Chinese-Indonesians in the Netherlands still feel the pull of home
- The experiences of the diaspora in the Netherlands have not been as well documented as those who resettled in Hong Kong and Singapore
- Some Chinese-Indonesians in the Netherlands ‘still live in the atmosphere’ of Indonesia, despite their years away
Entrepreneur Huihan Lie, 42, grew up in the Dutch provinces of Gelderland and Groningen and found it “just strange” when he realised he was the only student of Chinese descent in his class who spoke fluent Dutch and had an Indonesian background – compared with some other students at his school or in his village who had migrated from mainland China and had parents speaking Mandarin or other Chinese languages at home with them.
His paternal grandfather, who sold tobacco to European cigar factories, believed there was a brighter future there, as he and his family were fluent in Dutch, having grown up in Indonesia under the colonial rule of the Netherlands, which lasted for several hundred years before Japan occupied the country during World War II.
