Chinese Indentured Labour in the Dutch East Indies, 1880–1942

This book offers a comprehensive account of indentured Chinese labour in the Dutch East Indies between 1880 and 1942, particularly in its twilight years after 1917. The author shows that Chinese indenture started and evolved differently from other forms of bonded labour in Southeast Asia and globally, including its Indian and Javanese variants. This difference is reflected in its lexicon, which was in part special to the Chinese strain. Using fieldwork findings from the tin islands of Bangka and Belitung and the Deli plantations on Sumatra as well as archival materials in Dutch, Chinese, and other languages held in libraries in Java, Nanjing, Taipei, Hong Kong, and Leiden, this book presents cutting-edge research that sets out to contribute to the revising of our historical understanding of indenture.

“Gregor Benton is a veteran researcher and a prolific author on Chinese revolutionary history, Chinese migration, and overseas settlement. In this rich and widely ranging study, he explores Chinese labour migration to Sumatra under Dutch rule, the iniquities of the Dutch recruitment system, and the penal sanction with which Dutch indenture became synonymous. He also offers profound reflections on the contrasts between Chinese labour indenture and its Indian and Javanese equivalents. Benton proposes a novel and highly innovative explanation of the special features of Chinese labour migration and identifies its social, cultural, and economic causes in China's modern crisis and international weakness. The study benefits from its author's virtuoso linguistic skills and the breadth of his knowledge of Chinese society and politics.”

—Hong Liu, Tan Lark Sye Chair Professor of Public Policy and Global Affairs, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

“Gregor Benton has written a most impressive work, a highly original contribution to the study of the Chinese labour diaspora. His pioneering study of Chinese ‘coolies’ (Huagong) and their descendants in the late-colonial Dutch East Indies builds on Chinese, Dutch, and other sources, and offers a convincing blend of fine description and careful analysis.”

“This book is much more than a beautifully written social history of Chinese indentured labour in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is a thoughtful, rigorous, and comparative analysis of how and why Chinese differed from Indian and Javanese indenture. Based on sources in several languages, this fascinating study has much contemporary relevance and makes an invaluable contribution to Chinese diaspora studies, indenture studies, and the interdisciplinary field of migration studies.”

—Min Zhou, Distinguished Professor, University of California, Los Angeles, USA

“Finally, a pioneering study of Chinese labour migration and a cohesive narrative of colonial indenture in comparative perspective. Painstakingly researched and using an impressive array of Chinese, English, and Dutch sources, this study provides a fresh look at the complex multi-layered phenomenon of unfree labour. This is a book that captures the horrors of this dehumanising form of labour diaspora so well that we see it for what it really was – indenture slavery.”

—Edmund Terence Gomez, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy, University of Malaya