Amongst the Chinese themselves a nationalist movement emerged which fostered a corporate identity amongst the Indonesian Chinese, pride in China and Chinese culture, and a sense of shame amongst the peranakan Chinese over their lack of command of the Chinese language and the extent to which Indonesian customs and beliefs had adulterated their style of life. It is significant that the forerunner of Chinese nationalism in Indonesia, the Tiong Hoa Hwe Koan (THHK—Chinese Association), was originally established in 1900 for the purpose of propagating a purified Confucianism and that the THHK felt that purpose could best be achieved by first of a multitude of modem organizations in which Indonesian Chinese were to congregate to pursue the aims of their group. There voluntary associations, which included every conceivable field of interest ranging from economic and political to religious or recreational, were diverse, but what they had in common was the mobilization of the Chinese in modern organizations rather than through the traditional boards of Dutch-appointed officers (kongkoan) or the secret societies. The now organizations inducted a much larger number of Chinese into organization life; and it was a life which did not extend similar membership to Indonesians. Not only did schools and a host of associations now flourish, but also a vigorous press consisting of newspapers and periodicals in either Chinese or Malay, catered for the Chinese population.
The Dutch met the challenge posed by the Chinese national awakening in the Indies by trying to wean away the locally-born Chinese from the immigrants. In 1908 they began to establish a new type of primary school exclusively for Chinese children in which Dutch was the medium of instruction (HCS-Hollands Chineesche Scholen). Befire this time very few Chinese children had been able to obtain a Dutch education; thereafter the peranakan Chinese showed a clear preference for it rather than a Chinese schooling. But the now schools still segregated the Chinese from the Indonesians, even if at secondary and tertiary level this was no longer the case. In 1910 a nationality law was passed by which all Chinese born in the Indies whose parents resided there were declared to be Dutch subjects (onderdanen) and in 1911 a consular agreement was entered into with the Chinese imperial government under which it was agreed that the nationality of the Chinese should be interpreted in each case in accordance with the law of the country of domicile. The combined effect of this law and the consular agreement was, in substance, to exclude the peranakan and Indies-born totok Chinese from the jurisdiction of the Chinese consuls (who began to arrive in the Indies in 1912). The imposition of this Dutch subject status with no right of repudiation was resented by the nationalist-minded Chinese, who pointed out that Dutch subjects who were Netherlanders were given more favorable treatment than those who were not. The nationality law of 1910 was designed to assert Dutch rights over the Indies-born Chinese against the claims made by the Chinese government in its nationality law of 1909. It was not intended to promote a sense of common nationality amongst the Indonesians and the Chinese born in the Indies. Similarly, when the Dutch government established the Volksraad (People's Council) in 1918, it was the Indies-born Chinese who were to be represented rather than the ethnic Chinese population; but at the same time, the Chinese were given separate representation from indigenous Indonesians (and a representation which was disproportionately large for their numbers).