The Japanese and Korean pop songs also contribute a lot to the current mixed-culture phenomenon.

As a result, some have become fluent speakers of the languages and learned about the cultures, but others just try to copycat what is hot to get by.

Cyndy Belinda, a second-year student in the Japanese department at Bina Nusantara University (Binus), said that young people were likely to follow popular cultures and try to learn them.

“I find it fun learning the Japanese language because of its sentence structure. Japanese is more complex than English,” she said.

“And I cherish Indonesian culture too, so I think it would be valuable if our culture could be shared in other countries in the same way Japanese culture is here,” Cyndy said.

Each student in her department has joined several cultural clubs at the school to deepen their understanding of Japan. The department has 370 students on the roll who not only learn the language, but also learn about the culture through various activities.

The head of the department, Elisa Carolina Marion, said that many students already knew about Japanese culture before entering the university.

“They study Japanese culture by reading manga, playing video games and watching anime. Some have learned Japanese in middle or high school and have passed some levels of the Japanese Language Proficiency Test,” she said.

The J Indo Community, a group of people who enjoy exploring all aspects of Japanese culture, including Japanese pop-rock and fashion, is another example of how openly Japanese culture is welcomed here.

One of the members, Justicia Edwar, said she began to take an interest in Japanese culture through anime like Doraemon. She currently manages a band called PinBall that sometimes performs Japanese hip-hop, rock and rap music by bands such as Orange Range. PinBall also performs its own songs.

“We really admire the way the alternative rock band blends the Okinawan traditional music and contemporary pop music,” she continued.

“Some people think Harajuku style [Japanese street fashion] is weird, but our band members and I call it art. It’s a mixture of everything. It inspires us to break borders in everything.”

Justicia added that Indonesian culture is also all about mixing things together.

“Since I was little, my parents have taught me that our [Indonesian] culture consists of thousands of elements, including languages, traditional clothes and other things that remind us where we came from.”

Several PinBall members studied  Japanese literature at university. One of them now teaches Japanese at a private high school.

“Learning Japanese culture helps me think outside of the box — when and how to combine all the possibilities to solve one problem or another,” she said.

Elisa said there might be a problem if Indonesian people are strongly influenced by foreign cultures.

“There are students who get a better score in their Japanese grammar tests than in their native Indonesian language grammar tests. It shows how much students are into the foreign culture,” she said.

Noted essayist Goenawan Mohamad said that the mixed-culture approach was excitingly fresh, responding to the new cultural setting in which they grew up.

“It is an expression of Indonesia as an eclectic entity,” he said.

Then does the mixed-culture mean the younger generation will completely ignore the roots of our tradition?

The answer is not really. At least that is what singer Bondan Prakoso thinks of.

With rap group Fade2Black (F2B), he was motivated to produce unique music representing the Indonesian culture.

They decided to use keroncong music, and released a song titled Keroncong Protol, which combines rap, pop and keroncong.

“We take pride in our [national] traditions through keroncong; it’s important to remember our roots,” he said.

Through his music, Bondan tries to say that collaboration between Indonesian cultures is possible too. The music includes keroncong music from Central Java and suling sunda from West Java.

Bondan said that the basic principle of his project with F2B was to inspire and educate the listeners through music. However, one thing most listeners were not aware of was the mix of Indonesian cultures within the composition.

And in the current world music industry — which is identical to Western music and lifestyle — it was a challenge for Indonesian musicians, Bondan said.  

“We can combine our Indonesian music with foreign music, such as K-pop and metal. We, as musicians, must formulate the music carefully,” he said.

“We can mix our cultures and lifestyles with what’s trending now, but we shouldn’t forget our national identity. As the young generation, we’ll be entrusted with the responsibility to take care of our cultures,” he said.

However, he said that sometimes we did not process what we consumed, which could harm our cultures.

“Our cultures and national identity may be forgotten little by little. We need to filter what we receive,” he added.

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