CHINESENESS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINESE INDONESIAN AFTER REFORMASI A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School Of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Setefanus Suprajitno August 2013 © 2013 Setefanus Suprajitno CHINESENESS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER: THE TRANSFORMATION OF CHINESE INDONESIAN AFTER REFORMASI Setefanus Suprajitno, Ph.D. Cornell University 2013 My dissertation is an ethnographic project documenting the transformation of Chinese Indonesians post-Suharto Indonesia. When Suharto was in power (1966–1998), the Chinese in his country were not considered an ethnicity with the freedom to maintain their ethnic and cultural heritage. They were marked as “the Other” by various policies and measures that suppressed their cultural markers of ethnicity. The regime banned Chinese language education, prohibited Chinese media, and dissolved Chinese organizations, an effort that many Chinese thought of as destroying the Chinese community in Indonesia as they were seen as the three pillars that sustained the Chinese community. Those efforts were intended to make the Chinese more Indonesian; ironically, they highlighted the otherness of Chinese Indonesians and made them perpetual foreigners who remained the object of discrimination despite their total assimilation into Indonesian society. However, the May 1998 anti-Chinese riot that led to the fall of the New Order regime brought about political and social reform. The three pillars of the Chinese community were restored. This restoration produces new possibilities for Chinese cultural expression. Situated in this area of anthropological inquiry, my dissertation examines how the Chinese negotiate and formulate these identities, and how they ascribe meaning to Chinese identities. I argue that Chinese cultural expression facilitates the re-emergence of multiple Chinese identities. The multiplicity of Chinese identities is reflected in the way they view Chinese culture, the creation of exclusionary and inclusionary boundaries, and the idea of Chinese political engagement. All these occur as a result of different backgrounds and experiences of individual Chinese. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Setefanus Suprajitno was born and grew up in the New Order Indonesia. Coming from a Chinese family, he has been curious since his childhood about the cultural and social forces that have influenced his identity. His curiosity leads to his research interest into the lives of the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the many people who helped me complete this project. Without their kindness and material, intellectual and affective gifts, this research would have been more difficult if not impossible. While for reasons of confidentiality I cannot name all my informants, it is they who have made this dissertation possible. I extend my deepest thanks to them. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support provided for my study and research from a variety of sources. I would like to thank: the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation; the Directorate General of Higher Education, the Indonesian Ministry of Education; the Department of Anthropology and the Southeast Asia Program at Cornell University. I am grateful for the generosity and wisdom of my stellar doctoral committee. Marina Welker helped me navigate the world of anthropology and agreed to serve as chair. I appreciate her style, challenging but always helpful critiques. Andrew Willford often asked me tough questions that sharpened my analytical skills. He sets a standard for academic and professional integrity that I respect and can only aspire to. Vilma Santiago-Irizarry introduced me to the field of linguistic anthropology. Her theorizing on the intersections of language and ethnicity has been very important to my own incursions into the study of the Chinese in Indonesia. Eric Tagliacozzo’s invaluable comments helped me understand the historical trajectory of Chinese Indonesians. He has changed my perspectives on the study of history. Last but not least, I must thank my sister, Rachel, and her children, Andrew, Nancy, and Justin, who are my constant source of motivation. I also thank my friends in the United States iv and Indonesia for their support. It would be difficult for me to survive the years it has taken me to complete the doctoral degree without their encouragement. v Table of Contents Biographical Sketch…………………………………………………………………... … ....iii Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………….. … …iv Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………... … …vi Introduction…………………………………………………………………………… … ….1 Institutionalizing Exclusion……………………………………………………….. … ….4 Winds of Change…………………………………………………………………... … ...10 Habitus and Doxa………………………………………………………………….. … …18 Ethnicity…………………………………………………………………………… … …20 Language Ideology………………………………………………………………… … …26 Chinese Ethnic Group as an Analytical Category…………………………………. … …29 Research Site………………………………………………………………………. … …32 Research Methodology…………………………………………………………….. … …34 Chapter Outline……………………………………………………………………. … …39 Part 1: Chinese Language Education…………………………………………………. … …41 Chapter 1: Language Ideology and Chineseness……………………………………... … …44 Circulating Ideology 1: Chinese Language as a Marker of Chinese Identity…….. … …47 Circulating Ideology 2: Chinese Language as a Foreign Language……………… … …66 Integrative and Instrumental Orientations………………………………………… … …75 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………….. … …79 Chapter 2: Authenticating Chineseness through Language and Culture……………... … …82 The Revival of Chinese Language School………………………………………... … …83 Language ideologies and Imagined Community………………………………….. … …86 Connecting to Language and Culture …………………………………………….. … …89 Learners’ Language Ideologies…………………………………………………… … …94 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… … ..116 Part 2: Chinese Media………………………………………………………………… … ..120 Chapter 3: Chinese Media and the (Re)construction of Chineseness………………… … ..122 The Rise of Chinese Media……………………………………………………….. … ..126 Chinese Media and Chinese Identity……………………………………………… … ..131 The Mediascape of Surabaya……………………………………………………... … ..133 The Structure of Chinese Newspapers……………………………………………. … ..134 Forms of Imagining……………………………………………………………….. … ..136 Vehicle of Imagining……………………………………………………………… … ..149 Foundation of Imagining………………………………………………………….. … ..156 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… … ..165 vi Chapter 4: Crafting Chineseness in the New Political Climate………………………. … ..168 Exclusionary Boundaries…………………………………………………………. … ..172 Inclusionary Boundaries………………………………………………………….. … ..192 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… … ..206 Part 3: Chinese organizations…………………………………………………………. … ..209 Chapter 5: Chineseness as a Discourse of Victimization, Resistance and Reluctance.. … ..211 Victimization and Collective Memory……………………………………………. … ..218 Seeds of Political Recognition…………………………………………………..... … ..223 Reluctance and Resistance………………………………………………………... … ..234 Political Participation and Representation………………………………………... … ..250 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………… … ..258 Conclusion: The Ideology of Chineseness……………………………………………. … ..261 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………... … ..269 vii Introduction In late June 2005, my nephew and I visited the Miniature Park of Beautiful Indonesia, locally known as TMII (the abbreviation of Indonesian name of the park, Taman Mini Indonesia Indah), in East Jakarta. TMII is a theme park that exhibits the diversity of various ethnic groups and cultures in Indonesia. The park’s organization is based on provinces in Indonesia. Hence, each province has a pavilion showcasing the culture of ethnic groups who live in the province. When we were in the East Java pavilion, I saw a Chinese family looking at the display and diorama. The son asked his father in Javanese, “Dad, why can’t we find the Chinese in the display? There are a lot of Chinese in East Java, aren’t there?” The father laughed and said in Javanese, “I don’t know.” The father did not think much about the absence of the Chinese, and neither did I. But after a while, the child’s question made me aware that the Chinese were conspicuously absent in the displays and dioramas in a number of pavilions I visited. In this pavilion, the pavilion of our home province, visitors can only see the Javanese and the Madurese, two major ethnic groups in the province. Even in West Kalimantan province where the Chinese are one of the three major ethnic groups alongside the Dayak and Malay, no images of Chinese ethnic group could be found.1 The same situation was the case in all pavilions. As a cultural development project of the New Order regime started in 1972, TMII, officially opened to public in 1975, was meant to display Indonesia’s ethnic and cultural pluralism, which were incorporated into national culture such that there was harmony between national unity and regional and cultural difference (Foulcher, 1990:302-303). According to 1 West Kalimantan is the first province whose deputy governor is an ethnic Chinese, namely Christiandy Sanjaya aka Bong Hon San. He was elected as the deputy governor in 2007. He also won the election of deputy governor for the second time in 2012. The other province that has an ethnic Chinese as deputy governor is Jakarta Special Administrative region, elected in 2012. West Kalimantan is also the first province that has a Chinese as head of regency. 1 Pemberton (1994),