Historical Memories of Acehnese Chinese and Its Impacts on Identity and belonging

Project: Dissertation

Project Details

Description

Social harmony within Indonesia has infamously been disturbed by various ethnoreligious hostilities. Several anti-Chinese violence, for example, May incident in 1998 and anti-Ahok movement in 2016 and 2017 is undoubtedly showing evidence for the Chinese – Indonesians' struggles to find their place in the national belonging within the Indonesian nation. The case of Acehnese Chinese is an interesting case for understanding the complex situations of the Chinese Indonesians for several reasons. First, the province at the northern tip of Sumatra had been facing a long struggle of wars, particularly the 30 years war between GAM (Free Aceh Movement) and the Indonesian state which resulted in thousands of deaths. Second, in the post-conflict, after Aceh was granted political autonomy and the peace agreement was signed, Islamic law become a political instrument in governing. This has given the religious minority groups a dormant citizen status. Lastly, the information about the Acehnese Chinese community during the wars as well as in the post-conflict is underexplored. Thus, the research here aims to investigate Acehnese Chinese memories and narratives from 1976 until present days. It focuses on analysing how the military conflict impacts on the Chinese and concentrates on the following questions: how do Acehnese narratives of conflict from 1976 shape collective memory and postmemory of Acehnese Chinese? How do Acehnese Chinese interpret and understand Acehnese nationalism and Indonesian nationalism during the time of Aceh Independence movement and post-conflict? and How do memories and narratives impact Acehnese Chinese identity and intercultural activism in Aceh?
Short titleHistorical Memories of Acehnese Chinese
StatusActive
Effective start/end date2020/09/01 → …

Free keywords

  • Aceh
  • Acehnese nationalism
  • Indonesian nationalism
  • Chinese Indonesian
  • Memory
  • Interculturalism