Minority As Performance:Sino-Indonesian Theatre And Public Display

There is at present no systematic academic treatment of ethnic Chinese performance in the Dutch East Indies and Indonesia.This dissertation,defining performance to include community performance and public ritual display as well as theatre,addresses this gap by using Indonesian,Chinese and Western sources as well as fieldwork to provide an overview of the various relevant genres,a history of their development,and an account of their present practice.In so doing,this dissertation traces the development of a self-reflective Sino-Indonesian identity,expressed in various genres of performance and public display.The first chapter treats traditional genres of xiqu(Chinese traditional theatre)and wayang,showing how some genres were eliminated during the anti-Chinese Orde Baru period,while others adapted.Of special interest are a Sino-Indonesian genre ofwayang kulit in the mid-20th century,the Hakka marionettes of West Borneo,and the sociopolitical uses made of the puppet form wayang potehiin the contemporary period.The second chapter is concerned with Chinese-language spoken theatre in Sumatra in the mid-twentieth century.The same historical incident,involving a mutiny of Chinese tobacco workers against Dutch colonial exploitation,is instrumentalised for different purposes.For Baren,a Communist Party operative,the story was used to make a claim of solidarity between Chinese and Indonesians.For Shalihong,a local Sumatran Chinese writer,the same story serves to create a heroic local Chinese history.The third chapter investigates the Chinese element in the development of modern Malay-and Indonesian-language theatre.Authors such as Kwee Tek Hoay created some of the earliest Malay-language literary genres,while Chinese figures were instrumental also in the modern musical forms such as Komedie Stamboel.The Chinese element in contemporary theatre has been continued by institutions such as Teater Koma,with its popular reinterpretations of Chinese stories such as Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai,or Hanna Fransisca,who has brought the issue of Sino-Indonesian identity and ethnic conflict onto the contemporary stage.The fourth chapter concerns the various community performances of Chinese social organisations,with Bandung being used as an example.Through amateur performances including dance,theatre,chorus,and orchestra,Sino-Indonesians are always engaged in the representation,articulation and negotiation of their ethnicity in local context.The fifth chapter,concerning ritual displays,considers how public demonstrations of Chinese religious organisations in West Kalimantan and Java play an important part in the representation of Chinese communities in the archipelago.Thus ritual performance is also engaged in self-representation,be it as a model minority or as a tourist attraction.These five broad genres allow us to trace a history of the development of Sino-Indonesian identity as expressed performatively.As the sociopolitical situation of the ethnic Chinese deteriorated during the early Republican period and even more so during the Suharto years,Chinese-Indonesian performance either declined or was forced to adapt.Chinese-language huaju and traditional xiqu forms,except for puppetry,all but vanished.Other forms,such as the Hokkien puppetry genre budaixi,became deeply hybridised and came to be performed in Indonesian language.The permissibility of Chinese religion under Suharto made temples a principal site for the performance of Chinese identity,an importance they still retain.In the contemporary Reformasi period(1998-),the Chinese element in Indonesian performance is free to be expressed more openly,be it in Chinese community performance,religious parades,xiqu performance,or Chinese-themed commercial theatre.As Indonesia becomes more comfortable with its inherent multiculturalism,there is evidence in the performance world to show that Indonesian and Chinese identities can be conceived as compatible and mutually enriching,rather than exclusive and in competition.Just as the Chinese element is an inherent and constitutive part of Indonesian performing arts,the Indonesian element is an important and frequently overlooked strain in the history of Chinese performing arts as a global phenomenon.As such,they are both a constituent and an emblem of the necessary compatibility of Chinese and Indonesian identities.With identity politics an important feature of contemporary Sino-Indonesian life,all Sino-Indonesian performance forms can be fruitfully examined from this sociopolitical perspective.