The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme

in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era

Umilia Rokhani

Faculty of Cultural Sciences, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Jl. Nusantara No.1 Bulaksumur, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: strategy for addressing theme, Chinese-ness, indie movie, post-New Order era.

Abstract: "Chinese"-ness identity is always problematic in Indonesian society which makes it an interesting

theme in film production, especially in indie film. The success in addressing this theme will determine

the position of Chinese society in Indonesia because the function of a movies is to influence their

audience. Therefore, social constructivism can be used as the approach to see the social agent practice

in determining his own values through a movie production. A movie production needs related

intellectual aspect, institutional authority, and creative design. In creative design, the agent position is

explained through theme and problems. The usage of language cannot be separated in addressing the

theme and problems. Language will bring up the signifier to represent subjective ideas and thoughts in

subconscious region about possible social facts of the "Chinese"-ness. In post New Order era, the agent

chooses indie movie stream which is idealistic, free, and independent. The agent brings the ideas and

thoughts from the subconscious region into the conscious region to create the new understanding about

"Chinese"-ness in his creative work to encourage sympathy and provoke the emotion of the audience.

This is used as the strategy to change the perspective of the society about "Chinese"-ness so that the

cultural product of "Chinese"-ness will rise.

1 INTRODUCTION

"Chinese"-ness is a problem in Indonesia since the

colonial era till now. The position of Chinese society

was rendered ambiguous as the part of segregation

political strategy by the colonial government to

strengthen its power and weaken the position of

indigenous and Chinese society. Devide et impera

politics by the colonial government positioned

Chinese as the tax collector for the indigenous people.

This role created the perception among indigenous

people that the Chinese people supported the colonial

power. On the other hand, the colonial government

actually used Chinese people for its power interest

and did not support the Chinese communities

themselves. It could be seen in the high tax imposed

to the Chinese so that the Chinese themselves tried to

escape from the symbolic characteristic as Chinese by

doing camouflage to evade the high tax burden.

Nevertheless, the colonial government tried to

prevent that by imposing wijkenstelsel regulation so

that the Chinese had to live in a ghetto, separated from

the indigenous people, now known as Chinatown

(Kustedja, 2012; Rokhani, Salam, & Rochani-Adi,

2016). This rule made it easier for the colonial

government to monitor the Chinese society

movement in case of a brewing rebellion, so that it

could be suppressed immediately. The positioning

and perception construction in indigenous people

built during the colonial era against the Chinese was

carried on to Indonesia's independent era, Old Order,

New Order, which positioned the Chinese as the

others.

The construct that positioned Chinese as the

others was enforced during New Order regime

through systematic regulations. Many regulations and

government polices limited the movement of Chinese

society in Indonesia. Not just being limited, the

existence of Chinese society seemed to be diluted

wholly in Indonesian society; one of them is the

Presidential Decree No.127/U/Kep/12/1966 about the

changing of Chinese names into so-called

Indonesianized name for all of Chinese descents.

Repressive rules have become parts of Chinese

Indonesian trajectory in positioning their society.

These experiences were remembered in the Chinese

agent and showed up as the inspiration for his works;

one of them is this independently produced movie.

One of the indie film to reveal such repressive

444

Rokhani, U.

The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era.

DOI: 10.5220/0009395404440455

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Interdisciplinar y Arts and Humanities (ICONARTIES 2019), pages 444-455

ISBN: 978-989-758-450-3

situation is Sugiharti Halim. This movie expresses the

insecurity of the character Sugiharti Salim about the

name given by her parent. Sugiharti Halim felt that

the name is not representative for herself as a Chinese

because her so-called Indonesianized name does not

show any "Chinese"-ness characteristic. In this case,

the symbolic signifier through legal identity confirms

the Indonesian identity for the Chinese community

and is imposed by regulation.

Regarding the representation of certain ethnic

identity, the social practice related to the signifiers

representing those criteria as the mental object

representative, as perception and appreciation,

cognition and recognition, which are raised by the

agent based on interest and prejudice. In the movie

production, those representations showed up in the

usage of language. The language in this case becomes

a power to dismantle and build society's perception.

Therefore, language cannot be separated from the

cultural context through social facts. It shows that

there is a relation between power and language

through social condition production and its receiving

process. Thus, the participation of its speakers, social

authority figures and audience as the receiver become

one process in which the relation between power and

cultural production involves language as the medium

of choice.

Cultural production in society through language

leads to social constructivism. Social constructivism

assumes that human in its social interaction

contributes in the world construction through the act

of cultural practice. Therefore, the understanding

about society's cultural production through historical

and social perspective becomes an important issue to

be studied (Creswell, 2012; Rokhani, 2017; Rokhani,

Salam, & Rochani-adi, 2015; Rokhani et al., 2016).

Thus, the activity production method is used to see

the cultural practice from each agent as the producer

and reproducer who construct objective meaning in

each production activity. Essentially, each activity

from practice related to the cultural production

indirectly produces greater meaning than realized.

Hence, the meaning from each cultural production

does not have a single meaning (Jenkins, 2006;

Rokhani, 2017).

2 THE STRATEGY TO ADDRESS

THE THEME

The strategy in production work becomes an effective

way to show the domination and power in reality. In

building a dominant creative work, we need a

network which connects the intellectuals, institutional

authorities, and creative design of the product itself.

The ability to build this network also becomes the part

of the agent's power in the field. The power of the

agent can be exposed through creative design which

is conducted in system building through theme and

problems (Jenkins, 2006).

Within the creative design, the habitus of the

language usage can be seen through the agent's

representation of the work either by the content or the

way it is told. The representation will refer to social

facts which may be raised as a subjective

representation. The representation shown by the agent

is ambiguous because basically the signifiers

representing the thought of the agent are in the

corridor of consecration hierarchy. The

representation shown by the agent is a form of

response toward the situation and social facts in the

society. Therefore, habitus of the language usage by

the agent cannot be understood only through language

context, but must be connected to the social facts in

the society as a form of cultural product which will

impact the cultural movement in the society.

The understanding of the signifiers which are in

consecration creates a relation with the subject

structure. The subjective representation construction

relates positively with the possible social facts. This

shows the position of the agent in that consecration

hierarchy. In this case, the representation is in the

subconscious region towards the social facts that may

be raised become a thought by the agent. In building

that representation, it is not just about the possible

placement of the agent but also shows the class

classification which defines the agent positioning

through system strategy in that representation.

Because of being in subconscious region, the

representation which shows up also presents the

unrealized characteristics, such as habitus which

shows internalized sign system, index through words

object, words and behaviors reflecting the objectivity

structure. These become the foundation of the rise of

sign and word register which can be chosen to be

constructed into image of certain condition which

later can be interpreted (Bourdieu, 1993).

In this representation construction, internalized

sign system can be shown semiotically because it is

related to the mode of representation and language to

produce meaning. This is called the poetic system

(Hall, 1997). In the context of work production, the

construction of work does not differ from the

construction of language. Even Metz equalize film as

language. Related to object of work in this study

which is film, the film construction does not differ

The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era

445

from the language construction. Metz based his

thought on Saussure that the existence of film as a

sign system is the same as language system which

create the sign system such as myths, clothes, kinship,

paintings, literatures, and cartography (Metz, 1991).

Bourdieu also based his thought with the relation to

language. It is also confirmed by Bourdieu that the

existence of language cannot be separated from social

facts context which include cultural and social

context (Jenkins, 2006).

As conceptual base, Saussure idea about language

also needs to be understood. According to Saussure

(1959), language system is divided into two: a.

Langue which is language system convention related

to the physical and mental ability, and thought about

the speech. This becomes a social product. b.Langage

is the form of human speech which language is using

words as codes. Langage can be divided into two

codes which are signifier and message or the

signified.

Langage can show the concept which is represented

in associative form as speech (linguistic sound) as a

form of expression. Therefore, the existence of those

associative forms is always related to connotative

semiotics. In film context, the associative forms can be

shown through Figures and sounds. These forms are

show as an aesthetics effort with the signifiers in

cinematography style, genre, symbol, and poetic

atmosphere – and as the signifiers are the whole

denotative semiological material (Metz, 1991).

Related to the film about "Chinese"-ness, the

theme and problems constructed from the

subconscious of the agent also raise the signifiers of

"Chinese"-ness. These signifiers will become racial

characteristic builder in the movie production. The

racial signifiers can be categorized as an embedded or

unembedded signifiers. They are called embedded

signifiers if the signifiers are tied to the physiology of

the character. The signs are physical characteristics

which are identical to certain racial characteristics,

such as skin color, eyes, hair, or posture. These

physiological signifiers are shown in media which has

impact toward society's perception of certain racial

characteristics, such as Papuan as Melanesian descent

will be represented with ethnic signifiers of curly hair

and dark skin; Austronesian will be represented with

straight hair and white skin, and Mongoloid will be

represented with yellow skin and slanted eyes. The

other embedded signifiers are suspected idiolect,

which are individual language signifiers. Through

language usage, each character can show certain

characteristics, such as Betawi dialect is different to

Javanese dialect, the descendants of marriage mix

with the other racial group except Chinese speak

differently compared to Chinese. Meanwhile, the

unembedded racial signifiers can be replaced by other

signifiers arbitrarily though the substitution might

detach them as the constructive signifier of certain

race. The unembedded signifiers can be seen through

social cultural signifiers such as clothes, accessories,

musical instruments, and rituals which reflect the

daily life of Chinese.

Through this racial signifiers, the political relation

is built because of the difference between the race and

the following signifier. Several approaches can be

used to sort out this relation. First, assimilation

approach which tries to build a single identity from

many races, which automatically reject pluralism.

Second, multiculturalism approach which tries to

accept different ethnic identity, but the acceptance

can be excessive so that each culture is

compartmentalized within its own domain, creating a

rigid society. Third, hybridity approach which tries to

penetrate the imaginary border in each cultural

compartment to build a cross cultural or hyphenated

society. To signify the hyphenated culture, the culture

is written using a hyphen to signify its cross cultural

and fluidness as the result of cultural border

penetration. The quotation marks used in "Chinese"-

ness refer to the racial characteristics used as the

symbolic separator so that it does not only refer to

biological characteristics (Hall, 1996). Meanwhile

the hyphen is also related to an imaginary boundary

in determining the identity which can shift or layered,

especially in diaspora society (Hall, 2000). Hence, the

"Chinese"-ness leads to all signifiers which can grow

perception for identifying the similar or comparable

Chinese racial characteristics.

In a work production, the creative designs as the

medium for conflict of interest either intrinsically in

the work of art or related to extrinsic factors such as

social conflict outside the work production. In this

case, the value of the work of art cannot stop merely

because of the value of reputation. The appreciation

leading the weight of values and truth of the work

towards the relation built by the creators or artists in

defining or positioning themselves. The unawareness

of culture surrounding the agent's habitus shows up

through the talent, knowledge, theme, and problems.

Therefore, relation in cultural aspect will get into the

domain of intellectual position, artistic, or scientific

choice which can be used for revealing the meaning

and function. This can be used as the subconscious

strategy which come up in the effort of cultural

legitimization conquest. The legitimization conquest

effort causes the symbolic violence at stake

(Bourdieu, 1993). Hence, theme and problems in a

cultural product become the media to deliver ideas so

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446

that there can be a change of perception and

legitimization conquest.

3 THE HISTORY OF

"CHINESE"-NESS IN

INDONESIA

The historical traces of Chinese descent in Indonesia

show class stratification since the colonial era through

segregation political strategy to divide the unity and

power of society in Indonesia. By imposing that

strategy, Indonesia (or called Netherlands Indies at

that time) can be conquered easily. There were three

social strata at that time: first, European at the highest

stratum; second, the Far East which consists of

Chinese and Arab at the second stratum below the

European; and third, indigenous people as the lowest

stratum in the society (Hoon, 2012; Mahfud, 2013;

Suryadinata, 1984).

The difference in social strata occurred not only

as external factor, but also being internalized. The

dichotomy was made even among Chinese based on

their internal condition: first, the purity of bloodline

which can be categorized as totok Chinese, who came

directly from China and had not intermarriage with

other race; peranakan who had intermarriage with

indigenous people so that they had mixed the values

and way of life of their ancestors culture with local

cultures; and the descendant of peranakan

intermarriage with the indigenous people who had

already lived according to the local cultures and

values (Joesoef, 1996). Second, the proficiency of

mother tongue or Chinese language so that the class

is considered "more" Chinese if they speak Chinese,

and the lower class can no longer speaks Chinese. The

proficiency to use Chinese language is generally lost

because of intermarriage or interaction with other

society. Therefore, the intermarriage was seen as one

cause of the degradation of Chinese society (Hoon,

2012; Rokhani et al., 2016; Tan, 2008). The

differences of totok and peranakan are underlined by

the assumption that the blood pure totok class is

higher than the peranakan Chinese. Meanwhile,

peranakan Chinese with higher economic power put

themselves at higher stratum compared to totok

Chinese with lower economic power (Rokhani, Salam

and Rochani-Adi, 2016). Thus, there are always two

concept in defining "Chinese"-ness: "being Chinese"

and "not being Chinese".

This dichotomy can be seen in their role in society

through media. In media, the dichotomy of Chinese

society can be seen in publication about Indonesian

national movement, which can be divided into three

groups. The first is the group which support the ideas

rooted in their mother land. This group was affiliated

with Sin Po daily and was dominated by totok

Chinese. Second, the group that supported colonial

government. This group was affiliated with Chung

Hwa Hui (CHH) daily and was dominated by

peranakan Chinese. Third, the group which claimed

as part of Indonesia and was affiliated with the

national movement through Partai Tionghoa

Indonesia-PTI (Indonesian Chinese Party). This

group mainly voiced their ideals through Sin Tit Po

daily. The third group was also dominated by

peranakan Chinese (Suryadinata, 1990, 2010).

In other media outside printed press, the Chinese

was using movies as their media outlet, either as

producers, actors, funders, distributors, or theater

owners. The power of Chinese society was not just in

financing, but also in knowledge and technical skill in

movie production. One movie that was produced by

Chinese agent was Boenga Roos dari Tjikembang

which is adapted from the literary piece written by

Kwee Tek Hoay. Meanwhile, the actors were taken

from traveling theater artists which in colonial era

was called tonil. Some of the actors were Tan Tjeng

Bok, Fifi Young, and Mak Uwok (Arief, 2009;

Gondomono, 2012). Generally, the early era of movie

production of Indonesia (Netherlands Indies) was

dominated by Chinese agents. Even though movie

was introduced by Dutch people in the Netherlands

Indies, their movies were imported. The movies

produced by Dutch were dominated by government

and report purpose. It could be said the Chinese

entrepreneurs dominated most of the movie

production house since the beginning of film

industry. Therefore, the Chinese society had a big role

in Indonesia economy in certain sectors.

The role of Chinese society related to Indonesia

economy was also mentioned by Indonesian

nationalist leaders such as Mohammad Hatta and

Sukarno. This was related to the problem of Chinese

descent citizenship in Indonesia. Mohammad Hatta

supported the claim of Chinese descent as part of

Indonesia. In addition, he also wanted to include the

Chinese society in the development of Indonesian

economy. Hatta suggested that Chinese entrepreneurs

to work together with indigenous people to build

Indonesian economy. In this case, Hatta wanted the

Chinese entrepreneurs to work with indigenous

people as joint partners. Hatta also worked against

racial discrimination toward Chinese entrepreneurs

because it would hamper the economic growth. He

chose this policy because he thought that Indonesian

economy still needed supports from external power.

The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era

447

Thus, Indonesian government wanted to include the

Chinese society to build the economy as one of the

main policy. Meanwhile, Sukarno also wanted to

include the Chinese as part of Indonesia to remove

exclusive nature of Chinese society, so that they can

be integrated wholly to the Indonesian society. In

order to do that, the Chinese needed to be assimilated

as the part of integration (Suryadinata, 1984).

Hatta and Sukarno's idea was formulated in

policies to provide credit to national entrepreneurs

which were dominated by Chinese Indonesian. The

credit facility was given mainly to Chinese

entrepreneurs who cooperate with indigenous

entrepreneurs. The form of cooperation between

Chinese and Indonesian entrepreneurs was mainly in

trainings so that the level of knowledge and skills

among indigenous people could be improved and

finally they could contribute to Indonesian economic

development. This system was known as Ali Baba

Program. Ali is used as the representation of

indigenous entrepreneur and Baba is used as the

representation of Chinese entrepreneur.

This program was launched in order to beat the

colonial economic domination after the

independence. It was also known as the fortress

system. However, this policy and program did not

proceed as planned. The lack of business experience

of indigenous entrepreneurs made them take

advantage of the credit facility to get money for

consumption purpose. This was not compatible with

the principles in Chinese society which use money

mainly for business activities.

A different program was later launch in New Order

era. In contrast with the integration of Chinese society

through assimilation program by the New Order

government, several activities such as discussions

about China in public were forbidden except to

support government program. The prohibition was

imposed in almost all aspects: politics, social and

culture, education, even religion. Several policies

imposed by the New Order government were the

changing of Chinese name into so-called

Indonesianized name, the prohibition to celebrate

Chinese New Year, the prohibition to perform Chinese

culture in public space, the prohibition to use land to

build, expand, or reconstruct Chinese temple, the

prohibition to print or publish writings or

advertisement in Chinese characters, and the

prohibition to speak Chinese in public.

These policies were imposed to support the

Assimilation Program launched to assimilate the

Chinese into indigenous society to build a

homogeneous ideology in a plural society. The

impact of this program was racial discrimination

against Chinese society. As told by Hoon (2012), all

Indonesian citizens must be homogenized in one

national identity: Pancasila.

This assimilation concept is in line with Zygmunt

Bauman as cited in Hoon (2012) that the assimilation

program is to force the foreign agents to throw away

their cultural identities so that a homogeneous society

is created, instead of a plural one. This can be

conducted by transforming the foreign agents into the

dominant identity or something similar. In this case,

the program imposed in New Order era was used to

limit the domination and monopoly of Chinese

entrepreneurs in economic sector. This program was

also supported by Indonesian military.

In post New Order era, the new regime changed

the policy towards Indonesian Chinese society.

Several rules that prohibit their public activities were

lifted, such as the prohibition of use Chinese

characters and to publish in Chinese language. The

end of such prohibitions had wide impact such as the

emergence of Chinese newspapers and institutions

which teach Chinese language, either formal or

informal. The other policy is to formalize Chinese

New Year as one of national holiday. These policies

are part of Indonesian government efforts to accept

Indonesian Chinese as the equal part among other

ethnicity. During the office of Susilo Bambang

Yudhoyono, he even issued Presidential Decree

No.12/2014 to revoke the previous regulation

Ampera Cabinet Circular No.SE 06/Pred.Kab/6/1967

about the usage of "Chinese" term. Thus, since March

14th, 2014, the usage of "Chinese" was changed into

"Tionghoa".

4 ADDRESSING THE

"CHINESE" -NESS THEME IN

NEW ORDER VS. POST NEW

ORDER

Agents as the producer of society's perception related

to the "Chinese"-ness theme face obstacles in

producing "Chinese"-ness culture. The change of

government policy becomes an aspect in addressing

the "Chinese"-ness theme in movie production.

During New Order era, the prohibition to use the

"Chinese" theme in public space limited the movie

producer to use the theme in movie industry. The

Chinese theme was mainly use as propaganda effort in

Assimilation Program by the government. The

production of movies in this theme was conducted by

government selected partners which direct the movies

according the government program. Such movie was

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448

Putri Giok (1980). Several name who had role and

contributed to the movie content were acknowledged

in the beginning of the movie. Those name showed up

in credit title in the beginning of the film, among

others Mrs. Tien Suharto and Mrs. Nelly Adam Malik,

which were the First Lady and Second Lady. Several

other contributing agencies were also mentioned,

among other BP7 (Badan Pembina Pendidikan

Pedoman Penghayatan Pengamalan Pancasila) or

Pancasila Ideology Practice Advisory Board and

BAKOM PKB. BAKOM PKB is an agency which

was founded to connect the government with Chinese

communities in Indonesia to spread and implement the

laws and policies in Indonesia imposed on Chinese

communities (Marta, 2015).

The contribution of those agencies were clearly

shown through the songs sung by the choir to build

the nationalism such as Satu Nusa Satu Bangsa (One

Country One Nation); the member of the choir

consisted of several ethnicities representing the

physiological characters as the most banal signifier or

the usage of traditional dresses. The scene was

followed up by using the cover of civics subject

(Pendidikan Moral Pancasila) book, as the subject

which teaches about nationalism building. The

following Figures show the influences of those

agencies toward the content of the movie.

Figure 1, 2, 3: The role and contributor signifiers outside

the agent took part in determining the content of the movie.

The book cover close up led the audience

perception about the relation of acknowledgment as

the prologue of the movie. The relation emphasized

the movie itself is not wholly independent from

government program. The civics subject as taught by

the teacher played by the actress Titiek Puspa told

about the inter-religion harmonious relation which

was a showcase for multicultural and multi-religion

Indonesia. The understanding towards that condition

must be addressed in the attitudes of mutual respect

and tolerance in a harmonious society. Those

attitudes are used as the foundation in understanding

the civics subject in school. Those basic

understandings fuel the pros and cons of the anti-

integration and anti-tolerance movement in the

movie. Assimilation, tolerance, and harmonious

relation among religions and ethnics are used as the

part of teaching in schools in New Order era.

The monologue by the teacher in the class showed

up as the content as well as the message of the movie

which tells a love story between a Chinese girl and an

indigenous boy which was not permitted the parents

of the girl, a rich Chinese played by Han Liong Swie

(Hengky Nero). In the movie, the indigenous people

were not depicted as rich versus poor dichotomy

against Chinese entrepreneur. But the economic

power of indigenous people still cannot be compared

with the Chinese.

The racial stereotype of Chinese society is

strengthened by the movie as rich and asocial class,

despite the fact that not all Chinese are rich. This fact

is revealed in the indie movie Anak Naga Beranak

Naga. Even the difference of economic strata among

Chinese created different assimilation pattern

between rich and poor Chinese. Middle and upper

class Chinese would use their wealth to build relation

with the ruling class by utilizing their economic

power. Meanwhile, the lower class would use art the

assimilation medium which is considered more

populist, fluid, and flexible.

Through the character of Putri Giok played by

Dian Ariestya, the nationalism was shown in one

scene that use the song Kebyar-kebyar as background

in play with nationalism theme. Giok assimilated

herself in the society without differentiating social

strata or ethnicity, but her father was against it. The

antagonist was played by Farouk Avero who tried to

influence her father to forbid her daughter to befriend

the indigenous people. Farouk Avero who played as

Vijay, an Indian descent, considered that money

could solve any problems. The existence of foreign

descents are only in conceptual framework; the

immigrants do not have to show dedication to

Indonesia because they can never be equated with

indigenous people. This idea was also opposed by

Han Tek Liong, Giok Nio's older brother. Han Tek

Liong tried to tell Vijay that the earth where you stand

is the earth that you should love and defend.

A different stance was shown in the theme

addressed in the indie film Sugiharti Halim directed

by Ariani Darmawan. Sugiharti is a Chinese descent

born from Chinese parents. But she was restless

The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era

449

because her name did not reflect her "Chinese"-ness.

She thought that her physical appearance as a yellow

skinned and slanted eyes Chinese did not fit her

Javanese style name, which means affluence.

The problems of naming creates inconvenient

feeling because the so-called Indonesianized name is

forced and does not represent the Chinese identity.

The Chinese had to change their name into so-called

Indonesianized name as imposed by the Presidential

Decree No.127/U/Kep/12/1966. This government

policy is used as the main issue in the film Sugiharti

Halim.

Figure 4. The rule as signifier is full of discrimination which

becomes the idea behind the indie movie production

Sugiharti Halim

The rule made Sugiharti Halim's father which

family's name is Liem to change his family name into

Halim. The process was shown through the shots of

his personal documents showing the change of name.

The documentation of can be seen below.

Figure 5-10: The documentation of signifiers shown in the

film Sugiharti Halim

The obedience of Taruna Halim, Sugiharti

Halim's father, to the rule made him no longer use

Chinese name for his children. Meanwhile, Sugiharti

considers that the name changing rule was a sign of

failure in the assimilation process by the government,

because every Chinese family name Liem were

changed into Halim then. Thus, the usage of Halim

can be seen as the confirmation of their "Chinese"-

ness which was forcedly changed into Indonesianized

name. The following is the quote from the dialogue

of Sugiharti Halim.

Sugiharti Halim:

'In 1965, the government forced us Chinese to

choose between Chinese or Indonesian

citizenship. The ones who chose Indonesian

changed their name, so my father changed his

name into Taruna Halim. It was funny that he

didn't even think that all Chinese with Liem

family name would choose the same name. So

now, the Halim becomes identical to Chinese in

Indonesia. It is such a failure effort of

camouflage?!?! And what about me now?'

A contradictory narrative also came up in the film

in the character of Tan Ging Le, Sugiharti Halim's

friend. Tan Ging Le's father is a Chinese descent who

retains his Chinese name, including for his children.

His principle was to place Chinese into the same level

playing field compared to other ethnics in Indonesia.

The following is the dialogue from Tan Ging Le.

Tan Ging Le's father:

'My friend, Tampubolon, does not need to

change his name into Warsito or Sungkono. Why

should I change my name? So, at the end, my

sister and brother, none of them have Indonesian

name...'

The understanding of this principle shows that the

equality of Chinese descent among other ethnics is

using their own family name as the signifier of

ethnicity. This principle influenced Tan Ging Le that

the identity of each individual, especially Chinese,

cannot be labeled with just a name, but through

understanding own self as a Chinese which will form

and determine the attitude and behavior.

There are no preference in choice of name outside

Chinese name among Chinese descent. Thus, the

naming outside Chinese name is arbitrary. Therefore,

the understanding of oneself as a Chinese must grow

from inside in expressing "Chinese"-ness, not in

outside label such as name. Essentially, the identity

signifier through naming which show "Indonesian"-

ness in each individual cannot be forced as something

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450

absolute. The recognition of "Indonesian"-ness grows

from love which can be realized in dedication, not by

wearing labels such as names. The love of country

will create a desire to give more without being asked;

and the proverb "the earth where you stand is the earth

that you should love and defend" will come naturally.

The understanding of the above proverb in shallow

interpretation could make Chinese into pragmatist

because of the wide sphere of Chinese around the

world. The diaspora of Chinese in many parts of the

world might reduce the connection to their

motherland. In addition, the forced value shows that

the government and society tend to place the Chinese

as the others, migrants, or someone who cannot fully

integrate so that they require special treatment to

form, grow and develop affection to Indonesia

instantly. This is a naive effort by the government

because building the love for the country cannot be

forced or achieved instantly.

By comparing the theme address in movie

production before and after New Order era we can see

the difference in characters production to respond to

several government policies especially related to the

existence of Chinese society in Indonesia. During the

New Order era, the movie contents were influenced

by government program which lead to the

assimilation process of the Chinese. Hen Tek Liong

line in the dialogue showed that the support for

assimilation regardless of whether someone is a

Chinese or other ethnicity. Contrarily, after New

Order era, the theme changed to resinicization

process as shown in the naming issue. Sugiharti

Halim felt that her physiological characteristics as

Chinese do not fit her Indonesianized name. Her

name cannot be used to represent herself as a Chinese

and does not guarantee a whole acceptance as

Indonesian citizen. She even considered that

Indonesianized naming among Chinese descent was

an unsuccessful program to assimilate Chinese into

Indonesia citizenship because the Indonesianized

name itself reaffirm the "Chinese"-ness.

5 CITIZENSHIP: A

PROBLEMATIC IDENTITY

The policies related to Chinese descent citizenship are

always politically nuanced and problematic. This is

caused by the ambiguous position and status of the

Chinese society as immigrants. It is related to the

diasporic characteristic of the Chinese descent.

In Dutch colonial era, the Chinese was placed at

the second class above the indigenous people. This

policy segregated the Chinese and indigenous people.

However, Chinese was in lower status compared to

European. During the process of colonization, the

colonial government created dualistic policy that

contradicted each other to limit Chinese social

movement instead of targeting the indigenous people,

as if the government somehow did not trust the

Chinese.

But later on there was policy change towards the

Chinese. It was triggered by the policy of Ching

Dynasty which gave scholarship to Chinese diaspora

from the entire world to continue their education in

China. This policy was issued to gain political support

for the Chinese Empire (Mahfud, 2013). In order to

compete with the Chinese policy, colonial

government gave the opportunity to Chinese,

especially the children of Chinese officials, to enter

colonial school filled with Dutch colonial values. In

addition, the colonial eased up the regulation imposed

on Chinese by politics of accommodation through

Wet op het Nederlandsche Onderdaanschap (WNO)

which loosened up the travel document required for

Chinese when traveling (Mahfud, 2013).

Mao Zedong also acknowledge the citizenship of

all overseas Chinese around the world following the

jus sanguinis principle. The citizenship principle by

the Chinese government fueled Indonesian

government to followed up the dual citizenship

agreement for the Chinese descent by enacting Law

No.2 of 1958. Through that law, the Chinese descent

must choose which citizenship to hold. The

implication of the law is the full of discrimination

citizenship paper Surat Bukti Kewarganegaraan

Republik Indonesia (SBKRI). The government was

imposing a systematic discrimination by enacting the

requirement of such paper. It proved that the colonial

practices were still continued even in society even

after the declaration of independence and getting rid

of the colonials. In the subconscious of Indonesian

society, they still carried on the colonial practices.

This reproduction of practice was just another form

of vengeance against the Chinese which they saw as

closer and supporter of European society. Otherizing

became one alternative in continuing the segregation

politics that used to be imposed by colonial

government. Of course, there was subject reversal in

this practice.

The discriminative practice through signifier

paper document led into illegal fee solicitation and

corruption in the society. SBKRI for the Chinese

descent was revoked by Presidential Decree

No.56/1996 and Presidential Instruction No.4/1999.

However, this official ruling was not widely known

by general public so that the discriminative acts

The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era

451

continued. This was shown in Darmawan's interview

about the problem faced in Sugiharti Salim as

inspired by the actual problem faced by Chinese

descent being discriminated by SBKRI. Even though

the former regulation had been revoked, the

discriminative practice continued despite the effort

from Chinese communities to show evidence of the

new policy. The problem usually could be lifted by

paying illegal fees to the government official. This

issue was shown in Sugiharti Salim when Sugiharti

Salim was filing papers at Immigration Office. The

immigration officers forced her to written down her

Chinese name despite having no Chinese name and

was asking for her name changing document or

SBKRI. It showed that the root of the problem was

not always in the government regulation because

when the regulation was changed, the society might

still be the same. Therefore, the dominant problem

was the inherent hatred in the subconsciousness

towards the Chinese. The government policy was just

the institutionalization of the hatred into a repressive

practice towards the Chinese. Thus, to end the

practice, it is not enough just do revoke the

discriminative regulation but to dismantle, create

open mind, eliminate the hatred, and put the Chinese

into the integrative part of Indonesian society as the

permanent and sustainable solution. Therefore, the

acceptance of the Chinese, as in cultural

appropriation, is conducted without compulsion as

the part of making Indonesia a diverse society.

Government can try to educate the people through

policies which encourage diversity and emphasize

that diversity is a resource to treasure, conserve, and

build.

6 LANGUAGE AS THE

STRATEGY TO ADDRESS THE

POST NEW ORDER CHINESE

THEME IN INDIE MOVIE

Movies have force and power to influence their

audience. That is one function of a movie (Imron,

2008; Rokhani, 2008). The power comes from the

film language. Film language arises as visual

expression through the force of idiom to express the

content of the movie and the audio accuracy to build

the atmosphere accordingly. Since a compact

character are full with idioms, indie film becomes a

segmented work. Besides that, indie film is more

idealistic, free, and independent in its production, so

that it can be used for alternative themes which are

considered marginal, neglected, and avoided but can

be expressed openly even vulgarly. The theme

addressed in indie film was subjectively arranged in

experimental form so that the common audience

could not understand the characters in indie film

easily (Agustina, 2017).

The production of indie film content related to the

agent's expertise creates a simulation of events and

problems in the domain of reality. The ability to

address subjective and segmented theme requires

great creativity and knowledge mastery in movie

making. This abilities are found among scholars and

academics. Therefore, indie film making is usually

rooted and developed among scholars and academics

in film school. The characters developed in academic

atmosphere emphasize more on the idealistic

knowledge. In this case, movie also has role as

knowledge and subject matter in the theory and its

applications. Using movie as cultural approach in arts

is conducted either directly or indirectly (Prakoso,

2006). Movie production does not only prioritize

visual conceptualization but also experimental

concept from the whole form of the film as a product

with aesthetic value. It demands a great creative power

to bring up the idioms in film language forms which

express ideas and thoughts of the productive agents to

bring a new understanding towards certain topics.

Therefore, the agent as creator needs talented

individuals with different capacities to create a

product with different characteristics. This talent is

closely related to the intuitive capacity which

captures different aspect among different agents. This

intuition needs to be trained well through knowledge

transfer or production training so that the agent could

develop its artistic sensitivity. Knowledge transfer

and training would affect the orientation building

capacity in creating new form by the agent (Prakoso,

2006). Those abilities will have role in the idea

capturing, processing, and development process

being captured through social facts as texts. In the

idea development process, we need the ability in

artistic sensitivity to correlate the text and social facts

with the chosen idioms of expression. In this case, the

ability to do such process by the agent is included in

addressing the theme during movie production.

Addressing a theme in movie usually forms

hyper-reality in audience perception, to build

sympathy and empathy so that the film language used

to express the simulated reality can have power to

culminate in probing, expressing, and describing the

problems of reality using properly chosen idioms.

Bringing the Chinese problem in indie film

production activity can vary because the "Chinese"-

ness is always problematic in Indonesia. Basically,

the theme brought up through indie film in Indonesia

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452

about "Chinese"-ness can be categorized in three

main theme: a) construction of "Chinese"-ness

identity and discriminative practice; b) social conflict

in Chinese society; and c) Chinese society

acculturation. The idioms constructed to bring up

"Chinese"-ness theme and discriminative practice can

be used through symbolization of identity set,

"Chinese"-ness terms, Chinese language usage, and

Chinese stereotype. Meanwhile, the social conflict in

Chinese society is explored through idioms related to

the Chinese society beliefs, social conflicts affected

by the idioms which shows social inequality and

economic crisis, and conflicts which show idioms

related to social violence and conflict trauma

experienced by Chinese women. The last, Chinese

acculturation is shown in idioms which lead to

assimilation of Chinese tradition and arts with

Indonesian society.

The address of the theme must be well

conceptualized using strong concept in film language

to generate hyper-reality form about the bad

experiences suffered by Chinese so that the problems

are exaggerated to ensure sympathy and empathy.

This can be seen in the rule of name changing of

Chinese name into Indonesian name which is only

applied at specific time and specific place. In this

case, the fact about the reality is not properly shown

in the movie content because the full exposition will

decrease the dramatic effect of the problem. The fact

that the agent wants to bring up is the rule encourages

discrimination toward Chinese either by government

or general public. The dramatic effect from the hyper-

reality becomes part of the construction to build

emotional aspect of the movie audience. It does not

mean to obscure the fact because the movie is a

fictional one not a documentary.

idioms even proves further that creative effort that

build empathy and stir the audience emotion in

"Chinese"-ness problem can be done through the

movie plot. The empathy and emotion created by the

movie hopefully can change and shift the society's

perspective toward the Chinese. In addition, the

fictional character is also using imagination as part of

the movie content, and also strengthen the signifiers

shown in the movie. Even though the imaginative

signifiers shown in the fictional work taken from the

reality often cannot be differentiated from the real fact.

Baudrillard said that the signifier often is not merely

symbol of reality as shown in identity signifier created

and systematized by government in form of identity

card, citizenship papers, and name changing

documents. Those papers showed a form of systematic

and structural discrimination towards Chinese. The

ability to create dramatic effect through the

In its preproduction process, the plot will present

the textual reading of reality through process of

selection, transformation, and elaboration of chosen

signifiers to represent the reality being used in the

plot. Those signifiers will be brought up intentionally.

The signifiers are revealed in the agent's speech

responding to reality. The respond in work of art

usually is the non-verbalized response of the reality.

The restricted, discriminated, and otherized condition

of the Chinese generate works of art as alternative

solutions to convey ideas about reality which are not

revealed in real life.

Through the alternative solution of the work

construction, the agent can satisfy herself in

constructing or reconstructing events in the past when

there are no opportunity to voice and express

opinions. Therefore, the construction by the agent in

production is generated from deep probing into the

subconscious memory storage. This is in line with

Iser (1987) idea about the existence of various

reading in the readers' memory deposit. The reading

concept in this case can be interpreted widely in

absorbed contexts either through seeing, reading,

hearing, or experiencing events according to the

Chinese social facts. The complexity of Chinese

problem creates several film language in revealing

several social facts as the memoir of the agents.

Darmawan memory deposit dominated by identity

problems was used in most of her works. Identity for

Darmawan is a very important thing as something

attached to every individual for the entire life. The

existence of the identity becomes different signifier

among other individuals. The problem is not just

Darmawan personal problem because that theme is

related to the experience of other Chinese.

This production helped her to understand her

existence as a Chinese. Through her works, she can

reduce her restlessness and trauma as a Chinese.

Chinese prototype is always attached to upper middle

class so it became the cause of riot as the product of

inequality in the society. But through her work,

Darmawan can educate the people that not all Chinese

is born in good economic condition. The data

observation shows the spreading and assimilation of

lower class Chinese in the suburb area through folk

arts. The understanding through art idioms colors the

Chinese society as the medium of assimilation with

other society.

7 CONCLUSIONS

The indie film production about "Chinese"-ness uses

power of film language as strategy to address the

The Strategy to Address "Chinese"-Ness Theme in Indie Movie in Post New Order Era

453

theme representing "Chinese"-ness problem into

social fact in the society. The film language is using

chosen idioms as signifiers to represent the problems.

The process of choosing the idioms needs certain

aesthetic sensitivity which is gained by agent's

creative probing. Besides that, the creativity can be

gained from knowledge transfer either from formal

education or training.

The language power is not just marked as the

agent's speech in delivering the ideas and thoughts

related to "Chinese"-ness. Through the film language

production, the agent tries to change the society's

perception towards "Chinese"-ness. The agents tries

to open his audience mind by evoking empathy and

sympathy about the "Chinese"-ness problem. The

emotional bonding through the film will affect the

point of view and attitude of the general public

towards Chinese society. Therefore the "Chinese"-

ness cultural production can be increased.

The ambiguous position of Chinese society

implicates on several problems among Chinese, one

of them is their citizenship. The citizenship status of

a Chinese is always problematic as seen with the

papers used to emphasize the different status

compared to other Indonesians. The resolution as an

Indonesian is affirmed but also questioned by the

existence of documents such as identity card, name

changing paper, and citizenship paper. Even though

those documents are the product of institutional

construct by government policy, the problem of

"Chinese"-ness usually arise from hatred

reproduction placed by colonial government as the

divisive strategy among Chinese and indigenous

people.

Only after New Order era those documents raised as

new idioms which never showed up before in

"Chinese"-ness theme film during New Order era as

signifier. During that era the signifiers were not

identified with "Chinese"-ness characteristics. The

dialogue representing the Chinese was led to voice

government program, not to show the ideas and

thought of the film producer as their own position and

characteristics.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A part of the dissertation has been accepted by the

examiner board in Humanity Studies, Universitas

Gadjah Mada. I would like to extend my deepest

gratitude to Dr. Aprinus Salam, M.Hum. as the

promoter and Prof. Dr. Ida Rochani-Adi, S.U. as the

co-promoter for their supervision.

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