European Perceptions of Malacca in the Early Modern Period

By Katrina Gulliver

Introduction

In this paper I sketch Malacca’s development from the early 16th century until World War I. Malacca was taken by European powers; first by the Portuguese in 1511, later by the Dutch in 1641, and finally by the British, first temporarily in 1795, then from 1824 as part of the Anglo-Dutch Treaty, by which the city was exchanged for Bengkulu in Sumatra.

Malacca held an important role in the European expansionist imagination. In the 16th century, Tomé Pires said: “Whoever is lord of Malacca has his hand on the throat of Venice.” English texts from the 16th century onwards demonstrate a desire to capture the port, and the position its name held as a symbol of culture, wealth and exoticism. This paper examines how Malacca was used, and how it demonstrated changing European attitudes towards their colonies, and the idea of the city.

Despite the shift in European economies away from the spice trade, the city retained a symbolic value, outweighing its usefulness as an economic asset. British parliamentary records from the 18th and early 19th centuries reveal disputes over whether Malacca was worth retaining, with a strong argument that maintaining the city cost far more than it was generating in income. My approach is to examine the city as a reflection of three colonial philosophies: Portuguese, Dutch and British, overlaid on an existing Malay town.

Malacca’s architecture demonstrated the purpose of the city, be it a defensive position, a trading post, a metropolis (including the projection of Christianity), or some combination of all three, contributing to a distinctive ambience. The Portuguese focused on military defence. The Dutch planned more centrally, dictating brick sizes and drainage in civil architecture. The British incorporated the Dutch buildings and focused on access and transport. In addition to these colonial styles, there existed (and exist still) the Melaka-style (should it be spelt Melaka?) Malay house and Chinese shop houses.

Malacca was an important site in European expansion into Asia. In the 15th century, the city was a crucial nexus of a trade network from the Moluccas to Venice. Being at the “end of the monsoon”, it served as a major site for intra-Asia trade between China and India. I have chosen to look at the city from a different angle – by examining how important Malacca was to Europe, and how the city developed with European influence.

Working on a study such as this, it is easy to slip into the error of projecting backwards from Europe’s later control of Asia. Michael Pearson has commented on the risks of “being blinded by the largely peripheral activities of the early Europeans”¹ when studying Asian history. I am not making any claims to the significance within Asia of European activities in Malacca. This is a consciously Eurocentric study, about how the European notions of the city evolved in a port thousands of miles from Europe.

European Perceptions of the City

The term Golden Khersonese (or Chersonese) appears in Ptolemy’s geography, referring to what was later confirmed to be the Malay Peninsula.² This term was in use during the early modern period in Europe to refer more specifically to the region, and in a vaguer, mythical sense as a site of treasure. During the late 15th century, the city of Malacca came to be known of in Europe, and references to it began to appear in literature.

During Portuguese control of the city, the references became more common, both in factual references and literature. I am limiting my references to printed works that would have been available to a broader audience than manuscripts. Gasparo Balbi’s Viaggio dell’Indie Orientali, published in Venice in 1590, described Malacca’s location, what could be bought there (sandoli, pocellane: sandalwood and porcelain, p. 64) and detailed the dates of the monsoon season between Goa and Malacca.³

The overlap in usage between Malacca/Golden Chersonese is discussed in this 1604 text:

Is it not easie to find Molaco in ancient bookes, which they called the golden
Chersonese: the Cape of Comori, which was called the Promontorie of Coci;
& that great & famous Iland of Sumatra, so well knowne by the ancient name
of Taprobana.⁴

The “great & famous island” also demonstrates a level of knowledge in Europe about the East Indies, but also confusion and conflation of different parts of the Indies. Nonetheless, even by this stage (the English East India Company’s first mission was in 1601) the East Indies had become part of the mental map projected from Europe.

A more detailed description of Malacca was given by Pierre d’Avity, translated into English in 1615:

Malaca is seated upon the river of Gaza, and is a good faire Towne, having
in circuit neere twentie miles. The originarie or first inhabitants of this place
report, that the beginning came of six or seven fishermen, which came to
dwell there, but their number increased, by the arrivall of other fishermen
of Siam, Pegu, and Bengola, who built a towne, and framed a particular
language, taking all the best kind of speech from other nations. They named
their towne Malaca, which is growne so rich and mightie in a short time by
reason of her situation, as she contends for precedence with the greatest
townes, yea with some realmes thereabouts.

The Countrie people sleepe upon trees for feare of Tygers, whereof there are
so many as they will come into the towne for a prey. The Portugals who tooke
this towne from a king of the Moores, found the scituation so commodious,
as they have made it in a manner the Center of all the merchandise and
trafficke of the East, and the head of a kingdome, which extends from
Sincapura to Pullo, and Cambilan;⁵

Here we see two elements emerging in the description. One is the wealth and success of the town, and the other its place as a gathering centre for traders from different regions, what might be termed proto-multiculturalism. Interestingly, although it refers to the Portuguese as having taken the town from a sultan (“king of the Moores”), the description of the origins of the city mark it as a fishing village.

Portuguese literature (the city is mentioned in the Lusiad, of 1572, an epic poem by Luís Vaz
de Camões, depicting Portuguese history and the events of the discovery of India as
blessed by mythological figures) demonstrates even at this stage its role – and that of colonialism in general -- in Portuguese national culture.
             Malacca is mentioned in Book X, verse 44:

Nor Him shalt Thou (though potent) scape, and flye,
(Though sheltred in the Bosome of the Morn)
MALACCA (and the Apple of her Eye)
Prowd of thy wealthy Dow’r as her first-born.
Thy poyson’d Arrows, those Auxiliary
CRYSES I see (thy Pay That do not scorn)
MALACCANS amorous, valiant JAVANS,
Shall all obey the LUSITANIANS.

And verse 57:

Great Actions in the Kingdom of BINTAN
Thou shalt perform, MALACCA’S Foe: her score
Of Ills in one day paying, which That ran
Into, for many a hundred year before.
With patient courage, more then of a man,
Dangers, and Toyles, sharp Spikes, Hills always hoare,
Spears, Arrows, Trenches, Bulwarks, Fire and Sword,
That thou shalt break, and quell, I pass my word.

(text from Richard Fanshawe’s 1655 translation, the work has been translated a number of times into English)

By the 17th century, Malacca was making a more regular appearance in literature written in English. As well as its inclusion in guides of the world, guides to spices, and general histories, it was again featured in poetry. David Dickson was a Scottish preacher, and his Truth’s Victory over Error, or, An abridgement of the chief controversies in religion which since the apostles days to this time, have been, and are in agitation, between those of the Orthodox faith, and all adversaries whatsoever…, was a translation into English of his sermons given in Latin. A classic Reformation text, it is relevant that by this stage the city of Malacca was being specified rather than the vague “Golden Cherson”.

“As Ophirs Gold, which from Malacca came,
Made Solomon on Earth the richest Man.
So will this Book make rich thy heart and mind,
With Divine Wisdom, Knowledge of all kind.
Thee richer make than Croesus of great name,
Thee wiser make than Solon of great· fame.
Than all the seven wise Sages, Greeces Glory,
I do protest it’s true, and is no Story”.⁶

We also see the direct Biblical link being used. Malacca was being firmly situated in the cultural geography of Europe in texts such as this. Being already “familiar” and linked to Biblical and classical references, it was easier to harness the city’s depiction in European culture. This was also linked to the Portuguese use of religious justification for colonisation.

Under the heading “Manners of the People”, the residents were described thus:
There are in this place about a hundred families of Portugals, which live
after the manner of their countrie, with a Bishop, and a Colledge of Jesuits,
besides the Castell. They that are borne in this place weare long haire, they
have malitious spirits, and take delight to commit murders in the night, to the
end the authors may not be known. Both men and women make love alike,
and thinke that there is not any Nation can mannage it so well: they make
amarous songs and rimes, and doe wonderfully commend the power of love
in their verses, which are wittie, well composed, and of a good grace. They
have the nearest, and most elegant language of all the East: and therefore
many at the Indies doe use it; as in England, Germanie, and the Low-countries
they use the French tongue.⁷

He draws a clear distinction between the Christian Portuguese residents and the local community. The exoticism of the Malays in this description, as both murderers and passionate authors of romantic songs and poems, is an interesting juxtaposition. It is particularly relevant that the Malays, or “they that are borne in this place” are not described as Muslim.

Building the City

There are two major themes in colonial historiography that are often applied to city sites: one is that colonisers took the opportunity to create “ideal” cities, often based on the Renaissance vision of the perfect city with straight streets and boulevards as well as a central square and visual symmetry and balance. The idea of building the ideal city from scratch was appealing because it was something that could not be done in Europe where most of the cities had developed organically over hundreds of years without central planning. These neoclassical ideas were taken to, for instance, city planning by the Spaniards in the Americas. It was also seen in some of the towns built by the British in India, where they were built to appeal to an aesthetic of Oriental classicism, rather than resembling architecture in Britain.

The second approach to colonial cities is a presumed intention of replication of the metropolis. More than simply utilising known construction techniques and plans, this vision aimed at recreating the experience of living in Europe.

This was certainly what the Dutch initially attempted to do in Batavia (Jakarta today), modelling the city after Delft.⁸ They built Dutch-style housing along canals although they were not suitable for the climate.

Antony King’s theories on the colonial city draw on these ideas, and epitomise much of the analysis of colonial urban development. He divides the colonial city into “colonial urban settlement” (European base) and “indigenous settlement”⁹, and argues that “the first characteristic of the colonial city is that it is the product of a contact situation between at least two different cultures”.¹⁰ Leaving aside the definitional distinction of “colonial” in this context, and the obvious fallacy of this argument for cities such as Sydney or Montreal (in which there was no indigenous influence on the cities themselves), it is open to question even how much it can be applied to Malacca, which fulfils more of the criteria.

King’s analysis assumes a coloniser/colonised dichotomy, which does not fully hold in multiethnic Malacca. By some of the same theories – division of settlement along ethnic lines – the Chinese in Malacca could be seen as constituting a “colonial town”, without the power relationship implied in the term.

Under the Portuguese

The built environment at Malacca was shaped by the Portuguese, most famously by their construction of the fort.

At the time that the Portuguese captured Malacca, it is problematic to apply the notion of colony and the attendant philosophies. The Portuguese did not establish a large settlement of civilians, they did not hold much territory beyond the borders of the city itself; however, their fortifications at least hinted at plans for permanence extending further than simply a factory. Nonetheless, their attitude towards the Malay Peninsula seemed ambivalent.

The idea of conversion to Catholicism was clearly part of the rhetoric of the Portuguese expansion. Nonetheless, missions to be used by the Jesuits, while endorsed by the Portuguese, were not really part of the official expansion and nor was it something that the Portuguese crown invested in. It was very convenient to promote the idea of converting the Malay world from Islam to Christianity, for audiences in Europe particularly the Vatican, but in practice the Portuguese showed little interest in actually pursuing this.

The fort did not really replicate something that was in Portugal although it used the building styles there. It has a fairly organic shape, and is responsive to the natural geography of the hill. The lack of a grand design for the city is an indication of several things about the Portuguese, one being that they did not know how long they would stay. And it is evident from Portuguese documents of the time that their goals towards the city were somewhat conflicting. Building forts was something that the Portuguese tended to focus on in their colonial efforts in other parts of the world, and a clear resemblance can be seen between the Malacca fort and those at Mombasa, Goa and elsewhere.

The pre-existing town was sizeable, with the description in 1510: “In Malacca, there are approximately ten thousand homes, which are located along the sea and river. Those who live further away from the sea are at a distance of a little more than a cross-bow’s shot”.¹¹ This assumes a population of at least forty thousand, in housing clustered close to the sea.

The fort was constructed with a thick heavy wall. It was obviously designed to protect the city from attack, but it created a very strong separation of the city from the hinterland of the surrounding regions. And it is significant particularly when the city was ruled by foreigners. The strength of the fort also suggests a permanence to the Portuguese settlement.

Dianne Lewis’s work on the Dutch East India Company¹² implied that the Portuguese explorers were parochial, recounting Asia as the metropolis and Europe as a backward outpost, rather than seeing Malacca as the encounter point of sophisticated cultures. It is, however, far too easy to project backwards and adopt a teleological approach, in this case from the standpoint of Portugal’s later failure in Asia.

A lot of what was written in Portugal about the city from the time of its capture focused on the spiritual element, rather than any goals for the site of the city in terms of construction. The context of Portugal’s arrival in Malacca must also be remembered. The re-conquest of Europe -- with the Moors being driven out of southern Europe, particularly the Iberian peninsula -- was completed only in 1492, fewer than 20 years before their conquest of Malacca.

Although Portugal itself had not been under Muslim control for several hundred years, there were obviously lingering sentiments: even today in popular language and imagery in Portugal and Spain, there are idiomatic expressions referring to “moors” and the time of Al-Andalus. So we should not be surprised to find that the Islamic faith of the Malays was of importance when the Portuguese wrote about Malacca, much more so than for the Dutch and British.

The idea of conversion in the region was sometimes used to justify capturing the city. However, I am a little sceptical of a lot of these narratives. They were obviously written for a Catholic audience, specifically the Vatican, whose support the Portuguese needed. Nonetheless, Jesuits played a prominent role in the Portuguese settlements in Asia. In particular, Francis Xavier’s association with Malacca gave the city another identity in European narratives.

Economically the city was not a great success for the Portuguese; they were unable to regain the city’s prosperity when it was under the sultan. The Portuguese did act in accordance with theirChristian expansionist plans to the extent that they limited Muslim trade in the town,¹³ which reduced profitability.

Macau’s duties paid to Malacca and Goa sustained Malacca.¹⁴ The true scale of its economy cannot be established, as much was unofficial, either private individuals or on the side (illegally) by agents of the state; also the loss of documents, and the fact that much of empire “was created and functioned in the pre-statistical age”.¹⁵

According to Victor Savage, Malacca was in the 16th century, as Ayuthia was in the 17th, a “comfortable and beautiful city for Western residents”.¹⁶ While Malacca might have been beautiful, it was not precisely a city on European lines. The largest reminders of the Portuguese were the fort and the church, which were reused by the Dutch. Savage’s description also hints at the evolving European taste for the exotic, in listing the destinations of luxury for European residents and the temporal/geographic shift around Asia.

Under the Dutch

When it came to the Dutch taking possession of Malacca, they did not attempt to do what they had initially done in Batavia of replicating a Dutch city. Likewise, they were not taking large numbers of civilian settlers to Malacca either. So it developed as an Asian city under European jurisdiction rather than a European city in the tropics. Direct European influence on architecture during the Dutch colonial period did not extend past official buildings.

The Dutch built the State House and other administrative buildings, as well as private housing. But their arrival did not signal a rapid overhaul of the city; rather it was a slower evolution. Dutch reuse of the fort demonstrated this continuity.¹⁷

Malacca was unique in the region for not relying on an agrarian hinterland, due to its “unusually favourable position”.¹⁸ This favourability depended on supplies from outside, and a level of trade to maintain it, which did not always hold under the Dutch.

Under the Dutch, there was a small European population and not much work for European artisans, and tradesmen,¹⁹ which meant that the European influence on material culture was less than in other colonies. Chinese and Indian artisans were often involved in construction and design. This led to the development of a unique visual idiom and these elements also helped to give the city a unique identity, but also the citizens a particular identity.

Again Malacca was not an economic success, as described in this account:
The conquerors found a fort, which, like all the works of the Portuguese, was
built with a degree of strength, which has never since been imitated by any
nation. They found the climate very healthy, though hot and moist; but the
trade there was entirely decayed; the continual exactions having deterred
all nations from resorting thither. It has not been revived by the company,
either on account of some insuperable difficulties, or the want of moderation
or the fear of injuring Batavia. The business is confined at present to the sale
of a small quantity of opium, and a few blue linens, and to the purchase of
elephants teeth, calin, which cofts 7o livres a hundred weight, and a [end p.
166] small quantity of gold at 180 livres a mark.²⁰

The description mentions the Portuguese fort, and their notable skill in such construction. Again we see that the port was not a great success, and again this was due to tax and duty impositions.

MALACA,
Which is a Town belonging to the Company,
and was taken from the Portugueze.
This Place is very considerable, and much frequented
for Traffick, and is the Magazine of
the Eastern Trade, where all Nations, who
have frequented the Seas, met heretofore. At
present, its Trade is not near so considerable,
not sufficient to answer the Charge;
which Inconveniency might be remedied, by
sending thither a good Director; for it is certain,
that there is a good Vent in that Town
for great Quantities of Linnen Cloth, of all
sorts, as well as in many other Towns, its
Dependencies, or which lye round about it ;
as Andragieri, and other Towns, and such
Places as lye along the Rivers of Sierra, Perra,
&c. where for the moft Part the Payments
are made in Gold and Tin, which is a Return
very rich, necessary, and profitable for the
Good and Support of the Trade of the Company.
Malacca is the Rendezvous of all the Vessels that return from Japan every Year
with their Cargoes, and which they there sort and distribute, in order to their
being sent to the [end p.212]
other Store-houses on the Coast of India, Coromandel, Bengal, & c.²¹

Once again we see a return to the standard descriptions of Malacca, that even in an account of its economic failure, it is referred to as the “magazine of the east” and in positive terms. Malacca’s ability to retain a positive image in European minds even as it was a poor investment merits further investigation, which I hope to pursue.

The Dutch construction included St John’s Fort, which was sited for inland defence rather than defence against attack from the sea. As well as a demonstration of the politics involved, such an element of the built environment serves to imply a level of visual hostility to the surrounding area, and to reinforce insularity to the city.

Under the British

Whereas the descriptions of Malacca in the 16th century saw it as a metropolis, demonstrating some of the elements of cosmopolitan modernity, which was just beginning to shape the urban experience in Europe, by the 19th century the descriptions changed to those for a sleepy backwater. This was partly based on the reality that Malacca’s importance as a trade centre had declined, and partly on the changed circumstances of colonisation. London had grown to be the heart of a huge empire, a metropolis from which all colonial cities were outposts. William Guthrie wrote in 1801:

Some missionaries pretend that it is the Golden Chersonesus or Peninsula
of the ancients, and the inhabitants used to measure their riches by bars of
gold. The truth is, that the excellent situation of this country admits of a trade
with India ; so that when it was first discovered by the Portuguese, who were
afterwards expelled by the Dutch, Malacca was the riched city in the East,
next to Goa and Ormus, being the key of the China, the Japan, the Moluccas,
and the Sunda trade. The country, however, at present, is chiefly valuable
for its trade with the Chinese. This degeneracy of the Malayans, who were
formerly an industrious, ingenious people, is easily accounted for, by the
tyranny of the Dutch, whose interest it is they should never recover from their
present date of ignorance and slavery.²²

By this stage the myth-making of Malacca was sliding somewhat, with the Dutch being blamed in this account for the city’s economic decline.

This brings in another layer to the situation -- the fact that colonies were used to judge other European states by, in terms of their power and of their methods of conquest and rule. In Malacca, we also have an account from the Malay side, comparing the Dutch and the British from the perspective of the local residents.

Abdullah Bin Abdul Kadir wrote that after the treaty of Vienna of 1815, which returned Malacca to the Dutch from the British caretaker control:

At the same time the majority of the Malacca folk of all races were glad that the Dutch were taking back the Settlement, for they thought they would be better off than under English rule. But they did not realise that the newcomers were leeches who would suck the very blood from their bodies.²³

The Dutch changed the administration from the English ways; taxes were raised and new taxes imposed, such as the tax on house construction, thus putting greater hardship on the poor. The Dutch were regarded as oppressing the “servants of Allah” in Malacca.²⁴ Views of the British had changed, so that when they returned eight years later, they were welcomed.

After I had been in Malacca for a month the English came suddenly to take the Settlement out of the hands of the Dutch. This was in the year 1823, Malacca having been exchanged by the English for Bencoolen. Now at last I noticed that all races in Malacca were pleased, for they had tasted the bitter nastiness of Dutch rule. At the time when the Dutch had taken over Malacca from the English the majority of people had felt glad because they thought that the Dutch were much better people than the English. But they had now felt the iron hand of the Dutch and welcomed the return of English rule.²⁵

The author was closely linked to the British administration in Singapore when he wrote his memoir, so cannot be assumed to be entirely impartial. Nonetheless, his views merit consideration, in the notion of the Dutch falling so spectacularly in the eyes of the Malaccan residents.

Most notoriously, the British destroyed the Portuguese fort, in order to prevent Malacca rising again as a rival to the new settlement of Georgetown, Penang. Visually, this changed the city entirely, breaking the division between the colonial and local zones of the city. The period of British rule also saw the establishment of Singapore, which drew away much of Malacca’s labouring and trading population.

But even by the end of the 19th century, hints of its former grandeur were still common in observers’ accounts of the city:

“…the city of Malacca, sacked it, slaughtered the Moors (Mohammedans)
who defended it, destroyed its twenty-five thousand houses abounding in
gold, pearls, precious stones, and spices, and on its site had built a fortress
with walls fifteen feet thick, out of the ruins of its mosques. The king, who
fought upon an elephant, was badly wounded and fled. Further, on hearing
of the victory, the King of Siam, from whom Malacca had been “usurped by
the Moors,” sent to the conqueror a cup of gold, a carbuncle, and a sword
inlaid with gold. This conquest was vaunted of as a great triumph of the
Cross over the Crescent, and as its result, by the year 1600 nearly the whole
commerce of the Straits had fallen into the hands of the Portuguese”.²⁶

British construction in the town included administrative buildings as well as residences. The most interesting example of the evolution of the city can be seen in buildings from the turn of the 20th century. An example is the former Malacca Club building. What is interesting here is that in some of the design, the mouldings, for instance, there are references to Peranakan design that had developed in the city. There are also hints of Islamic architecture, so that rather than a European building, this one is an abstraction of the local idiom.

There was not a large enough European civilian population to influence design. In fact, there was a reflection the other way, with Malaccan structures being built by the colonial power as a reflection of the Straits Chinese idiom. This is an interesting example that perhaps parallels the use of Indo-Saracenic architecture in British India. However, whereas that was a projection of an idealised design in big architecture, in tandem with the ideal of an exotic-science, classical-city design, the choice in Malacca was to draw on actual existing local architecture in decorative features.

Conclusion and Further Plans

Malacca offers a unique lens for comparing colonising strategies within a city site, both among different colonisers and over time as ideas of colonisation in Europe were evolving. The structures created as part of the built environment are significant for their visual effects, and psychological formation of the urban environment for the residents.

It is simplistic to see European colonies as attempting to replicate life at “home” because it is underpinned by an assumption that this was desired. Again, the definitional conflict of colony arises, because the desires of settlers in Nova Scotia, for instance, were greatly different from those of European settlers in Africa or Asia. As has been successfully argued, those who chose to go to Asia were self-selected individuals who did not want to live in Europe.²⁷ Malacca particularly, having a relatively small European population, was never going to mimic a European city, and gave more opportunities for access to the “exotic” by those seeking it.

Gilberto Freyre theorised Lusotropicalism, which he applied directly to Brazil, but which could usefully be applied to Malacca as well:

Unlike the activities of other Europeans in the Tropics, those of the
Portuguese have nearly always been an endeavour of great depth and
purpose, which had its (check) in some ways conscious and in other ways
methodical beginnings with Prince Henry. It was conscious of a Christian
mission meaning more than lip service, the sign of the cross and Sunday
observance; more practical, everyday and useful: and as has been noticed
already by more than one Franciscan observer, sociologically Franciscan. They
were, however, conscious that this mission did not mean subjugating oriental
peoples, cultures and values so that European men, values and imperialist
cultures could rule over them, if only superficially; but it meant a much
more complex process of adaptation, contemporisation, acclimatisation
and adjustment, in fact, of interpretation of values or cultures, as well as the
miscegenation they nearly always practiced.²⁸

Here again is a comparison between colonial powers, buttressed by Freyre’s claim that Moorish heritage gave the Portuguese a particular affinity for the tropics:

In the hot countries overseas the Portuguese were to find exaggerated or
intensified the colours and forms and women and landscapes, flavours,
scents, sensations, qualities in the soil and culture values that they knew
already in less intense, lively and less crude forms in the parts of Portugal
most deeply marked by Moorish occupation.²⁹

The merits of his argument are less in the discussion of Moorish influence and more in the exceptionalism of Portuguese tropical experience, which did differ from the practices of other colonisers. The fact that Malacca was left with a relatively large Portuguese Eurasian community which retained a strong community identity serves to demonstrate the greater success of the Portuguese in forming a society of different ethnic groups, and this became one of the key influences in Malacca’s development, setting it apart from other towns in (what is now) Malaysia.

The British and Dutch had a very different approach to colonisation, and there has yet to be a social theorist suggesting any affinity for tropicalism being heritable in those states. Regardless of Freyre’s dubious ethnographic claims, they do resonate as a state of mind and sense of national identity, as behaviour in colonies was seen to exemplify the essential national characteristics of each European group (in the eyes of their observers). This was overlaid in Malacca on the “condition of racial and cultural diversity characteristic of the region”.³⁰

The Useems devised the notion of the “third culture”, “the complex of patterns learned and shared by communities of men stemming from both a Western and a non-Western society who regularly interact as they relate their societies, or sections thereof, in the physical setting of non-Western societies”.³¹ This is particularly relevant to Malacca.

Malacca’s economic decline meant that it was not faced with rapid development in the landscape until the 20th century. This slow acculturation of different influences helped to create a hybrid community. It also contributed to the state of “antique modernity” the city found itself in at the end of the 19th century, leading Isabella Bird to describe her first sight of the city:

…a town of antiquated appearance, low houses, much colored, with flattish,
red-tiled roofs, many of them built on piles, straggling for a long distance,
and fringed by massive-looking bungalows, half buried in trees. A hill rises
near the middle, crowned by a ruined cathedral, probably the oldest Christian
church in the Far East, with slopes of bright green grass below, timbered near
their base with palms and trees of a nearly lemon-colored vividness of spring-green,
and there are glimpses of low, red roofs behind the hill. On either side
of the old-world-looking town and its fringe of bungalows are glimpses of
steep, reed roofs among the cocoa-palms. A long, deserted-looking jetty runs
far out into the shallow sea, a few Chinese junks lie at anchor, in the distance
a few Malay fishermen are watching their nets, but not a breath stirs, the sea
is without a ripple, the gray clouds move not, the yellow plumes of the palms
are motionless; the sea, the sky, the town, look all alike asleep in a still, moist,
balmy heat.³²

The influence of European colonisation as well as the Peranakan and Chitty communities meant that the city had an identity that was very different from other regions in its level of cosmopolitanism, reflecting a lot of what we ascribe to be the social condition of urban modernity. In further research I hope to analyse this more fully. This paper offers an introduction to those plans.

The author wishes to acknowledge the contributions of Dr Merennage Radin Fernando, Senior Fellow, Humanities & Social Studies Education, National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University, and Dr Ashley Wright, Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, in reviewing this paper.