Reconstructing Chineseness: Chinese Media and Chinese Identity in Post-Reform Indonesia

Abstract

The fall of Suharto in 1998 brought winds of change to Indonesia, especially to policies concerning the Chinese. After being suppressed under the Suharto regime, Chinese Indonesians suddenly had an opportunity to express their cultural heritage in their own ethnic media, counter negative stereotypes and reconstruct an identity that had been virtually erased during the Suharto era. In this article, author examines the discursive practices Chinese Indonesians use to remould their ethnic identity through an analysis of the media strategies used to reinvigorate the Chinese Indonesian identity. It was found from the Chinese media, as exemplified in Qiandao Ribao, Guoji Ribao and Yindunixiya Shangbao, that the re-creation of the Chinese identity requires an understanding of what it was to be Chinese through the use of the symbols most salient to Chinese ethnicity. The media have been strongly geared towards the reconstruction and maintenance of a Chinese identity that sees Chinese Indonesians as an imagined community whose ethnicity is symbolically perceived and maintained through frequent exposure to the ethnic media. By being exposed to the ethnic media, Chinese Indonesian readers can feel a sense of ethnic belonging and identity through perceived affiliation and shared symbols. However, although they succeeded in bringing Chinese culture back to the Indonesian public sphere, the diversity in the Chinese community challenges the media efforts to construct a definitive Chinese identity.