•  
  •  
 

Abstract

Although previous research shows that the introduction of bicycles drove recreational travel in Western Europe, North America, and Australia, to this day, little is known about tourist cycling in other parts of the world. Nevertheless, a broader geographical context is desirable: the study of the early days of tourist cycling in former European colonies in Southeast Asia can enhance our understanding of the strong political dimensions of tourist travel in a colonial context, as it is interconnected with the project of imperialism, technological change, and modernity. This article examines the early days of tourist cycling in the former Netherlands East Indies from 1884 to 1900. The central questions are: What were the communicated experiences of cycling tourists in the Netherlands East Indies in the late nineteenth century? And what were the ideological foundations underlying their experiences? The research corpus consists of the issues of De Kampioen – the magazine of the Dutch bicycle association ANWB – from this period. It indicates that tourist cycling emerged in various forms in the Netherlands East Indies at the end of the nineteenth century. Whereas most of the Dutch cyclists’ texts that have been examined, strongly emphasize an aesthetic experience, the Australians Burston and Stokes, as the epitome of imperial self-assurance, describe their journey in their travel text more emphatically as dangerous and thereby as a form of adventure tourism. Although the ANWB had some Asian and female members before 1900, episodes of De Kampioen from the nineteenth century extol the physical achievements of Western men. In doing so, these androcentric accounts also underscore the European patriarchal system and the racial hierarchy that supported Dutch colonialism in Southeast Asia.

References

Arnold, David and Erich DeWald. 2011. “Cycles of empowerment? The bicycle and everyday technology in Colonial India and Vietnam”, Comparative Studies in Society and History 53: 971-996.

Boehmer, Elleke. 2005. Colonial and postcolonial literature; Migrant metaphors. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bossenbroek, Martin, Francine Brinkgreve, Janneke van Dijk, Piet van Iddekinge, Peter Klein, Siebrand Krul, and Ian Muller (eds). 1995. Weerzien met Indië; Verkeer en vervoer 30. Zwolle: Waanders.

Bosma, Ulbe and Remco Raben. 2003. De oude Indische wereld 1500-1920. Amsterdam: Bert Bakker.

Burston, G.W. and H.R. Stokes. 1890. Round about the world on bicycles; The pleasure tour of G.W. Burston and H.R. Stokes. Melbourne: George Robertson and Company.

Cohen, Erik. 1974. “Who is a tourist? A conceptual clarification”, The Sociological Review 22(4): 527-555.

Coolhaas, W.Ph. 1985. Controleur B.B.; Herinneringen van een jong bestuursambtenaar in Nederlands-Indië. Utrecht: H&S.

Dijk, Kees van. 2009. “Pedal power in Southeast Asia”, in: Jan van der Putten and Mary Kilcline Cody (eds), Lost times and untold tales from the Malay world, pp. 268-282. Singapore: NUS Press.

Doel, H.W. van den. 1996. Het rijk van Insulinde; Opkomst en ondergang van een Nederlandse kolonie. Amsterdam: Prometheus.

Gilles, Roger. 2018. Women on the move; The forgotten era of women’s bicycle racing. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press.

Griffin, Brian. 2006. “Cycling and gender in Victorian Ireland”, Éire-Ireland 41(1-2): 213-241.

Guinness, Rupert. 2018. Power of the pedal; The story of Australian cycling. Canberra: NLA Publishing.

Hallenbeck, Sarah. 2016. Claiming the bicycle. Women, rhetoric, and technology in nineteenth-century America. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press..

Hinzler, H.I.R. 2013. “First bike in North Bali”, in: H.I.R. Hinzler (eds), North Bali first encounters; Innovations in North Bali, influences from abroad and influences of North Bali abroad: end 19th-beginning 20th century, pp. 50-52. [Paper presented in the Buleleng Museum, Northern Bali.]

Horsting, L.H.C. 1924. Pawiro; Zwerftochten door Indië. Batavia: G. Kolff & Co.

Jaquet, L.G.M. 1978. Aflossing van de wacht; Bestuurlijke en politieke ervaringen in de nadagen van Nederlandsch-Indië. Rotterdam: Ad. Donker.

Kiersnowska, Beata. 2019. “Female cycling and the discourse of moral panic in late Victorian Britain”, Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-American Studies 41(2): 85-104.

Larsen, Jonas. 2006. “Geographies of tourist photography; Choreographies and performances”, in: J. Falkheimer and A. Jansson (eds), Geographies of communication; The spatial turn in media studies, pp. 241-257. Göteborg: Nordicom.

Larsen, Jonas. 2016. “Leisure, bicycle mobilities, and cities”, in: Jillian M. Rickly, Kevin Hannam, and Mary Mostafanezhad (eds), Tourism and leisure mobilities; Politics, work and play, pp. 39-54. London: Routledge.

Maltby, W.S. 1895. Trick cycling in many lands; An exhibition tour of the world. New York, NY: Fless & Ridge Print Co.

Mandal, Sumit K. 2017. Becoming Arab; Creole histories and modern identity in the Malay world. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Merrillees, Scott. 2006. Batavia in nineteenth century photographs. Singapore: Archipelago Press.

Norcliffe, Glen. 2001. “Modernity and the bicycle”, in: Glen Norcliffe (ed.), The ride to modernity; The bicycle in Canada, 1869-1900, pp. 3-39. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Regeeringsalmanak voor Nederlandsch-Indië. 1903. Vol. 2. Batavia: Landsdrukkerij.

Rerceretnam, Marc. 2018. “Bicycles for sale: bicycle business in Sydney, 1850s to 1930s”, Sporting Traditions 35(2): 1-17.

Rosen, Paul. 2002. Framing production; Technology, culture, and change in the British bicycle industry. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Sharples, Rosemary. 2020. “Robert Craig and Percy Armstrong; Pioneer cycling overlanders”, Queensland History Journal 24: 519-528.

Sintobin, Tom. 2022. “Traveller, tourist, and the ‘lost art of travelling’; The debate continues”, in: Richard Sharpley (eds), Routledge handbook of the tourist experience, pp. 215-234. New York, NY: Routledge.

Stoffers, Manuel and Harry Oosterhuis. 2009. “’Ons populairste vervoermiddel’; De Nederlandse fietshistoriografie in internationaal perspectief”, Low Countries Historical Review 124: 390-418.

Sunjayadi, Achmad. 2019. Pariwisata di Hindia-Belanda (1891-1942). Jakarta: Kepustakaan Populer Gramedia.

Tjong Tjin Tai, Sue-Yen and Frank Veraart. 2018. “Making the bicycle Dutch: the development of the bicycle industry in the Netherlands, 1860-1940”, in: Tiina Männistö-Funk and Timo Myllyntaus (eds), Invisible bicycle; Parallel histories and different timelines, pp. 126-155. Leiden: Brill. [Series: Technology and Change in History, Volume: 15.]

Tobin, Gary Allen. 1974. “The bicycle boom of the 1890’s; The development of private transportation and the birth of the modern tourist”, Journal of Popular Culture 7: 838-849.

Toivanen, Mikko. 2019. Colonial tours; The leisure and anxiety of empire in travel writing from Java, Ceylon and the Straits Settlements, 1840-1875. Dissertation European University Institute, Florence.

Tomberge, Nick. 2022. “Het uitzicht achter Hotel Bellevue in Buitenzorg; Een postkoloniaal perspectief op attractievorming in Nederlands-Indië”, Internationale Neerlandistiek 60(2): 196-217.

Veenendaal, Augustus J. 2022. Narrow gauge in the tropics; The railways of the Dutch East Indies, 1864-1942. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Zuelow, Eric G.E. 2016. A history of modern tourism. London: Palgrave.

Magazines and newspapers

“Australië”. 1888. De Kampioen V/15, 1-11-1888.

“Australië”. 1890. De Kampioen VII/1, 1-1-1890.

“Bewijs van aangifte voor het lidmaatschap als werkend/niet-werkend lid”. 1893. De Kampioen X/9, 3-3-1893.

“Bewijs van aangifte voor het lidmaatschap”. 1893. De Kampioen X/35, 1-9-1893.

“Bewijs van aangifte voor het lidmaatschap”. 1899. De Kampioen XVI/5, 3-2-1899.

“Brievenbus”. 1889. De Kampioen VI/2, 1-2-1889.

D.E.G. 1894. “Een ritje door Batavia’s schoone dreven”, De Kampioen XI/23, 8-6-1894.

De Kampioen X/9, 3-3-1893. [Mr. Koning in Batavia.]

De Kampioen XI/5, 2-2-1894. [J.H. Faber about cycling in the Netherlands East Indies.]

De Kampioen XI/17, 27-4-1894. [Payment reminder.]

De Kampioen XI/20, 18-5-1894. [Number of members in Java.]

De Kampioen XI/36, 7-9-1894. [Bike ride Lion O’Herne.]

De Kampioen XI/48, 30-11-1894. [Victory telegram after conquest of Lombok.]

De Kampioen XI/50, 14-12-1894. [Construction of cycle track by Sultan of Deli.]

De Kampioen XV/35, 2-9-1898. [Issue of De Semarangsche Vélo.]

D.W.L. 1896. “Wielerwedstrijd te Deli (Vervolg)”, De Kampioen XII/27, 3-7-1896.

Gebrs. Koopman & Co. 1885. Maandblad Nederlandsche Velocipedistenbond II/11, February. [Advertisement for bicycles from Andrews.]

Giel, W.J. 1897. “Het rijwiel in het Indisch Leger“, Indisch militair tijdschrift 28: 708-718.

Haar, D. ter. 1890. “De algemeene vergadering”, De Kampioen VII/17, 1-12-1890.

Ketjen, G. Jules. 1888. De Kampioen V/15, 1-11-1888. [Farewell message.]

“Ledenlijst”. 1890. De Kampioen VII/5, 1-5-1890.

“Ledenlijst”. 1894a. De Kampioen XI/4, 26-1-1894.

“Ledenlijst”. 1894b. De Kampioen XI/18, 5-5-1894.

“Lijst der kunstlievende leden”. 1886. De Kampioen III/2, February.

Meijer Timmerman Thijssen, P.H. 1889. De Kampioen VI/11, 1-8-1889. [Advertisement for a tricycle.]

“Militair wielrijder”. 1894. De Kampioen XI/16, 20-4-1894.

“Ned. Indië”. 1888. De Kampioen V/2, February.

Pruijmboom, J. 1889. “Reisaangelegenheden”, De Kampioen VI/2, 1-2-1889.

“Rechtszaken”. 1913. Bataviaasch Nieuwsblad, 5-8-1913.

Scheltema, J. 1890. “Feuilleton”, De Kampioen VII/16, 1-11-1890.

Si-Gantjang. 1894a. “Indische brieven”, De Kampioen XI/47, 23-11-1894.

Si-Gantjang. 1894b. “Indische brieven”, De Kampioen XI/49, 7-12-1894.

Si-Gantjang 1894c. “Indische brieven”, De Kampioen XI/50, 14-12-1894.

Si-Gantjang 1898. “Naar Java’s zuiderstrand”, De Kampioen XV/48, 2-12-1898.

“Verandering van Adres”. 1886. De Kampioen III/12, December.

Wachem, J. van. 1894. “Brieven uit Insulinde. No. 1”, De Kampioen XI/41, 12-10-1894.

“Wielrijden op Java”, De Kampioen XV/9, 3-3-1899.

Woltman, Chr. J. 1890. “Nederlandsch-Indië; Een reisje per rijwiel door de ‘Minahassa van Menado’”, De Kampioen VII/13, 1-9-1890.

Download

Share

COinS