, but now, they have been turned into monasteries after some renovations. He admits the city gave him a strong Chinese identity, mainly because Parakan has a reasonably large temple, Ho Tek Tong, built about 170 years ago. Then, he also remembers his uncle, the eldest in the family, who lived at the inherited house from his grandfather, always providing ancestral prayer table setting during Chinese New Year’s Eve with mostly Javanese food and traditional snacks such as wajik, black sticky rice porridge, klepon and others.
During his youth, he admitted to not being familiar with using chopsticks or traditional Chinese rooster bowls, and his family would favour Dutch-inspired food like galantine, red soup, or brenebon. Therefore, he said that being of Chinese descent is only an exterior appearance since we cannot speak the language properly. Indonesian Chinese descendants adopted the dominant culture, which initially occurred during the Javanese kings’ rule. Pak Yosoma mentioned that the Dutch influences mainly came from the Dutch East India Company or Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) victory during the most significant war in Java: the Diponegoro War in 1830. Since then, Chinese descendants have adopted the dominant culture of the Dutch rather than Java.
Jino Wurung, Jowo Tanggung, and Londo Durung. Jino Wurung means not being a Chinese descendant, Jowo Tanggung means not entirely as Javanese, and Londo Durung means not exactly as Dutch.
These facts were shown from the variation of batik cloths in that period, where the Dutch initiated the synthetic colors and batik motifs from the Java coasts area like Pekalongan and Lasem are derived from flower bouquets (buketan) and some from European fairytales such as red riding hood and cinderella as the acculturation between European and Indonesian culture. Additionally, Pak Yosoma also explains that before 1900, numerous mainland Chinese people were entering Java. However, the Dutch restricted males from entering the island. Therefore, mainland Chinese men would have Javanese wives, as this was the existence of Chinese Peranakan heritage in Java. There is a good Javanese parable about Chinese Peranakan in Indonesia: Jino Wurung, Jowo Tanggung, and Londo Durung. Jino Wurung means not being of Chinese descent, Jowo Tanggung means not entirely of Javanese descent, and Londo Durung means not exactly of Dutch descent.
Pak Yosoma and his wife, Ibu Imelda Ida, shared the same interest in Southeast Asia Chinese Peranakan culture, and as batik collectors, Pak Yosoma’s interest developed later. However, during his childhood, he recognised tiga negeri (three countries) batik cloths as he received some of the batik cloths as an inheritance from his grandmother. His journey with his wife in Surabaya led them to meet several people with the same interests and hobbies, from where their community, named “Grompol“, was established. The name “Grompol” is derived from Yogyakarta’s characteristic batik motif, which means uniting together as the symbol of unity in good things.
Within the community, they shared knowledge of new things, combining cultural elements through discussions of Indonesian traditional textiles, also known as wastra nusantara, and culinary gatherings. They looked for specific traditional food. Then, travelling together to Penang in Malaysia, they found local Peranakan vintage beaded slippers being made and attended the local Peranakan Baba Nyonya event gathering in Malacca. Not long ago in March 2025, the community participated in the launch of Oey Soe Tjoen’s batik house book “From Rainbow to The Universe” at Universitas Ciputra Surabaya as part of the Peranakan Festival 2025 event, they wore Chinese Peranakan kebaya with Java coast batik style called batik pesisir, completed with hair accessories and or kebaya brooch. Oey Soe Tjoen is one of the famous and best Peranakan batik makers from Pekalongan, known for their precision and perfection in handmade batik cloths.
In addition to Pak Yosoma, I was also introduced to Professor Johannes Widodo, an Indonesian who lives in Singapore as an Associate Professor at the National University of Singapore. He was in Surabaya during the Peranakan Festival 2025 at Universitas Ciputra Surabaya and presented a talk about the origins of Peranakan culture and its architecture.
Professor Widodo said he always considers himself a Chinese but not a Chinese person (OCBC: Orang Cina Bukan Cina in Bahasa Indonesia). As mentioned by Professor Widodo, since the time of Admiral Cheng Ho, the legendary Muslim Admiral throughout the Ming Dynasty period in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries was a hybrid. He used the term ‘hybrid cosmopolitan,’ where the term ‘Peranakan’ must be seen as either a cultural or ideological phenomenon. Culturally, the phenomenon is natural with categorisation, and later, the ideology emerged. The ideology categorises people, giving them labels and branding, for instance, Baba Nyonya, the branding of Peranakan people in Penang, Malaysia, regardless of whether they are Chinese, Indian or Arab descendants.
He also describes himself as an academic; we must be able to separate cultural phenomena, just as they occur naturally in society, including ideological phenomena. He added that the branding process involves assigning labels and creating those boxes, whether through architecture, fashion, or food, all of which are manifestations of culture. Professor Widodo highlights the true example of the old Peranakan house architecture that was used by the Chinese, Arabs, and also by the Hadhrami people, then by the Indians, with the differences in interior, function, and smell since Arabs will cook only halal food.
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- The ancestral table setting at main room of the Ash House of Han. Photography by Chrisyandi Tri Kartika
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- Close up view of the ancestral table wood carving and decorations at the Ash House of Han. Photography by Chrisyandi Tri Kartika
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- The ceiling decorations were influenced by Dutch pattern motifs at the Ash House of Han. Photography by Chrisyandi Tri Kartika
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- The Ash House of Han. Photography by Chrisyandi Tri Kartika
Moreover, it depends on the usage of the building structure and whether a craftsman or a mason (the latter used to help the Dutch build a house) was employed, as a hybrid, since mainland China and VOC-taught building structures differed. Illustrating the architectural terms that highlight the classified typologies provides an example of an old Peranakan house, featuring decoration from imported European ceramics or locally made stone or terracotta floors, as well as Peranakan ceramics incorporating European motifs. Typologies, based on economy, class stratification, and status symbols, are also evident in one’s house. For instance, ordinary people’s houses usually don’t have many ornaments: they are more functional. Another example is when you are more affluent, the bathroom includes a sitting toilet. Professor Widodo features some old Peranakan architecture in Surabaya namely the Ash House of Han, the historic ancestral house located on Karet Street, Chinatown area of Surabaya, and the House of Sampoerna Museum with an architectural style influenced by a Dutch colonial style was built in 1862, which now permanently closed without official announcement from Sampoerna Group.
I admitted that some of the old Peranakan architecture in Surabaya is undergoing significant facelifts or renovations, and even a few of them are abandoned without maintenance or demolition. However, according to Professor Widodo, if there is an architectural heritage building used for several generations or owners, they might experience a culture change, the function is called a layer of history, since it can be a boarding house, hotel, or clinic. Although it is sometimes impossible to return to the origin, the principle of conservation is the best way to accommodate current and relevant needs, whatever the form, and still be able to reveal the building’s entire layer from its past, where the narrative of the past remains architecturally visible.
He suggests using the principle of reversibility, whereby a heritage building can return to its original condition if an element is added to it. All layers can be displayed and seen narratively because we extend their life for emotional reasons. In terms of memory, it’s later all about carbon, as every time demolition occurs, the carbon footprint increases, which is a principle of the physical structure. In reviving the lost story of old Peranakan architecture for young generations, he implies that heritage architecture can be an artifact of the past associated with digital or selfie or Instagram culture, as the function is adjusted. Most importantly, economic viability must be used as a standard with no layer of destruction, with the architecture still integral and adaptive reuse applied.
From the discussions with Professor Widodo, I can highlight three essential aspects of his vision for the sustainability of Peranakan culture in modern architecture: social, historical, and cultural continuity; cultural authenticity; and architectural integrity. Social, historical, and cultural continuity is vital, as lifestyle changes occur; however, memory is part of the narrative of the past required to integrate the layering, not only the building or house, but also related to the neighbourhood and the city. Cultural authenticity is all about local wisdom, lifestyle, expression, materiality, ornaments, colors, material selection, and intangible heritage that is accommodated by the related old building or house. Finally, architectural integrity is the adapted reuse of a heritage building or house with integrated old and new details, not destroyed, and remains original.
The meaningful dialogues with Pak Yosoma and Professor Widodo have provided me with additional knowledge and perspectives on their approaches to preserving the Chinese Peranakan heritage in the present day. This reminds me of Marcus Garvey’s quote, “A people without the knowledge of their history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots”, as I am also an Indonesian of Chinese descent. I might have Peranakan ancestry in my family tree, as this emphasises the importance of understanding my ancestral identity for future generations’ heritage sustainability.
