ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA VOL. 40 NO 1 2020 Expressing Chinese-ness: An Alternative Imagery among Young Chinese Indonesians Ignatia Dyahapsari Independent Researcher [email protected] Irfan Nugraha Lecturer, Universitas Indonesia [email protected] Abstract After the 1998 reformation, Chinese Indonesians become more open in expressing their identity in the public sphere in everyday life. However, a pivotal moment for Chinese Indonesians began with Ahok’s engagement with the political life, even though he then tripped in a political ploy that finally turned off Chinese collective hope for equality. On the one hand, anti-Chinese sentiment was reproduced as a tool for political segregation. On the other hand, young Chinese Indonesians are actively expressing their identity and political preferences through social media. We argue that the expressions shared publicly by young Chinese Indonesians might portray a different reflection of identity which is closely related to the political changes of the contemporary Indonesian society. Through their public expressions, new imagery of Chinese Indonesian was created as an alternative to the state-forced imagery on their Chinese-ness. This paper elaborates on how the current imagery produced and reproduced by young Chinese Indonesians through new mediums of social media in response to the continuous political conflict in their daily life. Keywords: Chinese Indonesian, alternative imagery, political expression Introduction political condition of Indonesia (Szakolczai et al., 2017). State polity and the cultivation In the midst of political contention and of discrimination have raised public hatred segregation, expressing identity could be a in our everyday life and interaction, which problem for some groups and communities, limits the Chinese Indonesian expression as particularly due to the fundamental shift of part of the nation, and as Indonesian Indonesia's political situation. Nowadays, citizens. the Indonesian political domain tends to Even though the political situation accommodate the wave of political has changed in today’s reformation era, the exclusion practices (NYT, 2019; Samuel & ethnic segregation created by the colonial Saptari, 2019). Chinese Indonesian might government and New Order political become a ‘minority which faced permanent regime had not yet disappeared. Moreover, liminality,’ that ‘cannot escape from those the racial/ethnic sentiment was reproduced within,’ thus recalling the terminology of in the social campaign incriminating ‘iron cage’ or ‘entrapment’ by which Max Chinese Indonesians, which in turn created Weber might characterize the current 23 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA VOL. 40 NO 1 2020 the dynamics of racial contestation that by define and illuminate their inner spirit of itself became an ongoing conversation in being Chinese Indonesian. daily life. A popular assumption ‘once Based on a series of research conducted Chinese, remained Chinese’ (Coppel, from 2017 to 2019, in this paper we will 1994) appeared to return in the current discuss the perception of young Chinese situation as reflected in the intensifying Indonesian born in the early and late 1990s hatred and prejudice. to understand how they interpret their life This paper will discuss the experiences after the reformation era up to significance of the expression of Chinese- the appearance of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama ness among young Chinese Indonesians to (Ahok) as the Governor of Jakarta in the redefine their position as a minority in the national political arena. That period could contemporary rise of political exclusion be seen as a pivotal point of change in their practices. Our focus on the expression of experience of being Chinese Indonesian. Chinese-ness is to sense ‘experience, which As Hatherell and Welsh (2017) includes not only actions and feelings but maintained, Ahok represented a also reflections about those actions and charismatic type of leadership and as an feelings’ (Bruner, 1986). As Bruner (1986) alternative narrative for those who seek to stated, redefine Indonesian identity as not being tied to ethnicity. His political behavior gave ‘the relationship between experience and its a good impression of a leader with good expressions is always problematic… for morality. His influence on young Chinese experience structures expressions, in that we understand other people and their Indonesian echoed from Tjhia’s findings expressions on the basis of our own (2017) which indicated that Ahok had a experience and self-understanding. But positive effect on young Chinese identity as expressions also structure experience, in that dominant narrative of a historical era, he enflamed their pride in being Chinese meaningful rituals, and festivals, and classic Indonesian. For young Chinese Indonesian, works of art define and illuminate inner it seems that Ahok performed what Spencer experience.’ (2007) called ‘the political turn,’ making In that sense, the experience and the agentive role of Ahok to sense the expression of being Chinese Indonesian democracy in Indonesia as ‘a discourse that through its historical and dynamic relations potentially extends the field of politics over with others should be understood in the their entirety of social life.’ form of dialectical relationship. Therefore, However, the political stage is also the individual experience is accessible to an a set of limitations and sometimes observer only through the expression given unpredictable for the spectator. The to it, and the expression might color the moment Ahok lost his re-election also manner by which experience is interpreted. structured the experience of being Chinese Through the journey of Chinese Indonesian Indonesian in the way Tjhia (2017) in the Indonesian political realm, we might described, that is Chinese Indonesian felt find that it was not only the representation uncomfortable to express that they were of identity at the ground level but also the Indonesian as well as Chinese. stories of their personal experiences that 24 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA VOL. 40 NO 1 2020 The political turn has moved Baru) and that of Indonesian history, the identity politics from the front stage of sentiment towards Chinese Indonesian had political practice into everyday life provided a portray of fluctuation graph. A encounters. Chinese Indonesians are not hope for ethnic representation, including only the onlooker of others’ political that of Chinese Indonesians, had performance but also being entrapped in a strengthened in the post-Suharto political complex situation. activities when in 2000 President The young Chinese Indonesian’s Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur) revoked expression of pride and, yet at the same one of anti-Chinese regulations, namely time, uncomfortable feeling is the topic that Presidential Instruction No. 14/1967 that we want to discuss in this paper based on prohibited the public practices of Chinese the data collected with ethnography religion, belief, and customs. Furthermore, through a series of interviews, the revised Citizenship Law (Law No. observations, and analysis of social media 12/2006) has given Chinese Indonesians platforms. Their expression might help us social and political space to express their to understand the nuances of the process of cultural identity (Lan, 2009). However, in defining ‘self and other’ among Chinese daily life, many Chinese Indonesians still Indonesians. In defining ‘self and other,’ experience discrimination in a systemic and our informants described it as openness and non-systemic way. The long history of disappointment which also reflects their discrimination towards Chinese Indonesian relation to Chinese-ness and Indonesian had created deep-seated segregation within politics. (Re)shaping their political the society. Suspicion, prejudice, and preferences is an eternal struggle for mistrust were persistently targeted on this Chinese Indonesians, similar to their ethnic group throughout the New Order struggle to escape from an act of being administration. Clearly, the government cautious in any kind of situation. They too has not treated every citizen equally. accept a false consciousness of equal Chinese Indonesians were seen as a citizens, while they are only a phantom in problem, known as ‘Masalah Cina’ the everyday political life which nurtures a (Chinese problem). latent problem of political representation of A ‘forced’ assimilation policy was a ‘certain’ ethnic group. Such description implemented during the New Order era, also echoes the generation matrix that which led to exclusion and discrimination regulates the relation between the visible that remained for decades. The terms and the invisible, the imaginable and the ‘pribumi’ (indigenous) and ‘non-pribumi’ non-imaginable at a representational level. (non-indigenous) were used to differentiate those ‘pure’ Indonesians from those who The Emergence of Alternative Imagery are considered ‘not pure.’ The government structurally categorized the Indonesian Twenty-two years after the fall of Suharto, population into warga negara Indonesia or ethnic Chinese in Indonesia have different WNI (Indonesian citizens) and WNI political experiences. Even though the keturunan (Indonesian citizens of Chinese identity of Chinese Indonesian cannot be descent). The New Order period was separated from their marginal position in considered as ethnic Chinese’s ‘dark ages’ the long story of the New Order (Orde because all Chinese related rituals, 25 ANTROPOLOGI INDONESIA VOL. 40 NO 1 2020 education, and other cultural expressions However,