Urban Middle Classes in Colonial Java 1900–1942 Images and Language

Jul 8, 2026

The study examines Java’s urban middle classes between 1900 and 1942 and their role in shaping “modern” lifestyles in Indonesia. It argues that middle-class identity was defined through lifestyle, reconstructed via language and images. Using urban Malay as a key access point to discourses of modernity, the research links transformation to a “visual turn” in the late-colonial Netherlands Indies. Advertisements promoted new practices in dress, work, travel, and consumption, while counterdiscourse questioned modernity’s costs and threats to traditional values.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages34

Reading Time1 h 26 min

Introduction

Colonial institutions and the growth of an urban middle class

Preconditions in the late nineteenth century

Language and images as a methodological framework

Lifestyle as the marker of middle-class identity

The “visual turn” and visual media

Modernity, consumption, and counterdiscourses

Urban Middle Classes in Colonial Java (1900–1942): Images and Language Author(s): Tom Hoogervorst and Henk Schulte Nordholt Source: Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde , Vol. 173, No. 4, Special Issue: New Urban Middle Classes in Colonial Java (2017), pp. 442-474 Published by: Brill Stable URL: [https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26281612](https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26281612) JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [support@jstor.org](support@jstor.org). Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms) Brill is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-en Volkenkunde This content downloaded from [152.118.150.186](152.118.150.186) on Wed, 23 Oct 2019 08:09:05 UTC All use subject to [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms) Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 173 (2017) 442–474 [brill.com/bki](brill.com/bki) Urban Middle Classes in Colonial Java (1900–1942) Images and Language Tom Hoogervorst* kitlv/Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies [hoogervorst@kitlv.nl](hoogervorst@kitlv.nl) Henk Schulte Nordholt kitlv/Royal Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies [schultenordholt@kitlv.nl](schultenordholt@kitlv.nl) Abstract This study investigates Java’s urban middle classes and their importance in the formation of ‘modern’ lifestyles in Indonesia. They formed the backbone of both the Dutch colonial project and the resultant Indonesian nation-state. By foregrounding lifestyle asthe defining factor of middle-class identity, we demonstrate how language and images provide a methodological framework to reconstruct this group’s ambitions and aspirations. Their language, an urban variety of Malay, was key to accessing and, in fact, creating discourses of modernity. This transformation was accelerated by the ‘visual turn’ in the late-colonial Netherlands Indies—and, indeed, globally. Advertisements and other visual messages, typically through the medium of the Malay language, promoted new ways to dress, work, travel, and consume. Yet Java’s middle classes were by no means uncritical recipients of these colonial and global novelties. A counterdiscourse soon emerged, which questioned the consequences of being modern and the dangers of losing traditional values. Keywords Middle classes – Indonesia – modernity – colonialism – language – visual culture * We are indebted to David Kloos and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on an earlier version of this paper. © tom hoogervorst and henk schulte nordholt, 2017 | doi: 10.1163/22134379-17304002 This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the prevailing cc-by-nc license at the time of publication. This content downloaded from [152.118.150.186](152.118.150.186) on Wed, 23 Oct 2019 08:09:05 UTC All use subject to [https://about.jstor.org/terms](https://about.jstor.org/terms) urban middle classes in colonial java (1900–1942) 443 Introduction At the turn of the twentieth century, the Dutch Ethische Politiek (Ethical Policy) promised to bring development, prosperity, and modernity to colonial Java. This coincided with the expansion of the colonial state and resulted in territorial conquest and the establishment of many new government agencies, such as police stations, schools, health clinics, agricultural and forestry extension services, railways, post and telegraph offices, pawnshops, and people’s credit agencies. These institutions employed a rapidly expanding, and primarily urban, indigenous middle cl

FAQs

What is the document’s main focus regarding Java’s urban middle classes?

The document focuses on how Java’s urban middle classes shaped “modern” lifestyles in Indonesia during 1900–1942.

How does the study explain middle-class identity formation?

It frames lifestyle as the defining factor of middle-class identity and uses language and images to reconstruct the group’s aspirations and ambitions.

What role do language and visual media play in the transformation toward modernity?

Urban Malay enables access to discourses of modernity, while a late-colonial “visual turn” spread new ways of dressing, working, traveling, and consuming through advertisements and other visual messages.

Jul 8, 2026

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