Stories from Medan, Volume 1

“What a lovely book, enhanced as it is by so many rare photographs. The authors should be congratulated. They have produced a fitting tribute to a fine city and its cosmopolitan inhabitants both old and new. Filled with the historical detail that will interest scholars, Stories from Medan should also appeal to a broad, general, readership.”

–Dr. Michael R. Godley, author of The Mandarin-Capitalists from Nanyang  

Stories from Medan, Volume 1 offers a rich and immersive exploration of the city’s remarkable transformation from a small settlement into one of Southeast Asia’s most dynamic colonial plantation centres. Blending meticulous archival research with narrative flair, the book recreates the historical atmosphere of Medan and the lives of the people who shaped it.

Divided into three parts, the book traces Medan’s rapid rise within the global plantation economy, explores the experiences and contributions of its diverse communities, and examines the fortunes of European and Chinese enterprises that defined the city’s commercial and social landscape. Drawing on archives from the Netherlands, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Switzerland, and beyond, alongside rare photographs and personal interviews, the authors illuminate both prominent figures and everyday lives. By situating local developments within wider global currents, the book reveals Medan as a truly cosmopolitan city shaped by ambition, migration, and exchange.

Budiman Minasny is Professor of Soil Science at the University of Sydney and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science. Originally from Medan, he has published on the region’s history alongside his internationally recognised work in soil mapping and modelling. He is also a member of the China Studies Centre at Sydney University.

Dirk Aedsge Buiskool  is a historian. He was lecturing in history at the Groningen Volksuniversiteit and the University of North Sumatra. In Medan he co-founded Tri Jaya Tour & Travel and Hotel Deli River. Dirk contributed to different historical journals and books and published the award-winning book De reis van Harm Kamerlingh Onnes . In 2019, he received his PhD from Utrecht University with the thesis "Prominent Chinese During the Rise of a Colonial City: Medan 1890-1942."