| Chapter : | Introduction |
|
|
and the media (2001) explores these themes using an audience reception study of a Hong Kong bank commercial that was meant to evoke a sense of nostalgia about Hong Kong’s past. Whereas Ma’s work centers largely on the issues of resinification specific to the Hong Kong context, West’s work on collective memory, national identity, and popular culture deals with the Canadian government’s efforts to bolster Canadians’ sense of national identity and historical interests through two documentaries.
Although these studies have made tremendous contributions in opening up discussions on media, memory, and identity, they do not emphasize the complex socioeconomic and political situations encountered by a minority group that has substantial economic power in a country where they are often seen as outsiders. These studies also do not focus on the experiences of a migrant population who went through forced assimilation and the ways in which they constructed and maintain their identity through the media. The complex interplay among politics, economics, and the unique situation of Chinese Indonesians born after 1966 presents an opportunity to examine the collective memory of individuals who grew up in a restrictive media environment that explicitly suppressed their own culture and language. Moreover, this specific environment creates a chance for scholars to delve into the idea of an imagined mythic homeland—a China, Hong Kong, or Taiwan where my respondents have never been to but produces a longing for the lifestyle and the socioeconomic and political conditions of these places through the imported Chinese media.
I seized these opportunities by conducting an in-depth qualitative case study in Jakarta, Indonesia, between September 2002 and May 2003. By interviewing 25 young Chinese Indonesians born after 1966 in seven focus groups, I sought to illuminate the primary research questions that guided my study: How do Chinese Indonesians born after 1966 negotiate meanings