Sentiling: A Grandeur Erased from History

In 1914, Semarang stands at the edge of a new century.

Steam engines roar, tram bells ring, automobiles begin to replace horse carriages, and the city believes it is stepping confidently into modernity. At the heart of this transformation rises the Koloniale Tentoonstelling—a grand colonial exhibition meant to display progress, prosperity, and the promise of the future.

For Lie Yeng, a young Chinese in Nederlands East Indies, draftsman working for the Office of architect Maclaine Pont, as representative of powerful Kian Gwan concern, the exhibition becomes more than an assignment. It is a turning point in life. Through his eyes, the reader walks through pavilions glowing with electric lights, festive boulevards inspired by the Champs-Élysées, shadowed kampongs echoing with gamelan, and crowded marketplaces where hope and anxiety intertwine.

As the city celebrates modern machines—trams, trains, and automobiles—another movement grows quietly beneath the surface. Workers begin to question injustice. Merchants gamble their fortunes. Colonial certainty slowly fractures under economic loss, cultural division, and political awakening.

Love also finds its fragile place amid the noise of progress. In moments of tenderness beneath café terraces and electric lamps, Lie Yeng must choose between ambition and loyalty, between a future promised by Europe and a heart rooted in Semarang.

When the exhibition finally closes, it does not end with triumph. Buildings are dismantled, iron is sold as scrap, dreams scatter, and the city is left to confront what truly remains. What disappears is not merely architecture, but a moment in history—brilliant, conflicted, and never to return.

Blending historical realism with intimate personal reflection, this novel captures Semarang as both machine and melody: a city driven by industry yet sustained by memory, faith, and human connection. Written with lyrical sensitivity, it reveals colonial society not from its centers of power, but from the lives of those who lived between worlds.

A story of progress and loss, love and awakening, this is a portrait of a city before it vanished from the earth.