In Search of New Social and Spiritual Space: Heritage, Conversion, and Identity of Chinese-Indonesian Muslims (Op Zoek naar Nieuwe Plek, Maatschappelijk en Geestelijk: Erfgoed, Bekering en Identiteit van Chinese Moslims in Indonesië) (met een samenvatting in het Nederlands) PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit Utrecht op gezag van de rector magnificus, prof.dr. G.J. van der Zwaan, ingevolge het besluit van het college voor promoties in het openbaar te verdedigen op vrijdag 24 februari 2012 des ochtends te 12.45 uur door Syuan-Yuan Chiou geboren op 24 september 1967 te Pingtung, Taiwan Promotor: Prof.dr. M.M. van Bruinessen This thesis was accomplished with financial support from the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (ISIM), the Netherlands, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (CCKF), Taiwan, and the Center for Asia-Pacific Area Studies (CAPAS), RCHSS, Academia Sinica, Taiwan. About the author: CHIOU Syuan-yuan (邱炫元) is a sociologist, who is interested in exploring contemporary Indonesian Muslim society and Chinese-Indonesians. He obtains his PhD degree in Utrecht University, the Netherlands. He was involved in the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World at Leiden, the Netherlands, where he joined interdisciplinary projects, working on various issues of contemporary Islam in Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and West Europe during 2001-2007. He has published several works about Chinese-Indonesian Muslims. In Search of New Social and Spiritual Space: Heritage, Conversion, and Identity of Chinese-Indonesian Muslims Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................ vii Illustrations ...............................................................................................ix Abstract .....................................................................................................xi Introduction ............................................................................................... 1 0.1 A Brief History of Chinese-Indonesian Muslims .............................. 3 0.1.1 The Ethnic Politics of Chinese-Indonesians from the Dutch Colonial Period to the Post-Suharto Era ................................................................... 3 0.1.2 A Brief History of Islam amongst Chinese-Indonesians ............................ 7 0.2 A Note on Method ............................................................................ 11 0.3 Chapter Plan..................................................................................... 12 Part I Confluence Chapter 1 The Confluence of Chineseness and Islam ...................... 17 1.1 Introduction...................................................................................... 17 1.2 The Socio-Cultural Location of Chinese-Indonesian Muslims ....... 19 1.3 Spatial Crossing: Conversion as Boundary-Making and Dwelling .......................................................................................... 21 1.4 A Three-Level Sociological Analysis of a Chinese-Indonesian‘s Conversion to Islam ......................................................................... 23 1.4.1 Troubling and Enterprising Individuals ................................................... 24 1.4.2 Socially Stratified Islamic Spectrums ...................................................... 34 1.4.3 Entering the Islamic Religious Field ........................................................ 37 Chapter 2 Contested Legacies ............................................................ 41 2.1 Introduction...................................................................................... 41 2.2 The ―Chinese Theory‖ Controversy ................................................ 43 2.2.1 The Origin of the Controversy in the Malay Annals of Semarang and Cerbon...................................................................................................... 43 2.2.2 Slamet Muljana‘s Contested Book ........................................................... 47 2.2.3 Revisiting ―Chinese theory‖ in the Post-Suharto Period ......................... 49 2.3 The Making of Zheng He‘s Heteroglossic Muslim Images ............ 53 2.3.1 The Promotion of Zheng He Discourses behind the ―China‘s Peaceful Rise‖ ........................................................................................................ 55 2.3.2 A New Synthesis: The Cultural Industry of Zheng He and the ―Islamic Reformist Movement‖ of the Chinese Hanafi Muslim Community in Java .......................................................................................................... 62 2.3.3 Local Legendary Traditions ..................................................................... 66 2.3.4 Celebrating the Sixth Centenary of Zheng He‘s Voyages in 2005 .......... 69 2.4 Gus Dur‘s Appropriation: A Miraculous Historical Convergence? .................................................................................. 72 2.5 Concluding Remarks ....................................................................... 74 Chapter 3 Performing Islamic Chineseness ...................................... 77 3.1 Introduction: From Sino-Javanese Muslim Culture to Contemporary Islamic Chineseness ................................................ 77 3.2 Embodying Ibadah in Building Modern Self and Society .............. 78 3.2.1 Healthcare and Islamic Rituals: Do‘a, Salat, Wudu, and Meals during Ramadan .................................................................................................. 80 3.2.2 Health and Doa ........................................................................................ 81 3.2.3 Ablution and Sins of the Limbs ............................................................... 81 3.2.4 Salat, Bodily Cultivation and Conduct of Life ........................................ 84 3.2.5 Dietetics of Ramadan ............................................................................... 85 3.2.6 Chinese Bodily Cultivation as a Body Technique.................................... 87 3.2.7 Embodying Ibadah: Modern Muslim‘s Self as a Social Imaginary ......... 90 3.3 A Controversy Surrounding Chinese-Indonesian Muslims‘ Salat Imlek in Central Java ....................................................................... 96 3.3.1 Origin and debates of Salat Imlek ............................................................ 97 3.3.2 Confused knowledge of Chinese calendar and Imlek ............................ 105 3.3.3 Double Religious Pluralism and Transgressions of Festival Politics ..... 109 3.4 Building Traditions for Bridging Differences: the Islamic Imaginary Homelands of Chinese-Indonesian Muslims in East Java ........................................................................................ 111 3.4.1 The Regional PITI of East Java and its Invention of Chinese Indonesian Muslim Traditions ............................................................... 112 3.4.2 The Cheng Ho Mosque: the Invention of an Islamic Imaginary Homeland ............................................................................................... 113 3.4.3 A Third Space: Social Meanings of Islamic Conversion in Relation to the Chinese Indonesian Identity Politics of the Reformation Era ..... 119 3.5 Lampion: A Chinese-Indonesian Muslim‘s Nashid Group ........... 120 3.6 Representation Politics of Ethnicity in Performing Islamic Chineseness during Post-New Order............................................. 124 Part II Crossing Chapter 4 Encountering the Boundaries ......................................... 135 4.1 Introduction.................................................................................... 135 4.2 Methodological Consideration ...................................................... 138 4.3 A Sketch of Experiences of Chinese-Indonesians‘ Conversion to Islam .......................................................................................... 140 4.4 A Conversion Story of Gunawan and His Two Sons ..................... 145 4.5 Religious Boundaries in the Historical Making of Chinese/Pribumi ............................................................................ 153 4.6 Concluding Remarks ..................................................................... 160 Chapter 5 Between Faith and Family ................................................. 163 5.1 Introduction.................................................................................... 163 5.2 The Impact of Family and Marriage on Women Who Convert to Islam .......................................................................................... 166 5.3 A Self-Reflection on My Own Identity as a Male Researcher and a Tentative Analytical Framework .......................................... 174 5.4 Conversion Biographies Based on Family and Marriage .............. 179 5.4.1 Conversion Accompanied by Interracial Marriage ................................ 180 5.4.2 Converts Marrying Ethnic Chinese ........................................................ 186 5.4.3 Single Chinese-Indonesian Women: A preference for Ethnic Chinese Husbands, while Leaving Their Fates to Allah ...................................... 191 5.5 Concluding Remark: Conversion Experience as a Boundary Inscription of Chinese-Indonesian Muslim Women‘s Body Politics ........................................................................................... 201 Part III Dwelling Chapter 6 Preacher and Da’wa ..........................................................