Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

submittedVersion

Publication Date

4-2022

Abstract

The Riau Islands Chinese are an anomaly in the study of Chinese Indonesians. For one, while many of their ethnic Chinese counterparts in other parts of Indonesia can no longer speak Chinese due to the New Order regime’s assimilation policy, Chinese languages are alive and well in the Riau Islands. Based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2017–2018, this paper seeks to understand the Riau Islands Chinese’s cultural resilience and sense of belonging as a borderland ethnic minority. I argue that long-standing inter-Island and cross-border mobilities and cultural flows with Singapore have been central to the maintenance of Riau Islands Chinese identity. Utilising translocality as a theoretical framework to understand the processes of identity formation and place-making that transcend national borders, I contend that the case study of the Riau Islands Chinese challenges the conventional state-centric modes of analyses prevalent in the study of ethnic Chinese communities in Southeast Asia.

Keywords

Chinese Indonesians, Riau Islands, ethnic Chinese, identity, local politics, Singapore

Discipline

Asian Studies | Race and Ethnicity | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies

Research Areas

Humanities

Publication

Asian Ethnicity

First Page

1

Last Page

24

ISSN

1463-1369

Identifier

10.1080/14631369.2022.2069082

Publisher

Taylor & Francis (Routledge): SSH Titles

Copyright Owner and License

Authors

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/14631369.2022.2069082

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