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

where fresh immigrants into the territories are more numerous, the response of the overseas Chinese is more varied. There are those who are concerned that immigration laws will tighten everywhere and prejudice against the Chinese will increase.

Overseas Chinese who have settled for years abroad have often asked themselves what would happen if their fears materialized. Should they return to their ancestral land? Should they leave their communal identity as Chinese in favor of total assimilation?

Some of the overseas Chinese communities hope that their technical qualifications and professional skills may help them avoid such a fate. They all intend to keep their hard-earned status in the countries that they consider to be their new homes. All overseas Chinese want China to be successful, not only in terms of power and wealth but also to project a progressive, humane, and law-respecting image.

The current situation of overseas Chinese may only be understood when scholars explore the history of the overseas Chinese and migration patterns within China. The first part of The Encyclopedia of the Chinese Overseas explains how the Chinese began moving from one place to another to look for better means of livelihood as soon as modes of transportation were invented. Most of them migrated from villages to cities for better opportunities. Although they often moved, their traditions and cultural roots were still tied strongly to the places of their birth. This is due to rituals that stress ancestral worship such as the annual tomb cleaning (also known in Indonesia as ceng beng) and burning incense for departed parents and ancestors. On the family grounds of the wealthy Chinese, it was common to see an ancestral hall housing the wooden ancestral tablets on which the names of the honored dead were inscribed. Such practices, repeated generation after generation, intensified the bonds of family, home, and place. They also strengthened loyalties to clan and village.