This book is based upon a unique private collection of photographs and
home movies of one Peranakan Chinese elite family, the Kwee family from
Ciledug, owners of the sugar factory Djatipiring. It aims to bring the
private lives of the modern Peranakan Chinese elite in colonial Java to
the fore and asks to what extent ideas about progress, development and
'the modern' have affected their world-view and life-styles. This
wonderful collection makes it possible to go beyond the public eye and
get an inside glimpse into the changing world of a wealthy Peranakan
Chinese family as it moved forward in the modernizing landscape of Java.
The existing Western images and corresponding perspectives focus mainly
on the nexus between the Westerners and the native population, sharing
one common theme: none of them visualized the Chinese as 'carriers of
modernity' or as 'agents of change'. Such a representation apparently
did not fit the public consciousness and general research paradigms in
which change, progress and modernity were mainly attributed to Western
presence in the region. The Kwee family photo albums give the
opportunity to redress the balance, thereby offering a new perspective
on the social dynamics of late-colonial Java.