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Imlek 2025: Glodok residents move on from May 1998 riots
Residents of Jakarta's Chinatown, now a melting pot of diversity, still recall the mob violence that ripped through the community almost three decades ago and the discriminatory undertones that linger.
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Sea of festivity: A woman stands amid a variety of red-and-gold accessories displayed on Jan. 16, 2025, at a shop in Glodok, West Jakarta. Vendors in Jakarta’s Chinatown are filled with decorative items to celebrate Imlek, or Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 29 to usher in the Year of the Snake. (Antara/Asprilla Dwi Adha )
R
ed lanterns were already displayed on Saturday in many corners of Glodok, West Jakarta, as the city prepared to celebrate Imlek, or Chinese New Year, which falls on Jan. 29 this year.
Buyers crowded shops and food stalls across Jakarta’s Chinatown, which was the scene of the May 1998 riots that saw widespread violence targeting Chinese-Indonesians, colloquially known as “Tionghoa”, their businesses as well as homes. But those days have become memory for most residents of Glodok, where people of diverse backgrounds live side by side today.
At least that is the perception of Atek, a longtime resident and noodle vendor, who believes the area is now a mixed community of various ethnicities.
“In Glodok, we’re all the same. There’s no Chinese or non-Chinese here,” he told The Jakarta Post, adding that everyone in the neighborhood took part in the annual Imlek celebrations.
Glodok has been marking the annual holiday with increasingly greater fanfare and festivity during this millennium, ever since fourth president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid lifted the ban on Imlek in 2001.
This is a complete contrast to the events of May 1998, when riots broke out nationwide due in part to the 1997 Asian financial crisis, which brought socioeconomic hardships and political discontent to the forefront and helped drive the student-led democracy movement.
The violence, which led to the downfall of president Soeharto, spilled over to target Indonesians of Chinese descent, fueled by racial sentiment and resentment over the perceived favoritism the minority group enjoyed under the authoritarian New Order regime. Mobs looted and burned down Chinese-owned businesses in Glodok, including Glodok Plaza.
