Strangers at Home: History and Subjectivity Among the Chinese Communities of West Kalimantan, Indonesia Hardcover - 2011

From the rear cover

This is an ethno-historical study of Chinese from West Kalimantan, Indonesia that, unlike other Chinese Diasporic studies, takes its departure from the away position. The study aims to interrogate how, where, and in what terms home is defined for the stranger. Through examining historical events such as the Japanese Occupation, the repatriation of overseas Chinese to China, and ethnic and state violence in West Kalimantan, this study highlights the plight of the Chinese as political orphans in search of a home that eludes them, whether in Indonesia or China. Through a rich array of different kinds of data, including oral histories and memoirs of the Communist underground, this book offers novel perspectives on the role of history in subject formation. Here are two treasures for the reader. On the one hand the book offers a highly nuanced and sensitive exploration of the identity dilemmas of diaspora-dom as they affect a particularly conflicted Indonesian community. The imagining of homeland for his young and idealistic subjects had real-world consequences and speaks to a universal condition. On the other hand "Strangers at Home" provides for the first time a reliable insight into the conflicts of the 1940s and 1960s which tore apart a corner of Indonesia which was exceptionally Chinese . The author has consulted an unprecedented range of newspaper articles, memoires and other writings by West Kalimantan Chinese-educated literati, as well as the necessary Indonesian and English material. More importantly, he has gained the confidence of key Chinese-Indonesian informants sufficient to tell their story personally and evocatively. - Anthony Reid, "Australian National University"

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Citations

• Reference and Research Bk News, 12/01/2011, Page 31