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Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Chinese cemeteries in Semarang

the city grew and engulfed the Chinese cemeteries, as occasionally used gravestones as building materials. For
shown in Figures 7 and 8. example, a gravestone with Chinese inscriptions was
From the 1950s to 1975, Semarang expanded gradually used as a gutter lid (Figure 9). A similar situation was
without any city planning. An informal settlement documented in the Kedungmundu sub-district. Some
developed in the hilly southwest region of the city center, Chinese buried their treasures along with the deceased for
close to the sub-district government offices and in the use on the trip to the afterlife. Consequently, newcomers
vicinity of the first- and third-oldest Chinese graves. at Mrican’s Chinese Cemetery did more than merely
These urban kampungs gradually grew to the east, south transform the cemetery into a kampung; they plundered
of the new business district. Consequently, the Chinese the graves as well. The illustrative maps of Semarang
cemeteries on the surrounding hills were engulfed by the in 1975 and 1995 show that city expansion engulfed the
expanding kampungs. Figures 9 and 10 show the situation Chinese cemeteries, leaving only one Chinese cemetery in
of kampungs that previously were Chinese cemeteries. the city by 1995 (Figures 11 and 12).

Fieldwork in Candisari Kampung, sub-district However, public authorities frequently proved unable
Tegalwareng, revealed that the kampung residents to provide suitable housing conditions for immigrants.
Squatting on any vacant property was, in practice, the only
choice for migrants. Semarang’s Chinese cemeteries were
an ideal target for squatting, given their close proximity to
the city center. The area beneath the hill where the Chinese
cemeteries were located was the site of new development in
Semarang since colonial times, and the city administration
continued this strategy afterward. The vacant land near the
new business center offered migrants important locational

Figure 7. Locations of Chinese-Indonesian cemeteries (A – I) at Semarang in
1945. Source: Drawing by Kezia Dewi based on the colonial map from NILLMIJ
(Nederlandsch-Indische Levensverzekering- en Lijfrente-Maatschappij),
literature on the Chinese community in Semarang, and fieldwork

Figure 9. Chinese gravestone as a gutter lid at Tegalwareng. Source:
Photograph by Kezia Dewi

Figure 8. Chinese cemeteries (A – I) and Semarang city’s expansion in Figure 10. A Chinese grave in front of a house at the kampung. Source:
1955. Source: Drawing by Kezia Dewi based on city expansion map Photograph by Kezia Dewi

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.3254