The Southeast Asian

city in history

It was not so long ago that Southeast Asia was perceived as timelessly
rural. Cities were assumed to be a later imposition, grafted onto tradition-
al, agricultural Southeast Asia as a result of the colonial experience. Closer
investigation shows this to be a misapprehension. South~ast Asia has a
long urban tradition. Urban places of considerable significance emerged in
Southeast Asia well before European colonisation first intruded on the
region.
Understanding the contemporary city in Southeast Asia requires inves-
tigating the city in history, as the initial experience of urban growth gave
a distinctive form and character to urban places and the urbanisation
process. This, in turn, requires exploration of the indigenous, or pre-
colonial city, and the changes that occurred as a result of colonisation.
The first half of the chapter concentrates on the indigenous city. The set-
, dements of this era are subdivided into two categories-the market and the
sacred city. The city in the first few decades of the twentieth century,
when the colonisation process was at its most intense, will be the focus of
the second half of the chapter.

1
2 AsiAN METROPOLJS
THE INDIGENOUS CITY
Cities began to emerge in Southeast Asia due to the impact of new concepts
of political organisation which originated in China and India. These ideas
began to infiltrate the region as far back as the first century AD. However,
most of what we know about the early Southeast Asian city dates from a later
period.
Writing about Southeast Asia's cities cif the fifteenth to seventeenth
centuries, Anthony Reid argues that they had a number of distinguishing
characteristics. To the surprise of many, Southeast Asia had one of the
highest proportions in the world of total population living in urban areas dur-
ing this period. Moreover, the largest Southeast Asian cities had populations
of between 50 000 and 100 000, making them larger than most European
cities of the time, with the exception of Naples and Paris, or Peking and Edo
(Tokyo) in Asia.
Southeast Asian cities could look quite different from European ones.
There was often no clear distinction between urban and rural in the
Southeast Asian city, rural land uses-fruit trees, gardens, woods-being
included in an amorphous 'green' city. No city wall confined the splead of
the urban area, although within the city the palace may have had its own
wall. However, by the seventeenth century the threat of European con-
quest had forced several cities to build protective walls.
Foreign merchants who were linked to the indigenous aristocrats formed
the dominant class in the port cities. In many cases their power overshad-
owed that of the ruling aristocracy. In most cities the possession of pri-
vately owned slaves was a key source of wealth. In fact, humans were the most
important asset of the city, not buildings and infrastructure, which could be
restored quickly from the abundant raw material in the forest if destroyed.
In order to elaborate on the characteristics of the urban places that began
to emerge at this time, Terry McGee draws a useful distinction between the
sacred city and the market city.
Sacred cities
Sacred cities had their foundations in the great agrarian civilisations
of the region. They were administrative, military and cultural centres of
empires which drew tribute from conquered territories. Trade was also
carried out in these cities, but, on balance, it was not as important as the
control and maintenance of empire. The sacred city was the home of the
God-king.
Sacred cities tended to have inland locations. Geomancy was used to
determine the most auspicious location, yet the king could change the
THE SoUTHEAST ASIAN CITY IN HISTORY 3
location of the city at a whim. For example, the king of the Upper Burmese
Kingdom made the decision to shift his capital from Ava Amarapura to
Ma~dalay in the mid-nineteenth century.
New dynasties could decide on new locations. The establishment of the
Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam in the early nineteenth century saw the cap-
ital shift from Hanoi in the north of the country to Hue in the centre.
The cosmological beliefs of their rulers were built into the structure of these
cities. As a result they generally had an ordered appearance, with a num-
ber of common similarities in structure. Typically, the palace and the main
temples were situated in the city centre. Around this central core were dis-
tributed the city elite and functionaries, then in the next ring the artisans.
All these groups were within the city or the palace walls. Outside the walls
were the residences of the foreign merchants and the poor.
Yogyakarta
Yogyakarta, located in central Java about 30 kilometres from the southern
coast, is an example of McGee's sacred cities. Yogyakarta came into exis-
tence in the middle of the eighteenth century when the kingdom of
Mataram, which was based in nearby Surakarta (Solo), divided into two self-
governing principalities, each headed by a Sultan. Yogyakarta became the
home of Mangkubumi, the younger brother of the Susuhunan of Surakarta.
The !<raton, or palace of the Sultan, was the core of the initial urban
development and was surrounded by a wall. The kraton housed the Sultan
and his staff and relatives, the central buildings being aligned along a
north-south axis. The alun-alun, or open square, and the mosque were also
contained within the walls of the haton. Outside the walls lived citizens of
lesser social standing. Gradually the residential areas spread towards the
south, influenced by the traditional style established by the haton.
Towards the end of the eighteenth century the Dutch built a fort in the
northern comer of the !<raton from which they consolidated and expanded
their power throughout Yogyakarta and neighbouring regions. Dutch set-
tlers occupied the land immediately adjacent to the fort, and in succeeding
years spread northwards, becoming the core of the commercial class of the
city. The Chinese also settled in the north of the city, along the axis now
defined by Yogyakarta's main street, Jalan Malioboro.
During the nineteenth century the north-south spread of the city was rein-
forced. In particular, the axis connecting the kraton with a monument in the
north was said to have supernatural powers-it later became the central
business district (CBD) ofthe city. By 1905 Yogyakarta had a population
of 80 000. By the 1940s it had grown in symbolic importance, not least
due to the decision of the Sultan to give his open support to the republican
4 ASIAN METROPOLIS
movement in Indonesia. With Batavia under threat from the Dutch,
Yogyakarta became the 'capital of the revolution', the city being named the
capital of the Republic of Indonesia in 1946, a position it held untill949.
In recognition of the special role that this 'sacred city' played in the estab-
lishment of modern Indonesia, Yogyakarta was made a Special Region
(Daerah istimewa) with the status of a province.
It should not be assumed that the kraton is no longer important to the con-
temporary Indonesian city. The kraton still occupies a central location in
Yogyakarta, and as a widely known tourist attraction, makes a substantial
contribution to the urban economy.
Recent discussion about the kraton in nearby Surakarta, the home of
Sultan Paku Buwono XII, illustrates the kind of issues that surround this fea-
ture of the 'sacred' Indonesian city. With a dwindling income from the
government, and a large retinue of court servants to support, the Sultan began
negotiations in 1991 with investors (including President Suharto's second
son) to build a tourist hotel inside the walls of the kraton. A marketing
ploy would be to offer tourists an insider's view of the workings of the
palace. But one of the Sultan's daughters-his twenty-fifth-voiced. ~trong
objections to the commercialisation of the sacred ground of the kraton.
Local residents and the press backed her objections, leading to an indefinite
postponement of the development plans. While the significance of the
kraton has steadily diminished over time, underneath the surface lies a con-
cern about the spiritual and cultural importance of the kraton.
Market cities
For many centuries Southeast Asia has been a crossroad for global trade,
especially as the sea link between Asia and Europe. Not surprisingly, mar-
ket cities developed as a result of the maritime trade of the region. The
local elites sometimes participated in these commercial activities. More
importantly, market cities frequently contained cosmopolitan populations,
made up of traders from the region and beyond. The foreign quarters in
these urban places, though, were generally sharply demarcated from those
of the local population, and often from one another.
As many of these cities were located on shorelines or harbours or rivers,
there was often little room for expansion inland. City populations spread out
over water, living on boats and houses perched on stilts. Market cities could
seem chaotic, with visitors not infrequently remarking upon their tran-
sient, temporary appearance. But this did not mean they were not planned.
McGee argues that the location of the palace and marketplace in the coastal
cities ofJava indicated that considerable thought had gone into the layout
of the city.
THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITY IN HISTORY 5
Hoi An
About 25 kilometres south of Da Nang, on the coast of central Vietnam,
is the small settlement of Hoi An. The town is compact, with narrow and
winding streets. The people in the immediate hinterland are poor, even by
Vietnamese standards. Yet there is undoubtedly something special about Hoi
An, and it is this which brings a steady trickle of visitors to the town.
The origins of settlement on this particular bend in the Thu Bon River
are far from clear, but it seems that it was originally a port for the Cham
empire which flourished for hundreds of years but was in a state of decline
by the seventeenth century. Most writing on Hoi An, however, celebrates
its role as a thriving commercial harbour in the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries, when it was known as Hai Pho. Western visitors mis-
pronounced it as Faifo, so this is the name that appears on the colonial
maps of the region.
Hoi An's commercial success stemmed from its gateway function for the
Quang Nam Province of Dai Viet, as Vietnam was known prior to coloni-
sation by the French in the nineteenth century. The town was linked by nav-
igable river to most parts of Quang Nam, which was a fertile agricultural .
region. Local produce was shipped out, while foreign merchant ships brought
in manufactured goods such as porcelain and medicines, from places with-
in the region (such as Batavia and Manila) and beyond, as far as China and
Europe.
As a prominent market town, Hoi An's population grew by absorbing
traders from other regions. During the seventeenth century immigrants
from southern coastal China settled there. An influx of Japanese settlers in
the first few decades of that century reflected the importance the region
played in Japanese commerce. Rather than intermingling, the two overseas
groups settled in separate areas of the city, setting up independent admin-
istrations. Commentators of the time remarked that Hoi An was, in effect,
two separate towns, one Chinese, the other Japanese.
Japanese migration ceased in the 1630s and the total number ofJapanese
families declined to a handful, as Japan itself implemented a 'closed-door'
policy. In contrast, the number of Chinese residents in the town continued
to grow. Dutch and Portuguese traders were also attracted by the prosper-
ous trade.
However, by the end of the eighteenth century persistent warfare in the
region led to a decline in commerce, which resulted in the gradual demise
of Hoi An. By the early nineteenth century the Thu Bon River had silted
up, meaning larger ships could no longer travel the 8 kilometres up-river to
the dock.
6 ASIAN METROPOLIS THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITY IN HISTORY 7

Hoi An today contains reminders of its thriving sixteenth and seventeenth
century history. Along the banks of the Thu Bon the warehouses are still
in evidence, although the river is now so shallow it can support only light
coastal and inland ships. The architecture of the western end of the origi-
nal town, across the elegant, old bridge pagoda, is distinctly Japanese in
origin. East of the bridge pagoda, Chinese shop-houses dominate. Some
house owners, open to the opportunities of even a trickle of tourists, invite
visitors in for tea.
THE COLONIAL CITY
Southeast Asia's colonial experience was diverse. Britain, France, the
Netherlands, Spain, Portugal and the United States, all at one time, main-
tained formal colonies in the region (figure 1.1). In the early 1900s they dom-
inated most of the territory now called Southeast Asia, with the notable
exception of Thailand, which was never colonised. The urban inheritance
of colonialism is evident in the experience of the Netherlands East Indies
town and a city in French Indochina that was made by the coloni~l expe-
rience-Saigon.
Urban populations
c. 1910
r;:s:_
v 300 000
100000
(Jakarta) Present name of city
Colonial empires c. 1913
The Netherlands East Indies town
Under the Dutch, the study of the towns of the Netherlands East Indies tend-
ed to be ignored in favour of more exotic rural settings. But by the early
decades of the present century, the growth of cities especially on Java, and
the deteriorating conditions for the indigenous people living in them,
caused a gradual shift of interest. Studies began to emerge highlighting
appalling housing shortages for the Javanese populations in places such as
the north coast city of Semarang, and the woeful mortality levels among the
Javanese residents of Bandung.
Thomas Karsten's study of town development in the Netherlands East
Indies was part of a larger study on the 1938 'Town Planning Ordinance for
Municipalities on Java', which was intended to address the emerging prob-
lems of cities on Java. It is regarded as one of the most important studies of
urban social conditions undertaken in the Indies prior to independence.
Despite poor sources of data, Karsten was able to establish that the accel-
erating urban growth of Java during the 1920s was due primarily to the
growth of the biggest towns and cities. The inability to cope with this rapid
growth was one of the reasons for the deteriorating conditions in the cities.
Characteristically, the commercial centres of the larger Indies towns
were dominated by the offices and shops owned by, and servicing, the colo-
nial residents of the city. The Chinese commercial district was usually
located nearby. Ribbon development was a feature of the transport routes
leading out of the city, creating a kind of star-shaped urban sprawl. Because
the cities had grown around agglomerations of kampong (villages), in which
the roads were straight and ran predominantly in an east-west or north-south

~. ~
nnm
United States direction, traffic problems were relatively minor and could, at that stage, be
easily rectified.
~
Netherlands

~France Land-use zoning regulations were introduced in the Indies in the late

/-~ ~Britain
.Portugal

D No colonial power
1920s in an attempt to control potential 'nuisances', such as industries,
from establishing in undesirable locations. However, Karsten believed the
controls were muddled and ineffectual, with the result that 'much more is
permitted in lower-class sections than would tally with proper over-all zon-
ing' (Karsten, 1938:26).
Economic and social life in the Netherlands East Indies was described by
N
many Dutch scholars as characterised by 'dualism'. They were referring to

t the separate, but linked, social and economic development of the European
and Javanese populations, and the different levels and standards of living
which applied to each. Karsten likewise noted that urban society reflected
this' separation, though'he also suggested the Chinese constituted a third sig-
Figure 1.1 Southeast Asia in the early 1900s. nificant force in the city.
8 ASIAN METROPOLIS
Housing was one of the most serious urban problems, and it reflected
the dualism which characterised the city. Karsten noted that housing for the
well-off was more than satisfactory, even luxurious. However, homes for both
the Chinese and the Javanese lower middle class were less than desirable due
to the shortage of appropriate housing stock for rental. As a result, the bulk
of the Chinese lived in congested 'camps', while Javanese officials lived in
urban villages.
But it was the mass of urban Javanese who lived in the worst housing.
Their homes were built using methods of consttuction borrowed from the
rural villages, but the situation was made worse in the cities by severe
levels of overcrowding. The result was that housing, particularly in areas adja-
cent to markets and work-sites, took on the characteristics of slums. These
areas were regularly threatened with flooding, were serious fire hazards,
lacked fresh air and open space for recreation, and suffered from poor or non-
existent sewerage and a lack of clean drinking water.
The Dutch authorities had commenced a programme for improving
urban kampong, but it was limited in scope, concentrating mainly on drainage
and pathways, and its progress was slow. While there was some atttmpt by
government to provide public housing, it was available in only a few cities
and had a very limited impact on the quantity of housing. Besides, Karsten
noted, public housing had mainly benefited the better-off officials: the
urban masses generally received no benefits at all from the programme.
Street vendors were prevalent in the Indies city in the 1930s. These
were a source of consternation even to someone like Karsten, who demon-
strated more than the average awareness of the needs and rights of the
Javanese citizens of the city. The problem was that the vendors avoided the
government-operated markets, and either occupied space on the side of
the road, or travelled around the city hawking their goods. As a result,
their activities were considered unsightly, a nuisance to residents, the cause
of pollution, and a threat to the financial viability of the markets and mar-
ket traders. The planners' response was to promote mLmicipal warong, or small
street-side markets, as a means of collecting vendors in the one place, but
this was not a satisfactory solution for either the planners or the vendors.
Karsten was preoccupied by the disorderly appearance of the Javanese
town. He warned about social consequences:
children brought up in a disorderly and unpleasant home learn to be untidy and
indifferent, and in the same way a people forced to live in disorderly and
unfriendly towns will be encouraged in a tendency towards social discontent
and unruliness. (Karsten, 1938:55)
Yet it must be remembered that he looked at Javanese cities through the
eyes of someone more familiar with the European city. As a planner he
THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITY IN HISTORY 9
attributed the disordered outcome to a mixture of bad planning and lack of
planning.
Saigon, French Indoc~ina
Saigon is one of those Southeast Asian cities that grew under colonialism
from a small, relatively unimportant settlement into an imposing city. In its
colonial heyday it became known as the 'Pearl of the Far East'. In that
sense it is a true colonial city, although it is unlikely present-day Vietnamese
would want it considered in that way. The name change to Ho Chi Minh
City which occurred in the mid-1970s was, in part, an attempt to establish
a separate identity as a Vietnamese city.
The French first took control of the small fishing village on the banks of
the Saigon River in February 1859. The account which follows draws on the
writing of the geographer Shannon McCune, who visited Saigon in the
mid-1930s.
Saigon was then the administrative centre for Cochin-China, part of
the French Indochina Union. It also served two productive rural hinterlands,
and much of its prosperity depended on them. To the northeast was the cen-
tral plateau, which produced rubber and forest products, and a little rice. To
the northwest lay the vast expanse of the Mekong River delta, which was
(and still is) the rice basket for the southern comer oflndochina.It also pro-
vided port facilities for the export of fish and other products from Lake
T onle Sap, in present-day Cambodia.
As a colonial port, Saigon was served by excellent transport connec-
tions-particularly railways and roads-to its hinterland. This enabled
trading companies to bring export products to the port from where they could
be shipped to France, which dominated the import and export trade pass-
ing through Saigon. In contrast, its trade with nearby Siam (now Thailand),
or Japan or China was minimal. Saigon was the dominant trading port of
Indochina: three-fifths of the imports, and three-quarters of the exports
passed through its port. Saigon's industrial base consisted of processing
exports (such as rice and timber), together with the manufacturing of goods
for local consumption, including breweries and distilleries.
The people and physical structure of Saigon reflected its role in the colo-
nial regional economy. Saigon in 1931 had a population of 123 298. Most
were Vietnamese (or Annamites, as they were called at the time), but
about 11 000 were of European (principally French) descent, with the
remainder made up of Cambodians and Chinese. Almost all the latter lived
in Cholon, a city of 134 060 in 1931, which was sited about 12 kilometres
west of Saigon (but now is a part of the city).
The centre of Saigon was dominated architecturally by the Palace
of the Governor-General and other public buildings. Nearby were large
10 ASIAN METROPOLIS THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN CITY IN HISTORY 11

French-owned department stores, street cafes, and the imposing cathedral. a global capitalist economy, regardless of the particular colonial presence.
Adjacent to the colonial business centre was the high-class residential dis- And they can point to the experience of countries such as Vietnam, which
trict whose occupants were almost exclusively French. Further away from opted for a completely separate path towards development, but now has more
the city centre lay the 'native districts with flimsy straw huts crowding in common with Indonesia and Thailand than it had betw~en decolonisa-
closely together and housing the bulk of the population' (McCune, 1937:27). tion and the late 1980s.
The saplings planted by the French in the 1860s and 1870s had by the Yet there is no doubt that the colonial period disrupted the economic and
1930s established themselves as large shady trees. Lining the major boule- social geography of Southeast Asia. It brought significant changes to the dis-
vards of the city, they gave McCune (1937:27) the impression 'of a French tribution of economic activities, reinforcing the rise of the colonial port city,
provincial town transplanted to an Oriental setting'. In contrast, Cholon which in tum provided the foundation for the post-World War II surge in
is described as 'a typical Oriental city with a picturesque confusion of build- urbanisation. These cities were dominated by the colonisers, whose needs
ings, streets, and canals in striking contrast to its more orderly neighbour generally came first, with the indigenous economy existing at the margins
[Saigon]' (McCune, 1937:31). of the city. But colonialism was an interregnum; the shackles were eventually
Like Karsten, McCune identified disorder as an enduring feature of the discarded.
Southeast Asian city, temporarily halted by the enlightened intervention
of the European. Yet as another geographer who visited Saigon in the
1930s-Charles Robequain-made clear, the colonial influence of the
European powers was by no means uniform in its impact.
For all their exotic character, the cities of Indo-China with their terrae~ cafes
where one may sit and chat idly while sipping an aperitif and see shirt-sleeved
shopkeepers opening up for business each morning, preserve qualities of French
provincial life which are not least the charm of Hanoi and Saigon and come
as a surprise to Europeans from neighbouring colonies. (Robequain, 1944:31)

CONCLUSION
Southeast Asia has a rich and diverse history of urban development. The
indigenous urban traditions associated with the existence of sacred cities and
market cities have not disappeared, though colonialism and the secular
and economic demands of the modem nation-state have overtaken the
importance of these particular forms of urban development. Some, such as
Hoi An, are now backwaters. Others, Yogyakarta for example, remain
important cities which blend threads of traditional culture and urban form
with the pressing needs of a growing population. In contrast the colonial
cities, which were generally more recent in origin, have now become dom-
inant over the old sacred and market cities.
The impact of the colonisation process on Southeast Asia is well estab-
lished. Some argue that it locked the region into less than desirable forms
of economic, political and social development from which it is still strug-
gling to recover. Others might wonder about the' similarides be.tween con-
temporary Thailand, which was not colonised, imd Indonesia which was.
They will point to the unifying impacts on territories of their integration into

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