CHINESE WAYS of BEING MUSLIM Ple Ways of Being Or Not Being Chinese and Muslim
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HEW WAI WENG HEW WAI Unique insights into the cultural politics of Muslim and Chinese identity in Southeast Asia today. CHINESE WAYS Many recent works on Muslim societies have pointed to a growing ‘de- culturalization’ and ‘purification’ of Islamic practices. Instead, by explor- ing themes such as architectural designs, preaching activities, political engagement and cultural celebrations, this book describes and analyses OF BEING the formation and negotiation of Chinese Muslim cultural identities in Indonesia today – a rapidly evolving environment where there are multi- MUSLIM BEING OF CHINESE WAYS ple ways of being or not being Chinese and Muslim. MUSLIM By engaging with the notions of ‘inclusive Chineseness’ and ‘cosmo- politan Islam’, this book gives insights not only into the cultural politics Negotiating Ethnicity of Muslim and Chinese identities in Indonesia today but also into the and Religiosity possibilities and limitations of ethnic and religious cosmopolitanism in many other contemporary societies. in Indonesia For much of modern Indonesian history, the social categories of Muslim and Chinese were seen as incompatible; to convert to Islam was to lose one’s Chineseness. This engagingly written book provides a powerful ethnographic account of just why this is changing, and of what it means to be both Chinese and Muslim in Indonesia. This fascinating study also offers insight into processes even more general in our world: how we moderns balance multiple HEW WAI WENG “ self-identities in an age of plurality and unprecedented mobility. – Robert W. Hefner, Boston University Hew’s Chinese Ways of Being Muslim blows apart the usual identifications between ethnicity and religion in Indonesia. This pathbreaking book paints an intriguing portrait of how Chinese Muslims in Indonesia are charting a form of Islamic piety that is both assertive and inclusive. A first. – Engseng Ho, Duke University In this adroit analysis of Chinese ways of being Muslim in Indonesia – from celebrity preachers and hybrid mosques to Chinese holidays and conversion controversies – Hew Wai Weng sheds important light on the religious and political entanglements between Islam, ethnicity, and nation. In doing so, this book admirably fills a lamentable lacuna of scholarship on Chinese Muslims in post-authoritarian Indonesia. – James B. Hoesterey, Emory University About the author: Hew Wai Weng is a Fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (IKMAS, UKM), working on Chinese Muslim identities, Hui migration patterns, and urban middle-class Muslim aspirations in Malaysia and Indonesia. www.niaspress.dk Hew-pbk-cover.indd 1 02/11/2017 10:04 Chinese Ways of Being Muslim i Hew-book.indd 1 08/11/2017 14:40 NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies New and Recent Monographs 115. Are Knudsen: Violence and Belonging 116. Noburu Ishikawa: Between Frontiers 117. Jan Ovesen and Ing-Britt Trankell: Cambodians and Their Doctors 118. Kirsten Endres: Performing the Divine 119. Gerhard Hoffstaedter: Modern Muslim Identities 120. Malcolm McKinnon: Asian Cities 121. David I. Steinberg and Hongwei Fan: Modern China–Myanmar Relations 122. Vibeke Børdahl: Wu Song Fights the Tiger Chinese Ways of Being Muslim 123. Hiromi Sasamoto-Collins: Power and Dissent in Imperial Japan 124. Eren Zink: Hot Science, High Water 125. Monica Janowski: Tuked Rini, Cosmic Traveller 126. Martin Platt: Isan Writers, Thai Literature Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity in Indonesia 127. John Becker: Pattern and Loom 128. Ziayan Zhang: Coping with Calamity 129. Natasha Pairaudeau: Mobile Citizens 130. Halfdan Siiger: The Bodo of Assam 131. Andrew Cock: Governing Cambodia’s Forests 132. John Coast: Recruit to Revolution 133. Souchou Yao: The Malayan Emergency 134. Megha Amrith: Caring for Strangers 135. Sophorntavy Vorng: A Meeting of Masks Hew Wai Weng 136. Carol Ann Boshier: Mapping Cultural Nationalism 137. Adam Simpson: Energy, Governance and Security in Thailand and Myanmar (Burma) 138. Yvonne Spielmann : Contemporary Indonesian Art 139. Vibeke Børdahl and Liangyan Ge : Western Han 140. Hew Wai Weng : Chinese Ways of Being Muslim NIAS Press is the autonomous publishing arm of NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies, a research institute located at the University of Copenhagen. NIAS is partially funded by the governments of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden via the Nordic Council of Ministers, and works to encourage and support Asian studies in the Nordic countries. In so doing, NIAS has been publishing books since 1969, with more than two hundred titles produced in the past few years. Nordic Council of UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Ministers Hew-book.indd 2 08/11/2017 14:40 Chinese Ways of Being Muslim Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity in Indonesia Hew Wai Weng Hew-book.indd 3 08/11/2017 14:40 Chinese Ways of Being Muslim Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity in Indonesia by Hew Wai Weng NIAS Monographs 140 First published in 2018 by NIAS Press NIAS – Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1353 Copenhagen K, Denmark Tel: +45 3532 9503 • Fax: +45 3532 9549 E-mail: [email protected] • Online: www. niaspress. dk © Hew Wai Weng 2018 No material may be reproduced in whole or in part without the express permission of the publisher. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN: 978-87-7694-210-6 (hbk) ISBN:978-87-7694-211-3 (pbk) Typesetting by Donald B. Wagner Printed and bound in Great Britain by Marston Book Services Limited, Oxfordshire Hew-book.indd 4 08/11/2017 14:40 Contents Preface ix Glossary and Abbreviations xv 1. Introduction: The Emergence of Chinese Muslim Cultural Identities 1 Islamic resurgence, Chinese euphoria and Chinese Muslims in Indonesia 5 Chinese Muslims in this research 11 Identity formation, cultural diversity and religious cosmopolitanism 20 Research, fieldwork and reflections 28 Organisation of this book 35 2. Remembering the Past for the Present: Rearticulating Chinese Muslim Histories 38 History, identity and politics 40 Chinese Muslims as an historical construct 42 The rearticulation of Chinese Muslim histories 60 Remembering past for present; imagining there for here 73 Rearticulated histories: essentialising or empowering? 74 3. Inclusive Chineseness, Cosmopolitan Islam and Translocal Imagination: Chinese-style Mosques 77 Space, identity and politics 79 Changing mosque architecture 80 Chinese-influenced mosques 82 Symbolic unity: Identity manifestation through the Cheng Hoo Mosque 83 Mixing Chineseness and Islam 86 Transnational connections and local configurations of the Cheng Hoo Mosque 93 Translocal eth- no-religious imaginations of Chinese-style mosques 99 Opera- tional diversity: identity contestations in the Cheng Hoo Mosque 106 The Cheng Hoo Mosque as a discursive cosmopolitan space 112 The Cheng Hoo Mosque as a living cosmopolitan space 114 Inclusive Chineseness and Islam 117 4. Expressing Chineseness, Marketing Islam: The Hybrid Performance of Chinese Muslim Preachers 120 Consumption, performance and identity 122 Converts-turned- preachers: a new force in Indonesian Islamic markets 124 From v Hew-book.indd 5 08/11/2017 14:40 Chinese Ways of Being MusliM taboo to commodity: celebrating inclusive Chineseness? 152 From mualaf to mubaligh: pluralising the Islamic market? 155 The paradox of hybrid performance 157 5. Strategic Solidarity, Internal Dynamics and Diverse Participation: The Social and Political Involvement of Chinese Muslims 159 Identity, politics and groups 161 The emergence of new’‘ ethno- religious groups in democratising Indonesia 162 Strategic solid- arity: Chinese Muslim organisations and identity formation 166 Internal dynamics: Chinese Muslim organisations and identity contestation 176 Beyond PITI: diverse social and religious participation 180 Chinese Muslim politicians: identity, interests and political involvement 185 Identity politics and beyond 190 6. Cultural Dakwah, Religious Debates and Everyday Practices: Chinese New Year Celebrations 192 Islam and religious hybridisation 194 Chinese New Year as a contested tradition in contemporary Indonesia 198 Imlek celebrations in mosques: hybrid Islam 200 Media depictions of Imlek: symbolic Chineseness 205 Imlek as cultural dakwah: distinguishing religion from culture 207 Imlek as religious debate: halal or haram 211 Contextualising fatwa: the possibilities and limitations of Islamic pluralism 218 Chinese New Year celebration as everyday practice 222 Religious hybridisation: texts, contexts and everyday practices 225 7. Conversion to Islam, Flexible Piety and Multiple Identifications 227 Conversion reasons and narratives 229 Conversion processes: becoming officially Muslim 234 Piety in the making: becoming spiritually Muslim 236 Everyday religiosity 243 Ethnicity in flux 254 Flexible piety and multiple identifications 262 8. Conclusion: Inclusive Chineseness and Cosmopolitan Islam 264 Bibliography 273 Index 295 Map Chinese-style mosques built in post-New Order Indonesia (2017) xxvi vi Hew-book.indd 6 08/11/2017 14:40 contents Figures 1. The Surabaya Cheng Hoo Mosque 87 2. An eight-sided roof, a sign of Chinese cultural influence inside the Surabaya Cheng Hoo Mosque 87 3. A bedug, a drum for the call to prayer, showing NU’s influence inside the Surabaya Cheng Hoo Mosque 89 4. A podium or pulpit for an Imam to deliver sermons, showing Muhammadiyah’s influence inside the Surabaya Cheng Hoo Mosque 89 5. A relief depicting the journey of