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theoretical grounding in cultural studies, media ecology, collective memory, and identity. It was during this time that I decided to fuse my interests in communications and the Chinese in Indonesia for my doctoral research.
Throughout my doctoral research and beyond, I have often asked myself and have been asked by others why, exactly, did I choose to devote myself to the study of the Chinese in Indonesia and the media. Perhaps it is because, ever since I was a 10-year-old, I have spent so much of my life in foreign countries (Singapore and the United States). Perhaps it is because I never learned to read and write in Chinese due to assimilationist policies put in place by the Suharto government between 1965 and 1998 that forbade the use of Chinese characters and the celebration of all Chinese cultural festivals such as Chinese New Year. Perhaps it is because I was searching for my own understanding of what it means to be a Chinese individual in Indonesia and my own search for answers when the ethnic Chinese became the targets of angry mobs recurrently throughout Indonesia’s history. Whatever the reason, these questions have fueled my own quest to comprehend how the people in my generation grapple with their sense of identity while growing up in the repressive media and cultural environments that were created during the Suharto era. This book, based on my doctoral research, explores the collective memory of members of this generation while they were growing up in the Suharto era. More specifically, the book emphasizes how they used imported media from China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, which were dubbed in English and subtitled in Bahasa Indonesia, to learn about Chinese culture and to articulate, manage, and negotiate their identity as Chinese individuals in Indonesia.