A slice of local history in Malang

A slice of local history in Malang

Dewi Anggraeni, Contributor, Malang

While it would be interesting to see a demographic study of
the types of people various hotels are seeking to attract as
guests, it would be equally enlightening to see how unusual and
idiosyncratic hotels come to have their unique characteristics.

If you happen to visit Malang in East Java, are prepared to
linger a little, and are curious about the cultural history of
Java, then try staying at Tugu Park Hotel. It has a surprise
waiting each time you turn a corner, and it has an ambience like
no other hotel.

You feel as if the owner, Anhar Setyadibrata, has recreated a
slice of life in the 20th century, which you are free to sample,
segment by segment.

Everything you come across, touch, or smell, does not evoke
the modern world of the 21st century, though modern technology
certainly plays an important part in the hotel, albeit
discreetly.

Anhar Setyadibrata, founder and owner of the hotel, admits to
being "a man of the past". His passion is retrieving and
salvaging what people today have discarded, He will then store
the items until he can rebuild a coherent segment of life, like
building a jigsaw puzzle.

One such recreation is Waroeng Shanghai, a cafe-bar in the
hotel.

Entering the cafe-bar is like stepping onto a stage by
mistake. You do not know exactly what drama is being played out,
but it has the feel of the lives of the early 20th century
Chinese-Javanese. On the walls are old color and black-and-white
photographs of Chinese women in cheongsam, of babah and nyonya as
couples or en famille, of Dutch colonial Chinese kapiteins, all
competing for space with ancient grandfather clocks and signs in
Chinese characters.

The decor and the furniture are realistically eclectic, just
as a waroeng of that era would not have acquired a distinguished
set of furniture from a particular merchant. And, faithful to
that period, the interior is semi-dark and cluttered, so much so
that the tell-tale, rather modern television set blended in
quietly, almost eluding unwanted critical attention.

The place is indeed a recreated rendition -- Anhar's version -
of the original Waroeng Shanghai, a lively cafe-bar, frequented
by traders and sailors, in Sunda Kelapa, the harbor north of
Batavia, the then Dutch East Indies' Jakarta.

The cafe-bar was owned by an ethnic Chinese entrepreneur named
Chan Mo Sang, who was also well-known for his expertise in making
quality furniture. He was a regular supplier of Dutch households
and businesses. One of his signature pieces was his barber's
chairs, and of course, Anhar made sure he found a couple to help
recreate the atmosphere in his own Waroeng Shanghai.

Chan Mo Sang the owner of Waroeng Shanghai in Sunda Kelapa may
have learned carpentry and cabinet-making from his father, Chan
Mo Sang senior, an immigrant from Shanghai who at the beginning
of the 20th century, had established himself as a building
contractor in Java.

The fact that he married a local Betawi woman, named Siti
Djaenab who had excellent cooking skills, as well as tea and
coffee-making, must have triggered their combined entrepreneurial
spirit. Siti Djaenab learned Shanghai cuisine from her mother-in-
law and mastered it in no time. And voila, they had all the
wherewithal to start a cafe-bar. Not just any cafe-bar, but
Waroeng Shanghai, which was to be a landmark for locals and
visitors to the commercially burgeoning harbor. It was always
well-patronized, and every night people were dancing till the wee
hours in the morning, eating supper and drinking tea and coffee
in between the numbers.

The couple, Chan Mo Sang and Siti Djaenab reportedly believed
in a hands-on approach in their cafe-bar. Every night, they would
come and chat with their clients, assuring them that they would
always be served good food and drinks, and wishing them eternal
happiness. This winning approach brought them success for many
years.

Having assiduously rebuilt the current Waroeng Shanghai piece
by piece, Anhar hopes that its patrons can now relive the feeling
and the ambience of its name-sake of the past century, while
imagining themselves eating the food and drinking tea and coffee
lovingly made by Siti Djaenab herself. One thing which may be
very difficult to do is transplant the bawdiness of Sunda Kelapa
harbor into such a clean-living city as Malang. And it may not be
easy for Anhar and his wife to employ a modern version of Chan Mo
Sang and Siti Djaenab's winning approach, as they have a lot more
than Waroeng Shanghai to attend to.

In fact, the idiosyncrasy of Tugu Park Hotel does not stop at
Waroeng Shanghai either. If you are curious, it is worth paying a
visit, even if you do not intend to stay there as a guest.