Peranakan's Search for National Identity

Peranakan's Search for National Identity
Author: Leo Suryadinata
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing
Total Pages: 188
Release: 2004
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

For the Peranakan Chinese in Indonesia, this century has brought many changes which have heightened the dilemma of their identity, both as a minority group and as individuals. With the rising tide of nationalism in Southeast Asia, the Peranakans were torn between their ancestral identity as Chinese, and their own cultural identity in the former Netherlands Indies, where they had been born, lived, intermarried and become part of local society to the extent that they no longer even spoke Chinese. Dutch colonial society and education which emphasized the concept of race and ethnic identity added further complexity to their dilemma. In this reissue, Leo Suryadinata examines how different Peranakans, each prominent in their own cultural and political spheres, sought unique ways to find and establish an identity that was personal as well as significant in the wider context of being Peranakan in Indonesia.

Peranakan Chinese Identities in the Globalizing Malay Archipelago

Peranakan Chinese Identities in the Globalizing Malay Archipelago
Author: Leo Suryadinata
Publisher: ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-02-21
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9814951706

Peranakan Chinese communities and their “hybrid” culture have fascinated many observers. This book, comprising fourteen chapters, was mainly based on papers written by the author in the last two decades. The chapters address Peranakan Chinese cultural, national and political identities in the Malay Archipelago, i.e., Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore (IMS). This book is divided into two parts. Part I which is on the regional dimension, contains nine chapters that discuss the three countries and beyond. Part II consists of five chapters which focus on one country, i.e., Indonesia. This book not only discusses the past and the present, but also the future of the Peranakan Chinese.

The Chinese of Indonesia and Their Search for Identity

The Chinese of Indonesia and Their Search for Identity
Author: Aimee Dawis
Publisher: Cambria Press
Total Pages: 286
Release: 2009
Genre: History
ISBN: 1604976063

This book examines how the Indonesian Chinese who were born after 1966 negotiate meanings about their culture and identity through their collective memory of growing up in a restrictive media environment that specifically curtailed Chinese language and culture. The restrictive media environment was the result of a series of policies administered during the Suharto era (1965-1998). According to the regulations, the Indonesian government closed all Chinese-language schools and prohibited the use of Chinese characters in public places, the import of Chinese-language publications, and all public forms and expressions of Chinese culture. In the past century, and particularly in the past decade, much attention has been given to China and its rising status as a world economic power. Scholarship on overseas Chinese has also shed light on their relationship with their 'mythic homeland', China. In their work, scholars discovered that the Chinese of Southeast Asia have created a prominent economic, political, and cultural presence in countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. In the 1960s, scholars such as George Kahin, Ruth McVey, and Benedict Anderson were drawn to the political upheavals in Indonesia and the various roles that the Chinese of Indonesia have played in the economic, political, and cultural arenas of their country. In later years, Charles Coppel and Leo Suryadinata have published extensively on various aspects of the Chinese in Indonesia, such as their religious affiliations and education. Despite the considerable attention given to the Chinese of Indonesia, scholars have not specifically studied, through the lens of the media, how a certain group of Chinese Indonesians grew up in a restrictive media and cultural environment during the 33 years when Indonesia was ruled by Suharto. This book takes the first step in examining this generation's collective memory of growing up in a state-controlled environment that has had a significant impact on their identity formation, maintenance, and the (re)negotiation of 'Chineseness' in their everyday lives. This book will appeal especially to media, cultural studies, and Southeast Asian studies scholars, researchers, and students.

Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent

Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent
Author: Leo Suryadinata
Publisher: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
Total Pages: 1611
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9814345210

"This is a bold project recording the lives of a particular group of Southeast Asians. Most of the people whose biographies are included here have settled down in the ten countries that constitute the region. Each of them has either self-identified as Chinese or is comfortable to be known as someone of Chinese ancestry. There are also those who were born in China or elsewhere who came here to work and do business, including seeking help from others who have ethnic Chinese connections. With the political and economic conditions of the region in a great state of flux for the past two centuries, it is impossible to find consistency in the naming process. Confucius had stressed that correct names make for the best relationships. In this case, Professor Leo Suryadinata has been pursuing for decades the elusive goal of finding the right name to give to the large numbers of people who have, in one way or another, made their homes in, or made some difference to, Southeast Asia. I believe that, when he and his colleagues selected the biographies to be included here, they have taken a big step towards the rectification of identities for many leading personalities. In so doing, he has done us all a great service." - Professor Wang Gungwu, National University of Singapore

The George Hicks Collection

The George Hicks Collection
Author: Eunice Low
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2016-07-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9004323996

The George Hicks Collection at the National Library, Singapore, comprises about 6,900 books and materials donated between 200 and 2015 by Mr George Lyndon Hicks. The Collection focuses on four main subject areas – Southeast Asia, China, Japan and overseas Chinese – spanning the disciplines of history, sociology, economics, political science and anthropology. The body of works in the Collection reveals Mr Hicks’ profound interest in Asia and his scholarly pursuits over the decades. This volume, written and compiled by Eunice Low, presents an annotated bibliography of selected works from the Collection and highlights significant titles. Also included are an overview of the life and career of Mr Hicks, a list of his authored and edited works, as well as essays introducing the chapters.

Coming Home to a Foreign Country

Coming Home to a Foreign Country
Author: Soon Keong Ong
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 241
Release: 2021-08-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1501756206

Ong Soon Keong explores the unique position of the treaty port Xiamen (Amoy) within the China-Southeast Asia migrant circuit and examines its role in the creation of Chinese diasporas. Coming Home to a Foreign Country addresses how migration affected those who moved out of China and later returned to participate in the city's economic revitalization, educational advancement, and urban reconstruction. Ong shows how the mobility of overseas Chinese allowed them to shape their personal and community identities for pragmatic and political gains. This resulted in migrants who returned with new money, knowledge, and visions acquired abroad, which changed the landscape of their homeland and the lives of those who stayed. Placing late Qing and Republican China in a transnational context, Coming Home to a Foreign Country explores the multilayered social and cultural interactions between China and Southeast Asia. Ong investigates the role of Xiamen in the creation of a China-Southeast Asia migrant circuit; the activities of aspiring and returned migrants in Xiamen; the accumulation and manipulation of multiple identities by Southeast Asian Chinese as political conditions changed; and the motivations behind the return of Southeast Asian Chinese and their continual involvement in mainland Chinese affairs. For Chinese migrants, Ong argues, the idea of "home" was something consciously constructed. Ong complicates familiar narratives of Chinese history to show how the emigration and return of overseas Chinese helped transform Xiamen from a marginal trading outpost at the edge of the Chinese empire to a modern, prosperous city and one of the most important migration hubs by the 1930s.

Creating Multicultural Citizens

Creating Multicultural Citizens
Author: Raihani
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2013-11-12
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1317916522

Despite the largest-scale decentralisation of education since 1999, which broadly led to the marketisation of education, it is not clear how school education responds to the multicultural realities of Indonesian society and ethno-religious conflicts. Creating Multicultural Citizens presents a comprehensive evaluation of contemporary education in the largest democratic Muslim country in the world, focusing on the ways in which education prepares citizens for a multicultural society. It thoroughly examines the state-religion-community roles in the field of education in developing the Indonesian people. Using a qualitative ethnographic methodology, the author presents six case studies of different schools, including religious, non-religious, state and private schools, in two different provinces in Indonesia. It particularly explores: Evolving but contested theories of multiculturalism and multicultural education; Education changes and reforms in post-Suharto Indonesia; Government policies for multicultural education and school curriculum; School leadership for education for diversity; Roles of religious education in schools in nurturing multicultural beliefs, values and attitudes; Extra-curricular activities and tolerance; Students’ perspectives of multiculturalism and the ideal society; The promising development of a pesantren (Islamic boarding school in establishing multicultural education. It is the first book to explore how education in Indonesia helps contribute to the creation of tolerant and multicultural citizens and is essential reading for anyone involved in Indonesian education and international higher education.

The Crisis of Global Modernity

The Crisis of Global Modernity
Author: Prasenjit Duara
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 339
Release: 2015
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1107082250

Drawing on historical sociology, transnational histories and Asian traditions, Duara seeks answers to the pressing global issue of environmental sustainability.

Censorship in Colonial Indonesia, 1901–1942

Censorship in Colonial Indonesia, 1901–1942
Author: Nobuto Yamamoto
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 304
Release: 2019-09-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004412409

In Censorship in Colonial Indonesia, 1901–1942 Nobuto Yamamoto examines the institutionalization of censorship and its symbiosis with print culture in the Netherlands Indies. Born from the liberal desire to promote the well-being of the colonial population, censorship was not practiced exclusively in repressive ways but manifested in constructive policies and stimuli, among which was the cultivation of the “native press” under state patronage. Censorship in the Indies oscillated between liberal impulse and the intrinsic insecurity of a colonial state in the era of nationalism and democratic governance. It proved unpredictable in terms of outcomes, at times being co-opted by resourceful activists and journalists, and susceptible to international politics as it transformed during the Sino-Japanese war of the 1930s.