Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 439 Tarumanagara International Conference on the Applications of Social Sciences and Humanities (TICASH 2019) Chinese Indonesian Cultural Orientation Analysis Ninawati Kurnia Setiawan Meiske Yunithree Suparman faculty of psychology Faculty of Visual Art and Design faculty of psychology Universitas Tarumanagara Universitas Tarumanagara Universitas Tarumanagara Jakarta, Indonesia Jakarta, Indonesia Jakarta, Indonesia [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Abstract— Each individual has an identity. Identity is a identity, particularly about ‘environment’ (one of the differing character from individual characteristics or group ‘Triadic’). characteristics of which the divergent element is very meaningful for them. Indonesia is known as a plural country According to Dawis [1], ‘environment’ is never with various ethnicities. Beside the diverse ethnicity kind to ethnic Chinese in Indonesia which can be seen clear composition, Indonesia also has ethnic Chinese who are largely in the country’s history. Chinese Indonesian has been living perceived as ‘immigrant’ since the Dutch colonial era. For under complicated social, political, and historical generations the Chinese has been living with a lot of issues, circumstances for many generations. During the Dutch particularly its relations with the Indonesian society in general. colonial period, these Chinese descendants were placed in a These Chinese descendants have suffered from identity crisis separate social segregation which differed from the due to the rejection to become part of the larger Indonesian indigenous people or ‘pribumi’. Under this condition, community, despite the effort to assimilate them. Although Chinese Indonesian’s social position was perceived identity as an individual is attached, environment and nationhood character contribute significantly to its differently with the indigenous populations. development. Against this background, this study analyses the Indonesia’s independence in 1945 did not abolish cultural orientation of Chinese Indonesians to understand the the segregation between the Chinese Indonesian and the dynamics of their identity development. country’s pribumi. Various efforts to abolish the gap have been done, including the ban on the use of Chinese name Keywords: cultural orientations, identity, Chinese Indonesians and other cultural identities, profession and residence limitation (Government Regulation No. 10 Year 1959). I. INTRODUCTION Engineered assimilation is however failed to produce Indonesia is well known as a plural country that fruitful outcomes. Exclusions against Chinese Indonesian consists of various ethnicities. Besides the diverse kept happening. ethnicities, Indonesia also has Chinese descendants who The violence against Chinese Indonesian is never have been labelled as ‘immigrant’ since the Dutch colonial completely gone, with the May 1998 Riot in Jakarta as the era. Chinese Indonesian is Indonesia’s largest non- latest and biggest one. The riot did not only spark indigenous ethnic. Its existence has been included in controversy amongst the local populations, but also numerous Indonesian society activities in general. Although international community. The destruction scale of the unrest the Chinese Indonesian largely has been accepted and crippled the capital city’s activities for several days. It was acknowledged as part of Indonesian society, the ethnic also a wake-up call that what Leo Suryadinata, Singapore’s group still has cultural aspects which exclusively belong to based scholar, as ‘masalah Cina’ (Chinese issue) still it and differ from other cultures. persisted. Since then, reconciliation efforts have been initiated by the Chinese Indonesian civil society Chinese Indonesian has been affected by many organizations and the Indonesian government to tackle this issues, particularly its relations with the general Indonesian issue. society. Discrimination and exclusion to get equal treatment About two decades after the bloody riot, Chinese in the country turn out to be the ethnic group’s primary Indonesians have yet encountered any racial riots like the issues. According to the history, the social environment has 1998 case. Nonetheless, there is a new generation of never been kind to the Chinese Indonesian, since the Dutch Chinese Indonesian living in the globalised era that does not colonial period and the last one May 1998 Riot [1]. The experience discrimination. This new generation’s view label of Chinese Indonesian is closely related to an identity towards identity and cultural orientation of ethnic Chinese that differs from one to another due to religious, family, requires further research. The generation is surrounded by origin, or language background [2]. Identity crisis of cutting-edge technology, thinking globally, but living with Chinese Indonesian occurred due to rejection to be part of the parents or older generations that experienced Indonesian community, though efforts to mend the issue has discrimination. The difference in experience and generation been done. Therefore, the identity crisis is far from over but living in the same country with similar nationhood with the appearance of the exclusion from time to time. thinking becomes the vocal point to further analyse the Chinese Indonesian can be defined as Chinese cultural orientation of this new generation. The identity as descendants who are born in Indonesia. Related to an individual will be attached to someone, but its Bandura’s ‘Triadic’ model, [1] noted the complex relations development is influenced by the surrounding environment in regards of self-identity or the Chinese Indonesian Copyright © 2020 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL. This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 328 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 439 and the nationhood identity. The cultural orientation of these Chinese Indonesian becomes an interesting topic to discuss. Research about Chinese Indonesian identity is If we take a look on the classic literature that generally done to those who were born after G30S/PKI in extensively discussed the influence of changing social 1965. The early generation of Chinese Indonesia is mainly environment to human being, then we can draw several people that experienced discrimination under the Dutch preliminary understandings. This study employs Antony colonial era. The next generation is those who faced Giddens’s thinking on sociology studies. The way of life is discrimination during Soekarno period (PP10) or early changing because of outsides influences, their traditional Soeharto era (Malari), living during the era of ‘ban against patterns of social life are still evident [3]. Social any Chinese culture’ and also ‘May 1998 Riot’. PP10 constructivists believe that what individuals and society prohibited non-indigenous people to live and do business perceive and understans as reality is itself a construction of under the municipality level (kabupaten). Although the individuals and groups [3]. PP10 did not state blatantly towards Chinese Indonesians, the regulation was actually intended to do so as many Culture as all the modes of thought, behavior, and Chinese Indonesians at that time did not have a proper production that are handed down from one generation to the citizenship status. This caused a massive exodus of Chinese next by means of communicative interaction – language, Indonesians from villages and sub-districts to the city area. gestures, writing, building, and all other communication One of the previous studies who supported our among humans – rather than by generic transmission, or research is Trinugraha’s research about Chinese Indonesians heredity [6]. in Surakarta city [4]. An article written by Thung [5] on Identity: The distinctive characteristics of a heterogeneity issue revealed the necessity to find new person’s character or character of a group which relate to variants to understand the current condition and technology who they are & what is meaningful to them. Self-identity: development. the ongoing process of self-development and definition of our personal identity through which we formulate a unique sense of ourselves and our relationship to the world around us. Social-self: the basis of self-consciousness in human individuals, according to the theory of GH. Meads. The social self is the identity conferred upon an individual by reactions of others. A person achieves self-consciousness by becoming aware of the social identity [3]. Based on these backgrounds, this research enquiries: how Chinese Indonesian’s cultural orientation is shaped vis a vis nationhood thinking in the era of globalisation? II. LITERATURE REVIEW Every individual has an identity. Identity is a differing characteristic from individual or group characteristics whereby the deviant element is very meaningful for them. The primary source of the identity consists of gender, sexual orientation, nationality, ethnicity or social class [3]. Giddens [3] furthermore defined identity as self-development and personal identity development as a way when someone formulating her or his uniqueness and relation with the surrounding environment. The existence of distinction on every individual The appearance of a few historical events of ethnic Chinese created identity differences. Identity is a project, a process, in Indonesia gave us a question