Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde Vol. 166, no. 4 (2010), pp. 533-544 URL: http://www.kitlv-journals.nl/index.php/btlv URN:NBN:NL:UI:10-1-100894 Copyright: content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License ISSN: 0006-2294

REVIEW ESSAY

KWEE HUI KIAN Studies on the Chinese in in the twenty-first century

Michael D. Barr and Zlatko Skrbis, Constructing ; Elitism, ethnicity and the nation-building project. Copenhagen: NIAS Press, 2008, xiii + 304 pp. ISBN 978877694028, price GBP 50.00 (hard- back); 9788776940294, GBP 16.99 (paperback).

Marleen Dieleman, The rhythm of strategy; A corporate biography of the Salim Group of . Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007, 205 pp. [ICAS Publications Series, Monograph 1.] ISBN 9789053560334. Price: EUR 29.50 (paperback).

Kristina Goransson, The binding tie; Chinese intergenerational rela- tions in modern Singapore. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009, x + 191 pp. ISBN 9780824832599, price USD 57.00 (hard- back); 9780824833527, USD 26.00 (paperback).

Chang-Yau Hoon, Chinese identity in post- Indonesia; Culture, politics and media. Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 2008, xi + 230 pp. ISBN 9781845192686. Price: GBP 49.95 (hardback).

Leo Suryadinata, Understanding the ethnic Chinese in Southeast Asia. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2007, x + 310 pp. ISBN 9789812304377. Price: USD 21.90 (paperback).

Sikko Visscher, The business of politics and ethnicity; A history of the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Singapore: NUS Press, 2007, xviii + 372 pp. ISBN 97899713657. Price: USD 32.00 (paperback).

Voon Phin Keong (ed.), and nation-building; Before Merdeka and fifty years after. Vol. 2. Kuala Lumpur: Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, 2008. ISBN 9789833808066 (hard- back); 9789833908059 (paperback).

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With their achievement of independence from the colonial powers in the pe- riod from the 1940s to the 1960s, most Southeast Asian countries granted citi- zenship to resident migrant Chinese as well as to those who were born locally but had ancestral links in . However, collectively speaking, the Chinese were regarded as a formerly alien people who needed to be assimilated into the Southeast Asian societies. As part of the nation-building process, many Southeast Asian regimes closed down the Chinese schools and press. Even in Singapore, which has a Chinese majority exceeding 70 per cent, all Chi- nese schools were gradually converted to national schools with English as the main medium of instruction. Moreover, the new ruling elites of Southeast Asia also maintained that the Chinese controlled disproportionately large shares of the economy. Governments therefore intervened to discriminate against the Chinese and in favour of those regarded as indigenous. Indonesia implemented the Benteng policy, by which import and export licenses were granted only to pribumi (indigenous) entrepreneurs, and the PP-10, which prohibited foreign nation- als from doing business in rural areas. In Malaysia, the New Economic Policy (NEP) launched in 1970 involved wealth restructuring measures to ensure that bumiputera (children of the soil) would acquire 30 per cent of the corporate sector in the economy within 20 years. The period from the 1950s to the 1970s thus saw a boom in scholarly writ- ing on the . Many academics expressed strong objections towards extreme discriminatory measures such as those taken in Indonesia, where all manifestations of and culture and imports of Chinese-language materials were ultimately prohibited. At the same time however, most scholars were concerned with the phenomenon of Chinese economic dominance. Hence, although they protested against anti-Chinese discrimination, there was an implicit agreement among them that some form of affirmative economic action, along the lines of the NEP, was necessary. The Chinese in Southeast Asia still attract much academic attention today. A contextual factor here is that national politics in these countries, particu- larly Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia, has continued to operate along communal lines up to to the present. Furthermore, the economic rise of China following Deng Xiaoping’s adoption of an open-door policy in the late 1970s appears to have influenced policies towards the Chinese in the Southeast Asian countries. Since the early 1990s, the Malaysian and Indonesian gov- ernments have become less stringent in their prohibitions of the celebration of Chinese festivals and cultural performances such as the lion dance. In Singapore, where the PAP regime has professed multiculturalism and meri-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access Book reviews 535 tocracy as its ruling ideology since 1965, the government began to adopt a pro-Chinese stance from the 1980s. Some governments also appeared to adjust their economic and nation- building policies in the 1990s. With the conclusion of the NEP in Malaysia in 1991, then Prime Minister Mahathir announced ‘Vision 2020’ as the new nationalist ideology, a concept that promises to be more Malaysian- oriented rather than bumiputera-oriented in policy terms. Regime change in the Southeast Asian countries also precipitated shifts in policies towards the Chinese. With the fall of Soeharto in 1998, the subsequent governments gradually abolished anti-Chinese legislation in Indonesia. Published between 2007 and 2009, the seven books under review mainly concern the Chinese in Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia in recent decades. The books edited by Voon feature the results of a major research project undertaken by the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies in 2006 on the Chinese in Malaysia in the last 50 years. Written exclusively by Chinese Malaysian academics, volume 1 is on the historical background and economic aspects of nation-building, while volume 2 focuses on political and cultural features.1 In the latter volume, several authors examine Chinese political par- ticipation in Malaysia through their voting patterns and support for various political parties, and also through the lobbying activities of Chinese guilds and associations (Lee Kam Hing, Danny Tze Ken, Ho Hui Ling, and Thock Ker Pong). Others look at the development of Chinese schools and the Chinese arts and literary scene in Malaysia (Lim Chooi Kwa, Fah Hing, and Chung Yi). Authors such as Wong Wun Bin and Voon Phin Keong also analyse and philosophy, proposing that Chinese moral elements could enrich Malaysian nation-building. Contributors to the anthology apparently perceive a continuation of the bumiputera-oriented policies of the Malaysian regime despite the end of NEP and Mahathir’s proclamation of Vision 2020. Wong Wun Bin, for example, criticizes the state’s pro-Malay stance (p. 482):

in a multi-ethnic country such as Malaysia, inter-ethnic harmony and moral values are far more important than administering the country from a dominant perspec- tive of ethnicity or that of resource contestation. In other words, nation-building in a multi-ethnic country goes well beyond material progress but requires constant efforts to nurture inter-ethnic harmony, tolerance, accommodation and other ‘in- tangibles’.

Various authors also appeal for the inclusion of the interests of Chinese Ma- laysians in the nation-building process. These sentiments are best summa- rized in Yow Cheun Hoe’s chapter: yes, it is true that in the British colonial pe-

1 Unfortunately, the present reviewer was not able to inspect volume 1 for this review.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access 536 Book reviews riod, many Chinese were sojourning and wanted to return to China. But in the post-colonial era, these Chinese have become citizens and no longer profess loyalty to China. Chinese Malaysians are here to stay and are looking for ‘a more open national paradigm amidst all the ascending transnational possibil- ities’ (p. 568). If the Malaysian state continues to deny Chinese culture, it will lead to ‘involuntary brain drain’ (p. 565). Yow also states that with China’s emergence as a global economic powerhouse, Chinese Malaysian investments are ‘based on business calculations’ rather than loyal sentiments (pp. 565-6). One may obtain a better understanding of these particular sentiments and appeals by examining the background of the Centre for Malaysian Chinese Studies, the sponsor of the research projects and publisher of the anthol- ogies. In 1985, 15 national-level Chinese organizations submitted a ‘Joint Declaration’ to the Malaysian government, appealing to the latter to consider the ‘civil rights of all Malaysians’ and not merely those of the bumiputera. Simultaneously, these organizations set up the Centre as a research unit and think tank. It seems fitting then that the contributions sought by the Centre for its publication to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Malaysia’s independence reiterate the appeal for a more inclusive nationalist ideology for all Malaysians. The book by Suryadinata is an anthology of articles he has previously published in the past two decades. In these articles, Suryadinata mainly analyses political, economic, and cultural developments among the Chinese in Southeast Asian societies in the last 20 years. As these articles have been previously published as separate articles, there is a lot of repetition of data and arguments throughout the book. The author states that he has not revised the articles in the current book ‘because the reader should read what I have written in those days’ (p. 4). For students of Southeast Asian Chinese stud- ies, it would be greatly beneficial if the veteran in the field would present his overall findings in a book or an extended article that brings together the outcomes of various research projects conducted over the decades. With regard to Suryadinata’s arguments, it is interesting how they coincide with those of the authors in Voon’s edited volume. With regard to Southeast Asian Chinese economic dominance, he attests that ‘Chinese companies are becoming public rather than remain family-based and ethnic Chinese busi- nessmen and women are increasingly forming partnerships with indigenous Southeast Asians’ (p. 48). With regard to the rise of China as an economic giant and its overtures towards Chinese overseas, Suryadinata argues that as long as ASEAN governments ‘regard ethnic Chinese as part of the new nation in the making, the local orientation of ethnic Chinese will continue. The pos- sibility of China making use of a large segment of the overseas Chinese will remain slim’ (p. 27). It is noteworthy that in Chapter 7, Suryadinata withdraws an earlier argu- ment he made in an article in 1975. Suryadinata has often deployed the ana-

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access Book reviews 537 lytical categories of peranakan (assimilated) and totok (full-blooded) Chinese in his writings on the Chinese in Indonesia. For him, the defining difference here is whether an individual can speak Chinese or not, Chinese speakers being totok and non-Chinese speakers peranakan. In the 1975 article, he noted that the analytical categories of peranakan and totok Chinese were becoming less relevant in the 1970s because most Chinese in Indonesia could no longer learn the Chinese language following the official prohibition in 1965. Nevertheless, he argued that the children whose parents are totok, could still learn Chinese language(s) at home. Hence, he proposed a distinction between old-style per- anakan/totok and new-style peranakan/totok to reflect the new development in Indonesian Chinese society. In the present book, the author corrects his previ- ous view, saying that these terms ‘do not fully reflect the quality of change in both peranakan and totok communities, and the dynamics of integration process in the past 40 years’, and suggests that new terms should be coined to refer to the post-Soekarno ethnic Chinese in Indonesia (p. 144). Another point he might consider revising is his favourable assessment towards Singapore’s nation-building project. In Chapter 9, Suryadinata argues that countries like Indonesia and Malaysia still implicitly practise indigenism and an assimilationist model of nation-building, hence ‘tensions between different ethnic groups remain high’. By comparison, Singapore has ascribed to multiculturalism and has placed more emphasis on citizenship than nationhood (pp. 171-2). Barr and Skrbis’s book shows why this view might need re-examination. They argue that the perspective that Singapore practices multiculturalism and , and that it follows a civic model of nationhood – where citi- zenship is based on a modern, inclusive, ‘rational’ model free of ‘primordial’ elements such as race, ethnicity, or religion – is merely an official rhetoric. Their research demonstrates that since around 1980, the Singapore nation- building project has shifted away from a civic-oriented model towards a more ethnic-cum-racial form, ‘with the conceptions of “Chinese ethnicity” and a peculiarly Singaporean notion of “Chinese values” assuming increasingly important roles’ (p. 5). The two authors demonstrate this shift by focusing on elite formation in Singapore: that is, the selection, training, and formation of a ruling and administrative elite. They trace this process through the various levels of the country’s education system as well as the awarding of government scholar- ships. Barr and Skrbis convincingly show that although the PAP govern- ment’s stated criterion for elite selection is ‘talent’, ‘elitism’ and ‘racism’ are at play. More specifically, they demonstrate that ‘personal and family connections, socio-economic background, race and ethnic identity, language background and gender are just as crucial’ as paper qualifications (p. 252).

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Barr and Skrbis seem to imply that Chinese have an unfair advantage in upward mobility and ascendance into the ruling elite since it is their language and values that are privileged by the regime. In other words, these authors seem to have conflated what the PAP regime has called ‘Chinese’ values – a strong interest in good education and a kiasu (afraid-of- losing) approach to work, study and life (pp. 47, 98) – with the actual values adopted by Chinese in general. Hence for these authors the minority races, especially the , are subjected to ‘incomplete assimilation’: that is, they are encouraged to strive to act ‘like Chinese’ in order to succeed, but at the end of the day, they will still be ‘relegated to a minority status’ (p. 98). However, at the point when PAP launched the policies encouraging the use of Mandarin in the 1980s, most of the Chinese spoke dialects rather than Mandarin at home. Moreover, although the PAP regime is racist and has sys- tematically privileged the Chinese language and stressed ‘Chinese values’ in education, many Chinese have a problem adapting to these values. Hence, as the authors themselves note, Malay children start Primary 1 on ‘an equal footing with Chinese children from poor families’ (p. 141). There is also the continuing presence of ‘ platoons’ in the national military service: that is, young Chinese Singaporean men who are unable to speak English or Mandarin properly, which is usually a reflection of their low economic and educational background (p. 114). Furthermore, the ethnographic study by Goransson also indicates that while those joining the rat race in education are mainly middle-class Chinese families, their children are not necessarily winning the game. Some have encountered psychological problems and even committed suicide (pp. 123- 6). Also sidelined are elderly Chinese Singaporeans. The PAP regime’s ����lan- guage policies promoting English and Mandarin have caused ‘heightened discrimination against dialect-speaking elderly in the public sphere, which has resulted in unequal access to information’ (p. 157). Goransson’s book is an ������������������������������������������������anthropological study of intergenerational rela- tions in modern and rapidly changing societies like Singapore. She focuses on the so-called ‘sandwich generation’ – people who simultaneously raise their own children and care for elderly parents. Her selected case study is a group of Chinese Singaporeans born in the 1960s and 1970s, who belong to an afflu- ent middle class enjoying upward social mobility and who hold expectations that their children will do better than them. Goransson’s study shows that in line with its ‘antiwelfare ideology’, the PAP regime tried to legislate ‘’ in Singapore by enacting the ‘Maintenance of Parents Act’ in 1995 (p. 90). Under this Act, elderly parents could sue any of their adult children who failed to provide for their material well-being. But Goransson’s informants generally condemn this legislation. From her fieldnotes, she demonstrates that intergenerational transactions are

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access Book reviews 539 both about duty/obligation and about ‘natural’ feelings (p. 107). To express their love and affection, her informants would give a percentage of their pay to their parents, take them on holidays or outings, and cohabit with them. Elderly parents, for their part, view their assistance with taking care of their grandchildren and doing household chores as a means to ‘ensure continuous support rather than being voluntary assistance’ (p. 151). One of the most interesting conclusions of Goransson’s research is that the Chinese Singaporeans’ ‘culture of intergenerational contract and expec- tations’ is different from that prevailing among Malay families. In concrete terms, the former see monetary transactions as expressions of ‘sentiments of indebtedness and repayment’ (p. 160). In the words of one of her Chinese informants, ‘giving money is a way of showing that you care’ (p. 102). By con- trast, the Malay parent’s role as provider involves little expectation of future financial return. ‘Instead, the Malay child reciprocates indirectly by providing for the next generation, that is, for his own children’ (p. 103). Another book that looks at issues relating to the Chinese in contemporary Southeast Asia is Hoon’s study on the situation of the Chinese in Indonesia after 1998. Hoon’s central points border on prescription rather than analysis, however. He starts out by condemning the assimilation programme imposed on the Chinese during the period. The author advocates ‘hybrid- ity’ as an alternative. In his view (p. 24):

assimilation remains an impossible idea: it naively treats identity as a discrete sin- gular entity and forces people to choose between ethnicities. In this instance, one can be either an Indonesian or a Chinese. On the other hand, the concept of hybrid- ity does not suggest a submission to the impossible idea of assimilation, or a retreat into an essentialized version of Chineseness […]. In Indonesia, the appreciation of such hybrid identities might dissolve the rigid line between ‘Chinese’ and ‘non- Chinese’, ‘pribumi’ and ‘non-pribumi’.

However, Hoon is forced to conclude that ‘the Chinese-Indonesian experi- ence of hybridity and cross-cultural fertilizations […] transgress, but do not dissolve, ethnic boundaries’ (p. 11). It appears that, once the prohibitions on Chinese culture and language were lifted after the end of the Soeharto re- gime, representations of Chinese as having slanted eyes and traits of stingi- ness and avarice surfaced in the Indonesian mass media. themselves are also eager to craft out a ‘Chinese’ identity for themselves. By 2004, around 10 Chinese-language publications and two Indonesian-language Chinese publications in were in circulation. The sponsors and news- papermen see their efforts as a ‘cultural mission’ to promote Chinese culture and ‘resinicize’ Chinese Indonesians (pp. 117, 179). One of the Chinese non- governmental organizations formed after 1998, the Indonesian Chinese Social

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Association (Paguyuban Sosial Marga Tionghoa Indonesia, PSMTI), is also enthusiastic about creating a Chinese-Indonesian Cultural Museum for Ta- man Mini Park. I find Chapters 6 and 7 especially fascinating. Here, Hoon presents his interviews with both Chinese and non-Chinese Indonesians about their per- ceptions of ‘Chinese’ and ‘pribumi’, and how they understand the inter-ethnic divides. Some common stereotypes of the pribumi among the Chinese are as follows:

[...] the pribumi cannot be trusted, they are lazy, stupid, extravagant, irresponsible, undisciplined, and debt-ridden. They are exploiters and are always jealous of the Chinese. They see the Chinese as the enemy. (p. 148.)

A Chinese informant also recounted that when she lost her handphone in a church camp recently, she immediately suspected a pribumi fellow believer as the thief (p. 160). As for the pribumi informants, they generally see the Chinese as either ‘naturally’ gifted with attributes to succeed in business or that ‘their family environment and disciplined upbringing’ nurture characteristics that are suited to private enterprise. They also see the Chinese as a group who do not want to socialize and who harbour fear and suspicion of pribumi Indonesians. In one instance, a pribumi informant recounts how his father, a government official, deliberately made it difficult for Chinese Indonesian citizens who needed offi- cial documents by delaying the process and charging them higher fees (p. 136). Most of these perceptions are presented as quotations from the interviews, that is, in the words of the informants themselves. Readers can almost feel the extent of ethnic tensions, regardless of the government’s policies in the New Order Period. It is a shame though that Hoon did not attempt to follow up on the contents of these interviews and analyse how the sentiments they revealed are formed. He concludes that ‘racial reification based on essential- ism’ is the reason for these ethnic stereotypes and summarily condemns the ‘New Order’s social engineering’ as the culprit (pp. 144-5, 177-8). The last two books in this review essay look at specific Chinese organiza- tions: Visscher on the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce (SCCC) and Dieleman on the Salim Group.2 Visscher’s introduction offers an innovative research agenda. He is interested in three levels of history: of the SCCC itself, of Singapore from the perspective of a leading civic institution, and also of how Chinese networks operate. Throughout his book however, Visscher seems focused only on the history of the SCCC itself, presenting the events

2 Note that the SCCC���������������������������������������������������������������������� changed its name to Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and In- dustry (SCCCI) in 1977 (Visscher 2007:225). In this review essay, I refer to the institution as SCCC or the Chamber.

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access Book reviews 541 encountered by the Chamber in a chronological way. In fact, it appears that chronology is his only structure. In most parts of the book, he tends to discuss one issue after another involving the Chamber with very little analysis of the information. Such a presentation leads readers to conclude that the SCCC has generally accepted the policies of the Singapore government, surrendered its leader- ship over the Chinese community and its role as guardian of Chinese culture to the government, and has largely been tamed into accepting its subordinate position in the polity. In other words, Visscher’s account is yet another con- firmation of the general perception about the all-powerful PAP regime and its repressive policies. The only argument he pursues through multiple chapters in the book is about shifts in the leadership of the SCCC between what he calls ‘ambiguous’, ‘ambitious’, ‘pragmatist’, and ‘reformer’ types in the course of the twentieth century. However, other than its applicability to the SCCC case, this narrative leaves readers wondering if the categorization has any analyti- cal potential for understanding Chinese leadership more generally. In actuality, Visscher’s data demonstrate the potential of writing history from a civic institutional perspective, an approach that can be especially valu- able in a country like Singapore where the ruling regime dominates national historiography. Some sets of information point to the failings of a regime com- monly perceived to be omnipotent. For instance, in the late 1960s, the Chamber leaders appealed to the government to protect local trading interests against Western shipping conferences that monopolized international transport. The PAP old guard refused to intervene, as they were more eager for the Chamber members to shift their investments from trading and commercial interests toward supporting the government’s industrialization plans for Singapore (pp. 207-8). Yet by 1985, ‘commerce was still responsible for 23.4 per cent of Singapore’s GDP’ whereas manufacturing only accounted for 19 per cent (p. 256). After the mid-1980s recession, the Singapore state began to reconsider the importance of the trading sector and encouraged the SCCC to provide training sessions for small and medium trading enterprises in Singapore (p. 225). Visscher’s book also contains little-known information about the Chamber’s role in Singapore-China trade. The Chamber was among the first foreign organizations to approach the People’s Republic of China to establish trading links in 1971, whereas the Singapore government only took the cue in the late 1970s (pp. 198-9). By the 1990s, it was also evident that Singaporean government-linked companies were failing in their China ventures, in con- trast to many of the Chamber’s members that were successful (pp. 284-5). The Chamber was also the prime mover in the establishment of the World Chinese Entrepreneurs’ Convention and World Chinese Business Network – key institutions in building bridges and networks with the China economy (pp. 280-2, 296-7). This body of information shows that the PAP government

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access 542 Book reviews lagged behind the Chamber in establishing business links with the emerging global economic giant. In the preceding paragraphs, I have taken the liberty of reorganizing material scattered widely through Visscher’s book to show that this author has clearly put in a lot of research effort and acquired very fascinating mate- rial. These materials indicate that in spite of its efficiency and its ambitions to shape the economic future of Singapore, the PAP regime might do well to consider delegating plans for commercial expansion to non-governmental institutions like the Chamber. It is a pity that Visscher seems to be swamped by his wealth of data and fails to extract the most important conclusions that can be drawn from it. By contrast, Dieleman’s book offers the other extreme. Also a product of Dutch universities, she is more interested in testing theories than in mining for fresh data. Dieleman’s book analyses the corporate strategy of the Salim Group, a group of companies founded by Liem Sioe Liong, who was one of the richest and most powerful towkays in Indonesia and Southeast Asia from the 1970s to the 1990s. For Dieleman, culturalist explanations, diaspora and social capital perspectives, the crony capitalism approach, and institutional factors all only offer partial explanations for the corporate strategy adopted by the Salim Group. She introduces a time element into her analysis to dem- onstrate that the Group’s corporate strategy is ‘a response to both internal factors, such as family values, culture, corporate growth and generational changes; and to external changes affecting the business from outside, for example state policies, corrupt host culture, economic modernization or regime change’ (p. 26). She argues that the Group’s strategy was not linear but oscillatory, moving between ‘relationship-based’ strategy, where business opportunities arise as a result of personal ties with other Chinese business families and political powers, and ‘market-based’ strategy in which economic logic independent of personalities prevails. Famous for their business links with the Soeharto family, Liem and his Salim Group have been the subject of much discussion among scholars interested in Indonesia’s political economy and the Indonesian military. Unlike her predecessors, however, Dieleman managed to secure interviews with Anthony Salim, son of Liem Sioe Liong and current CEO of the Group, together with ‘several other Salim Group executives’ and stakeholders. Upon examination, her study does not tell us much more than what we already know. For instance, extensive quotes from Anthony Salim and the Salim Group’s managers are mainly about the vertical integration and intra-group synergies of the Group’s businesses (pp. 71-6), something that one could have deduced by studying the investment patterns of the Group’s companies. Much of what Anthony Salim says emphasizes that the Group is moving away from reliance on the Indonesian government towards a market-based

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access Book reviews 543 strategy. He also talks about the crucial role he played in getting the Group out of the 1997-1998 crisis, stressing that he did everything according to the law (pp. 54-5, 89-90, 115). In such instances, one cannot help but form the impression that the CEO was utilizing the opportunity to obtain publicity for himself and his Group. Dieleman also seems to accept too readily a comment from one of her informants that ‘the clans have lost their influence in Indonesia’, and has not tried to pursue the role of kinship connections in the business strategies of the Salim Group. Yet she herself notes that Liem Sioe Liong, who hails from the region in prefecture, Province, is ‘an active member of the Fuqing Association’. Liem also serves on the ‘executive committee of the International Association of Fuzhous [sic], together with Robert Kuok’, the latter being the other ethnic Chinese business giant in Southeast Asia (p. 63). It seems evident that involvement in these associations is crucial for these Chinese business tycoons. Whereas Dieleman has seen the ‘relationship- based’ strategies of the Group mainly in terms of family linkages, exploring clan connections and associations might have further enriched this aspect of her discussion.

Concluding remarks

To conclude this review essay, I would like to focus on the new scholars and their books in this selection. Dieleman has shown that for big corporations like the Salim Group, utilizing ‘Chinese’ networks is sometimes less effective as a business strategy than seeking bureaucratic patronage and cronyism. For major civic institutions such as the SCCC, Visscher’s work hints at how lead- ers of the Chamber consider it more expedient to work with the ruling regime than to try to reclaim leadership of the Chinese community, or to contest the government’s definitions of Chinese culture and identity. Although scholars know that identity formation is a constant process of (re)construction and (re)invention, most people in Southeast Asia tend to regard ethnicity as static and unchanging, and as an integral part of their self- identities. Many Southeast Asian regimes still pursue communal politics, and they persist in inscribing ethnic identity on individual citizens’ identification cards. Ethnic identification, however, is not merely a top-down procedure; it is also an everyday practice for many individual Southeast Asians. As Hoon has noted, Indonesians continue to identify themselves as ‘Chinese’ or ‘pribumi’ and to create stereotypes about one another on that basis. Wat has happened to those categorized as ‘Chinese’ in the meantime? What are their day-to-day realities? How do individuals negotiate with the ethnic policies of governments, and create strategies to handle them? How do they

Downloaded from Brill.com09/29/2021 11:17:00AM via free access 544 Book reviews perceive ethnicities and reproduce ethnic differences, even as they oppose of- ficial racial definitions and policies? It seems that if these questions are to be answered, there is a need to promote detailed ethnographic studies along the lines of Goransson’s research. This need is especially strong in countries like Indonesia, where the Chinese are now more open to talking about identity issues than in the past. The advantage of addressing contemporary issues, of course, is that it allows us to not only focus on state policies and broad trends, but also to delve deeper and look into what people think about these policies and trends, and into what is happening on the ground.

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