Regulating Dutch–Chinese marriages and relationships in the Netherlands (1920–1945)

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute to The History of the Family by researching the historical relationship between family and state, and the roles that the concepts of 'race' and 'mixture' played. To this end, it analyzes the regulation of Chinese–Dutch marriages in the interwar period and Second World War in the Netherlands. It argues that the ways in which these interracial marriages were regulated were informed by colonial discourses on the Chinese as racialized others. This resulted in a systematic pattern of exclusion of Chinese migrants in the Netherlands, in which they were registered, fingerprinted, counted and deported. Part of these discourses focused on Chinese 'interracial' marriages with Dutch white women. This resulted in the 'regulation of mixture' in which state officials aimed to prevent such marriages, through migration law, document requirements and premarital counseling. During the war, these marriages were considered a 'racial shame' and relationships were broken up by arresting Chinese husbands before marriage. More research is needed to learn more about the extent of these practices and to know whether they were applied to racialized groups other than Chinese.