There are people who honestly
believe the typical Dutchman lives in a windmill, wears clogs, eats
cheese and every now and then has to stick his finger in the dyke
to prevent the tulip-fields from flooding. It´s an image
which is totally out of touch with reality. But it's so persistent,
it makes you wonder where these stereotypes come from. In this
case, however, it seems the Dutch have created it themselves. In
fact, the whole tulip-windmill-clog thing is an example of
successful image-building. And now we're stuck with it. Dr Ad de
Jong of the Open Air Museum in Arhem explains the origins of these
clichés.
"It's an image that has existed from the beginning of the 19th century. A lot of people collected folk culture from small villages, these collections would then be brought together in a national exhibition. Doing so makes a local culture nationalised. These would then go to international
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Danger From Progress
"From this very
local image, people composed a national image. They did it because
they thought it was very important to use elements from folk
culture to present national identity and to promote typical Dutch
products, made in Holland."
In the 19th
century, people started to feel the need to preserve elements of
folk culture, which they thought to be at the basis of the national
identity. Museums were founded where clothing, utensils and
folk-art was collected. The influence of modern society was causing
traditional ways of life to disappear, says Dr de Jong.
Own Identity
"It was in danger because of
industrialisation and progress. All the countries were making more
or less the same products and so you had to have something to make
a distinction between the Dutch and the British product, for
example. Regional costumes were very important, and windmills too.
I think what is typical Dutch is that this image was also created
by painters who were popular in The Netherlands and in America.
Many people bought those paintings. They won prizes in major
exhibitions and were then reproduced in illustrated magazines,
distributing the image all over the whole world."
So the cliché images of The Netherlands are remnants of a
time long gone, and in fact only represent certain parts of the
country, not the whole. The world famous costume with the white
pointy cap, black skirt and colourfully striped apron is not a
national costume of any kind, but was worn only in the fishing
village Volendam. Other provinces and towns 
used to have
completely different traditional outfits.
Global Image
Only a fraction of the number of
windmills that used to be a common sight here still exist, and most
of them aren't operational any more. The whole nation isn't covered
in tulip fields, we've long traded the clogs for sneakers and I bet
the French eat just as much cheese as we do here. To sum things up:
the clichéd image of The Netherlands has nothing to do with
reality. Isn't it harmful to our modern, industrialised country to
be associated with windmills and clogs? Dr de Jong doesn't think
so.
"I think it's very important to be associated with something in this global world. We should take those images and use them to our advantage."
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Tags: clogs, dutch, stereotype, tulips, windmill