The house where Sutan Sjahrir lived in Linggarjati was built in 1929 by; the family Kwee. Their forefathers came to Indonesia in 1820. During the war the Japanese occupied their house. At the end of world war II Sjahrir made it his home. Then the Dutch army camped there and then the Indonesia army took possession of the house.

When the family left for Holland they gave the house to the catholic church.

The Kwees were Peranakan -Chinese they belonged to three cultures . The Peranakan culture is doomed to disappear due to advancing modernization.. The present Peranakan generations have to adapt to their new environment this goes for those who stayed in Indonesia and those who emigrated to another countrey. Through this they slowly but surely loosen themselves from the social and cultural values of their forefathers.

The three cultures , theChinese, the Indonesian- :Javanese and the Dutch culture played a dominant role in the thinking and feeling of the Peranakan Chinese. Many have Javanese blood, but they are also emigrants from China. But from the time they went to school, the dutch culture was handed to them. They learned to live and think in three worlds.

( Note from Joty : would it not be interesting to ponder on this for the museum Linggarjati. )

This to answer your question on the house were Sutan Sjahrir lived. Two of their children live in Holland, unfortunately they are not eager to talk of the past. They lost everything on the last uprising against the Chinese in Indonesia and my guess is that the wounds are still not healed

Your questions about our family. Some I can answer, some I can not. We were to young then and the war, concentration camp , the bersiap after that , our emigration to Holland we just tried to forget, I think. We had to survive Samuel , had to live in the present, we tried not to think what we left behind us.

My grandparents had a sugar plantation near Djocja I guess that they had a lot of servants, I remember my grandmother in her sarong and kebaja. My grandfather when he was at home was wearing a pyama when he went out he had a jas toetoep, as we called it. And a big cowboy hat on his head. He was very fond of animals, we always had birds, he often strolled through the garden with a kakatua on his shoulder. I remember a time that we had a tame (wild) pig in the house and garden. He loved hunting went out for days into the mountain Tjeremai, when he lived later with us in Linggarjati. And I still see him coming home with all the tjelengs which the Indonesian servants did not want to cut and clean. They had to go to Tjilimoes and get the job done by the Chinese. :My Samuel you make a lot of memories come back to me by all your questions

I remember with lots of love our 'kokkí ' Atmo. She was not only our kokki, she was our second grandmother, she could become very; angry; with us when we were naugthy but she spoiled us also tremendously. Willem did not like bread so every morning she made him rice with a tjeplok and sambal. When I close my eyes I still see her. She stayed with us for forty years. During the war she stayed in the kampong and joined us again after the war. When we left for Holland she stayed with my uncle who became warga negara. He buried her. Their was also Siti, you know what I remember about her is that she cried and cried when her husband took a second wife. Is that not funny what you remember sometimes. When I visited with my husband and children Linggarjati it must have been in the eightees, Siti came, she was then already; very old, we both cried and she wanted to come with me to Holland. Then there was Wasil, our kebon, gardener. During the last world war when we were in prison, Wasil looked after our house. When the war was over he came from Linggarjati to Bandung to see us. Did he walk, came by bike or by bus? We were very moved by his faithfulness. When he came back to Linggarjati people told us later, he was murdered. Wasil will live forever in our hearts.

Then I remember the kalongs and the wonderfull trips Wim, my sister Cora and myself made on the slopes of the Tjeremai.

Why did my parents choose Linggarjati, I do not know. I guess that my father who initiated the factory in Cheribon looked for a cooler place.

Yes you are right Samuel just as the Peranakan Chinese we are also children of two cultures and I fully agree with you that may be the time has come to deepen and enlarge our vision to understand what it means to belong to one, two or three cultures. In Europe, in America the multicultural society is becoming a fact you have to reckon with. In Indonesia it will be a very; important issue for the generations to come. How do we learn to live together and take our responsibilities for the 21st century. Or we learn to live together and share together our cultures and know- how, material wealth and take responsibility for our spiritual and material environment or we are condemming ourselves to a very poor lilfe on this planet.Only, that is my opinion, when we preserve our cultural, our human environment will we be able to save our ecological environment.

The seminar you organize may be the beginning of a new chapter for you beautifull country, a country, what is also a little bit Willems and my country at least that is how we feel it.

Sincerely yours Joty ter Kulve- van Os