China Town Magazine and Indonesian-Chinese Identity

Abstract

The new democratic political system in Indonesia recognizes Indonesian-Chinese as part of the national building. In the post-Suharto era, they are enjoying their cultural identity including freedom of press and freely to use their mother language. In fact, they were still develop their identity inside Indonesia as the multi-cultural country. The magazine called China Town is one of the Indonesian-Chinese Community Magazine. The magazine is not merely as the media which periodically reporting Indonesian-Chinese activities and opinions, but also as the representation of their existence and also identity. This article attempts to measure the role of the magazine particularly concerning on the identity issues. Specifically, this research will examine to what extent the China Town magazine achieve the objectives in terms of media coverage in order to develop and strengthen their identity? This is a qualitative study with content analysis. The empirical data found that, the China Town magazine have attempted tries to convince that Indonesian-Chinese is part of the Indonesian nation, as the Indonesian identity, and they are not exclusive as well as homogenous community. However, the magazine have also expressed and emphasized that Indonesian-Chinese were part of Chinese diaspora. It portrays that the magazine gave a balance information between Indonesian mainstream media and Chinese news.