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Chinese-Indonesians' lost identity
Imlek (Chinese New Year) has become one of the worldâs most popular ethnic celebrations
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mlek (Chinese New Year) has become one of the world's most popular ethnic celebrations. The celebration is capped off by Cap Go Meh (the lantern festival) on the 15th day of the lunar calendar.
To many onlookers it is simply an exclusive New Year celebration for a specific ethnic group, which is characterized by traditional red lanterns, cheongsam outfits and keranjang cakes. But for the people who observe the festivities it is part of a long search for their lost identity.
The ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have had a long history of being in a precarious position in the society compared to other groups of settlers from India and the Middle East, for example, owing to colonial policy.
The Chinese have had to struggle for public recognition and their civil rights, regardless of their economic contribution. Our history has recorded gloomy periods of unfair oppression against them orchestrated by the state.
There is a negative stereotype attached to them, which categorizes them as selfish and greedy. Imitation, cheating and bribery are some other negative attributes that wrongly define their business conduct.
Such negative sentiments emerge only to mask their haters' jealousy toward their persistent and hard-working attitude.
Due to their strong competitive nature, it is often difficult to build friendly relationships with them or even among themselves.
Another view acknowledges their flexible behavior and capacity to adapt when dealing with uncertainty. Different regimes rise and fall over time, but they survive even if they are forced to start over from the bottom of a muddy pond.
With such a quality, it is not surprising that they have successfully assimilated with the majority of society. Regardless of persisting public suspicion and skepticism toward their active engagement in social life, they are grappling with the changing tide of society.
There is no doubt that since the short-lived presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid, their civil rights have been restored. Mandarin language newspapers, the establishment of social organizations and the public cultural occasions are some examples of their growing freedom of expression in Indonesian society.
However, as race discrimination disappears, they are still unable to forge better cultural ties in their
second homeland.
There are currently extensive efforts to assert their Chinese cultural identity in contrast to the efforts of the young Indo-Chinese generation ' particularly those from cross-marriage descendants (aka Cina Peranakan) ' to cut off connections with their motherland.
This younger group now feels free to exhibit their Chinese attributes, but ironically, many of them cannot speak Mandarin, Hokkien, Cantonese or any other Chinese dialect. Worse, they are reluctant to study their traditional roots, including understanding the wisdom of Confucianism.
Moreover, some Chinese-Indonesian settlers residing in traditional ethnic Chinese hubs such as Lasem in Central Java, Medan in North Sumatra and Pontianak in West Kalimantan are facing difficulty in facilitating a unified concept of their ethnicity. Given an opportunity to broaden social integration during various cultural events, they fail to redefine themselves with a new identity as Indo-Chinese.
Somehow, they still fall into separate categories according to where they grew up. This means that they are more likely to have stronger ties to those from their hometown instead of their ethnic group.
Looking closer at the household level, their elders must give up the continuation of the existing family business. The Chinese-Indonesian conglomerates have been able to run their businesses through crony-capitalism.
Their business tentacles serve well as a means of transmitting business expansion strategies and, to some extent, cultural family values.
Unfortunately, such cultural identification has been eroded drastically, marked by their opportunistic tendency to seek profit and better living standards.
One example of this is Sigit Witjaksana, one the oldest batik producers in Lasem, had to accept the bitter reality that none of his children were willing to continue his family business. He and his ancestors had combined education and teaching cultural values and life philosophies during the apprenticeship and batik production stages.
Hence, the Chinese-Indonesian people today are different to previous generations. They can be proud to be Indonesian citizens and perform any Chinese-related activities.
All these cultural festivities and social changes apparently cannot a better understanding of the meaning of being Chinese-Indonesian.
So, if we politely ask what kind of Chinese (or Indonesian) they are, it would get an uncomfortable reply.
Still they need more time to redefine their new identity in this country, through which the repositioning of their active engagement in society could be securely maintained and culturally preserved.
The writer is a lecturer and researcher at the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at Diponegoro University, Semarang in Central Java.
