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Looking through an autoethnographical lens, the authors analyse the reclaiming of the heritage name of Indonesian Peranakan Chinese in the Netherlands with regard to their sense of belonging and (translocational) positionality. The discussion is situated in the realm of (post)colonial ties between the country of birth and their current country of residence, against the backdrop of assimilationist policies of President Soeharto’s “New Order” after the regime change following the September 30, 1965, coup attempt (G30S). The authors’ own reflections were studied in combination with interviews, both formal and informal, and desk research to compose a narrative of active memories and stories told. How was the state-imposed name change experienced? Why did they choose to reclaim their Chinese name when applying for Dutch citizenship rendered that opportunity? Where can the affective bonds be found?

The authors’ own reflections were studied in combination with interviews, both formal and informal, and desk research to compose a narrative of active memories and stories told. How was the state-imposed name change experienced? Why did they choose to reclaim their Chinese name when applying for Dutch citizenship rendered that opportunity? Where do the affective bonds lie?

The reclaiming of the heritage name has a different resonance in the sense of belonging for different generational cohorts. In the specific post-colonial Dutch context - for the generation of our interviewees and of our parents - it represents an active re-positioning of one’s self as having Chinese ancestry (the name I was born with), not because they wanted to renounce their Indonesian connection but because they were forced to make a choice. For us, the authors, it was more a matter of: because we were raised with this name.

This article is a response to the appeal to expand the scarce literature published on the Peranakan Chinese group in the Netherlands (e.g. Tjiook–Liem, 2017; Van der Meer and Eickhoff, 2017; Ang, 2005; Li, 1999) who live in a fascinating (post)colonial positionality comprising of Chinese ancestry, Indonesian background and the Dutch (new) home country. Studies on this group barely mention the consequences of name change for their belonging (Healy, 2020) and positionality (Anthias, 2012).

This article reports on findings from interviews with ICT-based content creators whose work focuses on documenting and curating queer history and culture. The research specifically examines how as amateur historians, the participant’s embodied knowledge plays a central role in how they engage with discourse about queer historical figures, methods of queer historiography and community accountability.

The research deploys a queer constructivist framework to qualitatively gather and analyzes the semi-structured interviews of 31 North American content creators who curate digital project related to queer history and culture. The interviews were gathered between August 2022 and August 2023.

The research highlights how the subjectivity of queer embodiment aids, rather than hinders, participants' ability to collaborate with LGBTQIA+ communities while also addressing more significant ethical questions around intersectionality and inclusive historiographic work.

The content creators’ own positionality and commitments to community accountability and queer inclusivity fostered richer stories and historical documentation, while also helping make visible queer identity as affirming and valuable within queer culture. Additionally, practical implications include highlighting the value of ICT-based content within the distribution of educational and informational resources related to queer history.

This research offers an underexamined intersection of historiography and queer embodiment. While extensive scholarship on institutional and community-based historiography work exist the content creators interviewed within this study exist within the space of both, often using a combination of embodied knowledge and traditional curatorial work to translate between such spaces, inviting, in turn, new ways of thinking about queer archival knowledge.