An Essay About Being Chinese-Indonesian

Introduction

The Chinese-Indonesian (Chindos) is a subgroup that has been in existence in Indonesia's history. The development of identity in the Chinese cultural populations in Indonesia over the years has been a complex procedure. In that sense, the temporal construction of identity has seen the frequent change whereby marginalization and discrimination have occurred. Being a Chinese-Indonesian, I have realized that our subgroup entails a broad range of ethnic backgrounds. The four major groups that moved to Indonesia comprised of the Hakka, Hokkien, Cantonese, and Teochiu. It is worth noting that each of these groups is defined by distinct culture, economy, and language. This paper precisely explores personal heritage or identity and predominantly focuses on being Chinese-Indonesian.

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Understanding our identity is crucial as it helps us to recognize the basic elements essential towards preserving our culture and passing the same to the future generations. During my early ages, I did not know that being a Chinese-Indonesian was a significant thing until I moved to the United States for college and realized how I longed for familiarity. There are several Chindos living and schooling in the United States. After joining the college in the U.S, it dawned on me about the things I had to learn about my background, culture, history, and ethnic. Learning all these things would greatly help me understand myself and enable improve how I interacted with other people.

In the United States, Indonesian people would form groups in their colleges and would arrange fund-raisers and fun gathering. It is through these events where one could learn about Indonesian cultural foods and their value even to the modern society. Selling Indonesian snacks was another amazing way of spreading the culture in America. The Americans have their basic foods, which somehow differ from the Indonesian foods. Therefore, great involvement in Indonesian events held within the colleges played an important role in shaping and understanding my cultural values and morals.

Moreover, learning the importance of clothing decently was another aspect equally shared within colleges, especially among the Chindos. Throughout the history of the Indonesian people, there is a manner women are expected to dress, especially based on the event attending. In this case, there are some attire that are designed for special occasions like parties and weddings. In addition, women are supposed to wear long clothes that cover their body, hence one is not supposed to expose her body to the men.

The history of Chinese people in Indonesia is rather thrilling and attention-grabbing to read. Much of this history centers the cruelty they have experienced because of cultural clashes and issues linked with discrimination. Back in the year 1998 when my mom was pregnant with me, a massive riot exploded in Indonesia because of economic troubles. Although the riot was attributable to economic crises in the region, it soon changed into anti-Chinese demonstrations in most regions and several Chindos were cruelly killed. Fortunately, my mom managed to flee to Singapore for protection and the situation pushed her to secure an international school for me after I was born.

After the occurrence of the riots, Suharto resigned and the formation of ethnic Chinese identity was re-evaluated. Regardless of the several changes that occurred after the 1998 riots, many Chindos still consider the tragedy as a dangerous one. However, the recent revision of Citizenship gave the Chindos both the political and social authority to express their cultural identity and the freedom to live freely without any form of prejudice.

Growing up in an international school gave me the privilege to enjoy quality education and the chance to interact with students with diverse backgrounds. However, it is apparent that international schools are known to be ethnically cliquey. Most of our friend groups are divided by ethnicity and this has spoiled the Chindos reputation in the United States. I strongly believe that much is required to end issues related to ethnicity. Every time I observe issues of ethnicity among my friends, it always reminds me of the tragic riots that my mother went through when she was pregnant with me. It is a fact that issues related with ethnicity, discrimination, and racism do not contribute positively to the growth of any society. In that sense, it is my dream that one day I will wake up and see all Chindos united regardless they are living in the United States, Indonesia, or other parts of the world.

It is my opinion that an affirmative action program is presently an important tool, which is designed to make sure there is equality in the society and present equal employment opportunities in organizations. Such programs are encouraged to benefit the oppressed members of the society due to religion, gender, color, or race. Other areas of focus include education sector, health programs and in public contracting. In the workplace, the program includes all procedures, policies, and practices that an organization implements to ensure that all employees and applications with necessary qualifications receive equal opportunity for selection, recruitment, training, advancement, development and all other employment privileges.

Living in the United States has always given me the exposure to face new challenges and find ways to address the problems. I am reminded of my culture and history of my people and this has given me the chance to celebrate the Chinese New Year in style. My family has a Christianity background and so I always attend Church services and partake in community services as a show of togetherness and harmony with the other people available in the society.

Conclusion

As we have been able to note in this discussion, culture is something important for any given society because it is only through a given culture that societal performances can be achieved and as well having all people referred to a given culture. The knowledge of the culture of a given person is important since it helps determine the nature and ways through which different persons do interact with each other in the international society. Therefore, the culture of a given society is something that deserves the greatest support and tentative care so that generations can learn from their ancestors and pass the same knowledge to their offspring's. Without culture, we may not able to interact properly as human beings within our own societies and other societies as well. This understanding of culture is also important because it makes sure that different individuals from other cultures have appreciated different other cultures. Evidently, this promotes trade and other global issues such as cohesion. This also been the reason behind the increased tourism in the modern world.