Eventtitle: Christoph Antons (Newcastle, Australien): Peranakan Chinese in Indonesia: The Construction of a Community in Colonial Law and its Legacy
Date: 10.11.2020
Time: 6:00 (CET)
Eventtype: Other
Eventcategory: KHK Förderprojekte
Organisor: Käthe Hamburger Kolleg Recht als Kultur
Place: Zoom Conference
More about the event:
When it comes to representations of communities in post-colonial societies, it is very important to distinguish between self-defined notions of ethnic identity and ethnic categorisations imposed by others. Colonial administrators in particular tended to classify populations in accordance with the economic and political goals of the colonising power. Different communities were split or lumped together under legal and administrative categories, which would define their access to law, economic opportunities and political office. The presentation will show these processes using the example of the highly acculturated minority population of the Peranakan Chinese in Indonesia, a population which traces its arrival in Southeast Asia back to the period of the Tang dynasty in China. Classified as “foreign Orientals” by the Dutch colonial government for the administration of law, the Peranakan Chinese were made permanently foreign.
Because their legal status was defined in numerous laws, which survived the declaration of independence in 1945, the new nation state of Indonesia for a long time has shown an ambivalent attitude towards their inclusion in an emerging Indonesian national identity. Recent reform processes have abolished many discriminating laws, while at the same time anti-discrimination legislation has been put in place to eradicate discriminating attitudes towards Indonesian citizens of Chinese descent more broadly.
The paper will show how competing visions of ethnic versus civic nationalism in Indonesia are visible in discussions about the integration of ethnic Chinese and their equality before the law. It will further show the ethnic Chinese as a very diverse community and discuss their reactions towards policies and classifications imposed upon them as well as their own understandings of their identity and position in Indonesian society.
(Prof. Dr. Christoph Antons)
Zoom Link: https://uni-bonn.zoom.us/j/91586441281?pwd=cHB4YjdPTlVPTFBEdnlCcHR4M0NCdz09
Meeting-ID: 915 8644 1281
Password: 325745
