Peranakan's Search for National Identity

📖 The Scoop

For the Peranakan Chinese in Indonesia, this century has brought many changes which have heightened the dilemma of their identity, both as a minority group and as individuals. With the rising tide of nationalism in Southeast Asia, the Peranakans were torn between their ancestral identity as Chinese, and their own cultural identity in the former Netherlands Indies, where they had been born, lived, intermarried and become part of local society to the extent that they no longer even spoke Chinese. Dutch colonial society and education which emphasized the concept of race and ethnic identity added further complexity to their dilemma. In this reissue, Leo Suryadinata examines how different Peranakans, each prominent in their own cultural and political spheres, sought unique ways to find and establish an identity that was personal as well as significant in the wider context of being Peranakan in Indonesia.

Genre: Biography & Autobiography / General (fancy, right?)