The Mirror Never Lies - The Identity Paradox of Being Indonesian

Satrya Wibawa

2017

Abstract

The diversity of Indonesia as a nation was diminished politically by the long-term New Order authoritarian regime. As part of the regime’s project of building the New Order Indonesia, the state applied a massive homogenization strategy, including Indonesian movies. Very rarely did these movies use local dialects or place their narratives within rural Indonesia. Garin Nugroho was a pioneer who challenged the use of Indonesian as the primary language in movies. After the fall of the New Order, Indonesia sought to establish its identity as “Indonesia”. Indonesia’s diversity – in language, ethnicity, and lifestyle – was used to form part of the new national identity. In this paper, I examine the discourse of national identity through children’s representation in the movie The Mirror Never Lies. The movie was made by a young female director and presents the use of regional languages and local issues from the perspective of being Indonesian. I argue that a national identity can be developed through the use of the local cultures; regional languages, customs, and traditions; and historical events that symbolically represent the nation.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Wibawa S. (2017). The Mirror Never Lies - The Identity Paradox of Being Indonesian.In Proceedings of the International Post-Graduate Conference on Media and Communication - Volume 1: IPCOMC, ISBN 978-989-758-337-7, pages 355-359. DOI: 10.5220/0007329403550359

in Bibtex Style

@conference{ipcomc17,
author={Satrya Wibawa},
title={The Mirror Never Lies - The Identity Paradox of Being Indonesian},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Post-Graduate Conference on Media and Communication - Volume 1: IPCOMC,},
year={2017},
pages={355-359},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0007329403550359},
isbn={978-989-758-337-7},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the International Post-Graduate Conference on Media and Communication - Volume 1: IPCOMC,
TI - The Mirror Never Lies - The Identity Paradox of Being Indonesian
SN - 978-989-758-337-7
AU - Wibawa S.
PY - 2017
SP - 355
EP - 359
DO - 10.5220/0007329403550359