Chinese Indonesians Research Articles

From Hwakyo to Hwain : Changing Identities of Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during the Colonial and the Cold War Era

From Hwakyo to Hwain : Changing Identities of Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during the Colonial and the Cold War Era

The Interdependent Family‐Centric Career: Career Perspective of the Overseas Chinese in Indonesia

This theoretical article presents an interdisciplinary approach to extend the scope of current career theories and their application to the overseas Chinese (OC) in Indonesia. Using an ecological model to analyze culture and an emic perspective, the article discusses several factors that affect careers of OC Indonesians. Factors such as culture, discrimination, subjective careers, Confucian values, and family business structure are discussed as variables that create a bounded career perspective. This conceptual view is used as a foundation to discuss the needs for future research and the development of a cross‐cultural career model that is applicable in bounded career environments.

Cosmopolitan Visions: Ethnic Chinese and the Photographic Imagining of Indonesia in the Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial Periods

The history of photography in Indonesia reveals Chinese Indonesians—members of a marginalized, transnational minority—as active participants in the project of nation making, rendering visible the cosmopolitan origins of national formations. In the early postcolonial period, Chinese Indonesian amateur and studio photographers acted as cultural brokers who mediated global currents and reworked colonial-era conventions to forge new national visual idioms. The specific cosmopolitanisms of these two distinct groups of ethnic Chinese photographers yielded divergent iconographies that have remained important strands in Indonesia's visual and political culture, in which a nostalgic ideology of the “asli” (authentic, original, or indigenous) competes with an outward-looking vision of Indonesia as a location from which to participate in global modernity.

Chaos under the New Order: The Socio-Political Dimension of the Chinese in Indonesia as seen from the Riots of 1994–1998

Chaos under the New Order: The Socio-Political Dimension of the Chinese in Indonesia as seen from the Riots of 1994–1998

<i>Huozai biechu. Xianggang Yinni huaren koushu lishi (Life is Elsewhere: Stories of the Indonesian Chinese in Hong Kong)</i> (review)

<i>Huozai biechu. Xianggang Yinni huaren koushu lishi (Life is Elsewhere: Stories of the Indonesian Chinese in Hong Kong)</i> (review)

Indonesia and China Today

There is a lively debate about the ‘China effect’ on economies in Southeast Asia that have embarked on industrialization in recent years.Will rapid growth and structural transformation of the Chinese economy undermine competitiveness in international markets of a low-wage country like Indonesia? This contribution focuses on the new challenges faced by industrialization policies in Indonesia with specific attention given to Chinese exports of similar types of products. Statistics on trade flows and revealed comparative advantage are discussed.This article also contains a historical background referring to two separate themes. The first concerns the economic position of Indonesians of Chinese descent, which goes far back in history. What does the ‘China effect’ mean to Indonesia, keeping in mind that a significant part of the Indonesian economy is dominated by Chinese Indonesians? Second, the necessity of an accelerated industrialization is considered in the context of the extreme dependence on world markets for an economy rich in natural resources like the Indonesian one. Does industrialization in competition with China imply exchanging one type of dependence for another?

Chinese Indonesians in a rapidly changing nation: Pressures of ethnicity and identity

Abstract: Throughout periods of political instability and economic adversity – from Dutch colonial rule, through President Suharto's period in office, to more recent times – ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have been recurrent scapegoats for violence. Suharto, especially, manipulated local perceptions of the Chinese in the economic and political arenas, to suit the needs of his government. Yet, circumstances have changed since the 1998 riots in Indonesia and Suharto's departure. Subsequent presidents have introduced legislation aimed at reducing legal restrictions on Chinese Indonesians and they, in turn, are beginning to have greater public voice through a diversity of outlets. These include the growth of numerous new print and television media; a flourishing literature sphere; the rise of a variety of political parties, both ethnicity‐based and more wide‐ranging; and the development of non‐political organisations, some tackling discrimination and others focusing upon Chinese sociocultural needs. These channels are facilitating the appearance of new and re‐emerging ethnic Chinese identities, some surfacing from over 30 years of imposed dormancy. This paper is a preliminary investigation of manifestations of these identities among ethnic Chinese in Indonesia's contemporary public realm.

Conference and Workshop: Decolonisation and the Position of the Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia 1930-1960 (Padang, 19-21 June 2006)

Conference and Workshop: Decolonisation and the Position of the Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia 1930-1960 (Padang, 19-21 June 2006)

Management control, culture and ethnicity in a Chinese Indonesian company

This study explores socio-cultural aspects of management control in a Chinese Indonesian manufacturing company. Ethnographic data collection methods were combined with grounded theory data analysis to explore how cultures, ethnic differences, history, politics, and commercial considerations shaped management controls. A combination of emic and etic methods were used to generate grounded comparisons with nomethetic research on culture and control in a cultural contingency tradition. Chinese Indonesians own most Indonesian private domestic capital despite being an ethnic minority (3–4% of population) and having suffered extensive discrimination. The case links the Chinese businessmen’s values to socialisation during childhood and then examines how their interaction with the Javanese culture of pribumi employees, ethnic tensions between employers and employees, and organisational and economic factors affected management control. Consistent with previous cultural contingency research the Chinese owners’ preferences resided with controlling behaviour through personnel and behavioural controls, low budget participation, centralisation, subjective rather than objective controls, and tentatively, few rewards tied to results and the use of group rewards. Whether Chinese managers exhibited longer term orientations concerning planning and rewards could not be ascertained. However, ethnic tensions and commercial considerations mitigated the owners’ ability to control according to cultural preferences. Based upon these findings reflections on past research and suggestions for further developments are made with respect to methods, methodology, and incorporating a broader range of theories and issues, especially ethnicity, politics, and history.

‘Chinese’ Indonesians in national cinema1

Through much of post‐colonial history and particularly during the so‐called ‘New Order’ (under General Suharto), Indonesian citizens of ethnic Chinese descent have been caught in a strangely ambiguous position: they have enjoyed enormous economic power while at the same time being threatened with politico‐cultural effacement. This paper is an attempt to understand that ambiguity in relation to the Indonesian cinema – both around questions of industry history and around issues of representation of national and ethnic identity on screen. The paper traces the presence, the erasure and the absent‐presence of Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority from the establishment of a film industry in Indonesia in the 1930s to the post‐New Order political shifts, opening up possibilities for a new public discourse of Chineseness. I argue however that the openness of current Indonesian culture and politics, while providing the necessary condition for re‐imagining the Chinese Indonesians, does not ensure a radical shift in a politics of representation, deeply embedded in the textual practices of the film industry and more widely in the cultural and political history of modern Indonesia.

Assimilation, multiculturalism, hybridity: The dilemmas of the ethnic chinese in post-suharto Indonesia1

The dominant discourse in accommodating the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during Suharto's regime was one of assimilation, which forcefully aimed to absorb this minority into the national body. However, continuous official discrimination towards the Chinese placed them in a paradoxical position that made them an easy target of racial and class hostility. The May 1998 anti-Chinese riots proved the failure of the assmilationist policy. The process of democratization has given rise to a proliferation of identity politics in post-Suharto Indonesia. The policy of multiculturalism has been endorsed by Indonesia's current power holders as a preferred approach to rebuilding the nation, consistent with the national motto: ‘Unity in Diversity’. This paper critically considers the politics of multiculturalism and its efficacy in managing cultural diversity and differences. It deploys the concept of hybridity to describe as well as analyze the complex identity politics of the ethnic Chinese in contemporary Indonesia.

Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting

Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting

Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting (review)

Chinese Indonesians: Remembering, Distorting, Forgetting (review)

Islam and Processes of Minorisation among Ethnic Chinese in Indonesia: Oscillating between Faith and Political Economic Expediency

The main focus of studies on ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia is generally their business acumen or the extent to which they are assimilated into their respective country of residence. This paper concentrates on a rather different aspect among this ethnic group, namely the influence of Islam amongst the Chinese, especially in Indonesia and Malaysia. This is a topic on which very little research has been done, especially in terms of identity and ethnicity together with processes of integration and assimilation—in relation to both other ethnic Chinese and the local communities in which they are socially imbedded. Because of the deficiency of empirical data, it is imperative that we understand the historical processes that lead up to the present marginalised position of this group of Chinese. As a consequence, the present paper employs a historical approach towards the study of the Chinese Muslims in their respective local communities.

The effect of cultural adaptation on perceived trustworthiness: Americans adapting to Chinese Indonesians

This experiment investigates the effect of cultural adaptation by American business people on their trustworthiness as perceived by Chinese Indonesians. The sample consists of 140 Indonesian professionals born and raised in Indonesia, who read one of the four stories that differ in degrees of Americans’ cultural adaptation: none, moderate, high using English, and high using the native (i.e., Indonesian) language. The results show that there is no difference among the four adaptation levels on disconfirmation of the adaptor’s stereo types. The high adaptation using English condition is perceived to be more situationally caused than is the high adaptation using the native language condition, which in turn is perceived to be more situationally caused than is the moderate adaptation condition, and the high adaptation using English condition is perceived to be more situationally caused than is the no adaptation condition. The high adaptation using the native language and the high adaptation using English conditions are perceived to be trustworthier than is the moderate adaptation condition, which in turn is perceived to be trustworthier than is the no adaptation condition; these results contradict the findings of some earlier studies but are consistent with those in the cases of Americans adapting to Thais and Japanese in Pornpitakpan (1998), to People’s Republic of China Chinese in Pornpitakpan (2002b), and to Malaysians in Pornpitakpan (2004). Marketing implications are discussed.

Literature and the Media Contemporary Literature from the Chinese 'Diaspora' in Indonesia

Since the fall of Suharto a number of Chinese Indonesian writers have begun to write as Chinese Indonesians, some using their Chinese names, some writing in Mandarin. New literary activities include the gathering, publishing and translating (from Mandarin) of short stories and poetry by Chinese Indonesians. Pribumi Indonesians too have privileged Chinese ethnicity in their works in new and compelling ways. To date, little of this new Chinese Indonesian literary activity has been documented or evaluated in English. This paper begins to fill that gap by examining the ways in which recent literary works by and about Chinese Indonesians give expression to their ethnic identity.

Civil Society Groups Overcoming Stereotypes? Chinese Indonesian Civil Society Groups in Post-Suharto Indonesia

This article will explore how, in the post-1998 period, a number of organisations have been established by Chinese Indonesians within civil society to try to overcome anti-Chinese stereotypes which proliferate in Indonesia. I shall explore the activities of 11 such groups from the perspective of Jean-François Lyotard's concept of the differend . A differend occurs when the terms of a dispute are not comprehended in the same way by each side, which leads to an inability to solve the conflict through consensus. I shall argue that these civil society groups are part of two 'double binds', that highlight the differend . The first is the wish to create organisations so that Chinese Indonesians may 'look after themselves', while at the same time wanting through the same organisations, to overcome stereotypes that they are exclusive in their attitudes and behaviour. The second 'double bind' emerges due to the language and symbols Chinese Indonesians wish to use, drawing on Indonesian nationalist discourse to show their support of Indonesia, while at the same time they have been classed as outsiders by these very same nationalist discourses.

Setting the Scene Speaking Out: Chinese Indonesians After Suharto

This article is an initial analysis of new and re-emerging expressions of identity among ethnic Chinese in Indonesia's contemporary public domain. As long ago as Dutch colonial times in Indonesia, the ethnic Chinese have frequently been the scapegoats for violence, especially during times of political uncertainty and economic hardship. Under President Suharto's rule the identity of the Chinese was politically contested further as Suharto manipulated local understandings of the Chinese in the economic and political spheres. However, since the 1998 riots and the downfall of President Suharto, things have begun to change, and ethnic Chinese are speaking out. Alternative discourses of identity have surfaced through a multitude of different avenues. These have included the actions of a range of political parties, some based on ethnicity, and others more broad-based; non-political organisations including those fighting discrimination and others examining Chinese socio-cultural needs; literature; and the print and television media. It is now, through such means, that new and re-emerging ethnic Chinese identities, some suppressed for more than thirty years, are becoming apparent.

Chinese Press after the New Order: Caught Between the Continuity of Idealism and the Logic of the Market 1

After the fall of Suharto, in cities throughout Indonesia, dozens of Chinese Indonesians, motivated by a diversity of interests, began to establish Chinese media. After a time, the idealism of that fragmented Chinese press encountered various stumbling blocks, the main one being the problem of finding the right fit between idealism, media management practices and reader tastes. This article sets out to examine the continuity--or lack of it--of idealism from the Chinese press of colonial times to that established in post-New Order Indonesia, notwithstanding the period of more than 30 years in which the Chinese press was buried. The analysis begins with an overview of the Chinese press in Indonesia, followed by an examination of case studies of post-New Order publications. The aim of this analysis is to reveal the diversity of offerings of the various publications as they interpret both their own particular agenda and the demands of the market. The article concludes with a discussion of the dynamics of the Chinese press in its approach to the market and its potential readership.

Political Institutions and Ethnic Chinese Identity in Indonesia

Under Suharto, Indonesian politics and institutions attempted to force ethnic Chinese to assimilate, while continuing to identify them as 'different' from indigenous Indonesian groups. Yet Suharto's downfall brought with it a myriad of political changes. New political parties quickly formed, some of which were ethnically based or were pointedly created to promote ethnic cooperation. New laws were enacted to allow Chinese to revert to Chinese family names, publish Chinese-language books and periodicals, and to put an end to coded identification cards that marked one as 'Chinese'. This paper looks specifically at how these legal and institutional changes have shaped Chinese ethnic identity. The focus here is on political changes within and outside government, while the essay also examines the new political bodies being established by Chinese groups, and what this may mean for the future of Chinese Indonesians.