The Chinese of Indonesia and Their Search for Identity: The Relat ...

Chapter 1

Mapping the Terrain of Identity, Memory, and the Media

"Are Indonesian Chinese unique?" asked Wang Gungwu (1976), a renowned Chinese studies professor and researcher, in The Chinese in Indonesia, a book edited by Jamie Mackie, an Australian expert on Chinese Indonesians. This is a question that warrants careful analysis because it asks scholars to compare Chinese Indonesians with the other overseas Chinese communities across the world. According to Wang, the political and economic instabililities that Indonesia experienced throughout the country’s history are on a scale no other Southeast Asian nation experienced. The response of Chinese Indonesians to their environment is unique because this environment is not found anywhere else. This statement raises even more questions because scholars now