Review: "Ca Bau Kan" by Nia Dinata

This 2002 movie, also known by the name The Courtesan, is based on a novel with the same name by Remy Sylado. I have not read the novel properly, so I cannot say whether the movie is better or worse than the novel in delivering the story to the audience. Sylado said in the novel that ca bau kan is a term derived from Hokkian dialect. Google search yields this as hanzi for ca bau kan - 查某根. Sylado said the original meaning of the word is 'woman', but gradually the meaning degrades into 'whore, mistress, prostitute'.

In the beginning, we are introduced to a Dutch woman with Asian features landed in Indonesia. She went to a house decorated with Chinese paraphernalia - namely, an altar dedicated to a couple whose photographs were hung in such position so that the altar was between them. The wife is very pribumi looking - pribumi means a person, especially an Indonesian, with no Chinese antecendant in his/ her family tree - while the husband is clearly of Chinese descent.

The story then began to unfurl.

Tinung was a Betawi (Batavian) woman who lived during the rule of Dutch colonial and Japanese and independent Indonesia. She married young to a polygamist fisherman, but then her husband died, left her pregnant. As the youngest wife, this situation put her in disadvantages. The other wives shunned her and poisoned her mother-in-law's mind, causing her to evict Tinung. Tinung, broken-hearted, obliged and lost her baby due to the stress.

Afterwards, her mother urged her to 'be useful and contribute something to family coffers' by becoming a ca bau kan (courtesan) on boats on Kali Jodo, under her aunt's wings.

Soon, she attracted some admirers, one of them became her protector, quote-unquote. Tan Peng Liang of Gang Tamim, a moneylender, brought her to his house and kept her. Tinung got pregnant, but one day she ran for her life after she witnessed a particularly grisly murder by Peng Liang's centeng (bodyguards) because one of the debtor was unable to pay his debt on time. Tinung had no choice beside returning to Kali Jodo and continued her old profession as a courtesan.

In the meantime, a tauke (Chinese merchant), also named Tan Peng Liang, appeared. He is portrayed by Ferry Salim.

He freely distributed money to the crowd who attended the festival, even though they were in the middle of malaise, which means most people had limited amount of money. His actions incited the wrath and envy of the influential Batavian Chinese merchants, the members of Kong Koan. At this festival, Tan Peng Liang first laid his eyes on Tinung.

The Kong Koan members turned their noses up at Tan Peng Liang since he was not a pure-blooded Chinese - his mother was a Javanese royal. The money-throwing incident was then further exarcebated when Tan Peng Liang showed some intimacy with the Batavian governor at that time after the governor put out a quarrel during Peh Cun festival. At this festival, the fateful second encounter between Tan Peng Liang and Tinung took place. Tinung had become a cokek dancer. In order to be a cokek dancer, one must be able to sing and dance at the same time. Cokek is one of the traditional dances exists in Indonesia. After seeing this movie, to be honest I am interested to try learning cokek. It is flirtatious but not vulgar. But where can I learn it T_T

Thus, began the relationship between Tan Peng Liang, a Semarang Chinese babah and Tinung (full name Siti Noerhajati), a Batavian. Their relationship was quite salacious to begin with, since Tinung was a courtesan with a child and Tan Peng Liang was a married man with an invalid wife and two sons. For that time in Indonesian Chinese standard, Peng Liang's life was quite perfect. He had sons to carry on family name, he had a lucrative business, and he had no worry as to who to continue the business since his nephew, Soe Bie, was proven competent and clever enough. Adding a beautiful courtesan as his kept woman was completely his rights (by that time standards), but bringing the said courtesan into his house, acknowledged her as his, solely as his, accepted the courtesan's daughter and even named her, and brought the courtesan to a temple (Sam Poo Kong in Semarang, Central Java) where his 'legal' family (including wife) usually prayed was a slap to his older wife's face. To top the insult, Peng Liang introduced the pregnant Tinung to his parents.

Peng Liang was also quite unique as a Chinese. He wanted a daughter from Tinung. As far as I know, the Chinese, especially the ones lived at that time, valued boys more than girls. Maybe it was because he is a Chinese babah, not a totok. Chinese babah means the Chinese that had intermarried with the locals, while the totok Chinese are the Chinese that do not intermarry at all. The totok still retain Chinese customs, mostly are still capable to speak and write Chinese, while the babah are not. My family, both from the father and mother side, are babah. But some pribumi still view the Chinese as outsiders - both the babah and totok.

I first watched Ca Bau Kan when I was very young - maybe during Imlek (Chinese New Year) eleven years ago. I remember asking my grandfather, "So, Grandpa, is Tan Peng Liang a good character?" And he answered, "No, he isn't." Then I asked innocently, "Then we should root against him, shouldn't we?" My grandpa's answer surprised me then. He said, "No, we should expect him to win." I kept asking him why did he give such an answer. I did not understand then. Now, I do.

There is no way a honest man can make loads of money during malaise. When I know how Peng Liang acquired his wealth, I felt nothing. I agreed with his methods. But when the story writer introduced nationalism as a reason behind Peng Liang's actions, I felt a little bit annoyed. I don't think that it is a necessary addition. Portraying him as a money-hungry man is completely okay for me. Maybe some viewers have different opinion?

Peng Liang's mother had first warned Tinung that it will be tricky to marry a Chinese, since they view themselves as superior older siblings. She must be patient. I agree that some Chinese tends to act like that and have that kind of mindset. Some still considers that they are superior to the pribumi. The fact that I still use the Chinese - pribumi terms should be a warning for you. Until today, it is completely normal to call a person a Sundanese, Javanese, Padang, Batak, Balinese, Dayak - anything but a Cina because it sounds discriminative. Sometimes, a Chinese will be asked, "Are you a Chinese?" And he/ she will answer, "No, I'm an Indonesian." But still, it is still there, the odd Chinese vs. pribumi gap. I wonder why, I always wonder why. The people from Arabic descent doesn't encounter such problem. In Indonesia, it's exclusive for people with Chinese descent.

But, Peng Liang didn't treat Tinung as his inferior. He loved her. He might be unfaithful to her for several occasions, but it was solely for business purposes. Tinung also loved Peng Liang. Tinung might be uneducated, but I don't know, Peng Liang just loved her and kept coming back for her. As one of his Kong Koan rival said, "Itu semua gara-gara ca bau kan-nya yang mengisap lebih kuat daripada besi sembrani*!" (It's all because of his ca bau kan, who attracts him stronger than a magnet!"). Tinung's reasons for loving Peng Liang were clear as the day. Peng Liang accepted her daughter - he didn't have to; and provided her with food, shelter, warmth, comfort, and attention.

I think Nia Dinata did a quite good work in Ca Bau Kan. Some details must be made clear, though. Not all people know that Giok Lan is a common Chinese peranakan girl's name - the scene where Peng Liang said that he wanted a new Giok Lan from Tinung might have confused some people unfamiliar with Chinese peranakan culture (Chinese peranakan: people of Chinese descent who no longer live in mainland Chinese). And the bitter remark Oey Eng Goan made about, "Tan Peng Liang... seh Tan memang setan!" ("Tan Peng Liang... Tan people is indeed, Satan!") should be explained in some way because not every Indonesian is familiar with this kind of joke. Seh Tan roughly means 'Tan surname'. She selected good soundtracks, best costumes, and the properties decently represented that era. Some of the players were clearly not of Chinese descent, and the 'yellow make-up' were sometimes a bit exaggerated for me... All of the who portrayed Japanese soldiers, some of who portrayed Dutch, and some of who portrayed Chinese were not from the ethnicity/ race they were supposed to be and in some cases the make up were not convincing enough or exaggerated. I will show some of the examples below. Ferry Salim did a quite convincing imitation of Javanese dialect, though, to my Sundanese ears.

The woman's make up

Supposed to be a Dutch

Anyway, visual-wise, Ca Bau Kan is a beautiful movie.

And thank you very much for casting Ferry Salim!

Forgetting to breathe

Bitch please I'm fabulous

It also featured some scenes displaying Indonesian Chinese customs, for example, funeral-related ones.

The funeral was a lavish one since the thing burned was A COMPLETE SET OF MINIATURE HOUSE WITH FURNITURES! Ahem. So, per the custom I understand, when someone dies the living relatives must burn some sacrifices such as money (not real money, special money) and the person's favourite thing. Miniature house, complete with miniature furnitures, is something only rich people can afford. When my grandpa died, we burned a pack of cigarettes (his favourite brand), broke his watch and glass, and burned a LOT of money. We chose to let him do the shopping himself in the afterlife market :D We didn't garb ourselves in white, though.

The tomb is a common Chinese tomb as well, though it is A BIT uncommon. It is customary that husband and wife are buried side by side - but the uncommon thing is that the tomb contained Tan Peng Liang and Tinung. Where is the final resting place of his official wife? It is understandable that the altar only had Tinung and Peng Liang's photo side by side, since it is an altar dedicated for them by their son, but the tomb?

The scene where Tinung and the other dancers sang 'Sirih Kuning' (Yellow Betel) and 'Laju Perahu' (Row the Boat) is my favourite scene with one nagging detail. How dare Tinung sang about 'our heroes' in 'Laju Perahu' without being afraid of attracting the wrath of the attending governor of Batavia?

Ca Bau Kan is not a perfect movie, but I love it since it features Chinese peranakan culture heavily. It is also an eye candy, this movie. The score is definitely 9/ 10.

By the way, my favourite dialogues and scenes from this movie would be these.

Romance

Tinung sat with Tan Peng Liang looking at the stars. It all started because Tinung cried because she felt literally like a trash for being unable to bear her husband another child. Peng Liang consoled his wife and this dialogue ensued.

Tinung (T): Which one is farther? That star (pointing) or Batavia?

Peng Liang (P): (in soothing tone) Definitely the star, Nung.

T: Is there a war on the star?

P: If the Dutch exist there, surely there is.

T: (with anger) But the Japanese are much crueler! (alluding to her perils as 従軍慰安婦)

Why? My mother wouldn't answer as nicely as Peng Liang. Tinung was so childlike and her knowledge was quite limited, but Peng Liang loved her all the same. A very touching scene. This scene then leads to my second favourite scene...

Fury

"Percaya? Percaya sama ular seperti lu itu? Sudah ada tertulis, kalau ular itu harus dibikin remuk kepalanya!"

Roughly translated:

"Believing you? Believing a snake like you? It is written that the serpent's head must be crushed!"

-Peng Liang to his enemy-

Afterwards, he shot his enemy.

Nice.

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*The fact that Remy Sylado used besi sembrani instead of magnet makes me like him more, it feels more artistic. Thanks, Nia Dinata, for including this small dialogue in this movie and retain the original wording.

#oldrepertoire #theindelible