Dutch doll 'Hansie' : Miss Joyce Avasia, Chapei Internment Camp, Shanghai

Carved wooden doll with painted face. This doll is dressed in traditional Dutchman's costume with a red cloth cap, checked shirt, blue neckerchief and baggy yellow trousers. Doll has one crocheted 'clog' but is missing the other one. The hair is made from yellow knitted fabric.

This Dutch doll was made by a Dutch Internee at the Chapei Internment Camp, Shanghai China. The doll, named 'Hansie', was given as a gift to 11 year old Joyce Avasia, at Christmas, 1943.

Chapei “Civilian Assembly Centre”, near Shanghai in China, was operated by the Japanese as an internment camp; it eventually held over 1,000 men, women, and children. While most of these internees were US citizens, there were also about 100 Dutch families, as well as many other nationalities.

Joyce Avasia and her family were living at Hankow (or Hankou) on the Yangtze River when Japanese troops arrived in 1941. As Eurasians, they were considered potentially hostile, and were confined to their home. In early 1943, the family was moved to Shanghai and interned in the camp at Chapei. Avasia, then aged 11, recalled the pains taken to make life as normal as possible for the children, especially around Christmas. Red Cross tins were fashioned into decorations, and their labels made into paper chains. As a Christmas gift in 1943, Joyce received “Hansie”, a traditional doll made by one of the Dutch internees.

Joyce Avasia later married and settled in Australia, bringing the treasured Hansie with her.